SEATTLE — At the University of Washington Hall of Fame walls are filled with some of the greatest accomplishments in Husky sports history. But among these great athletes is the work of a man tasked with capturing their best moments, forever.
"I may be old, but the ones in black and white, I didn't take those," said Scott Eklund.
For the past 14 years, former Seattle P-I photographer Scott Eklund has been behind the lens shooting sports for the University of Washington Athletic Club.
"I'm really like an arm of the communications department and I'm selling the brand at the University of Washington. That's sort of my job," said Eklund. "It's not difficult to do because the energy is so great, and people here are just fantastic."
Eklund's company Red Box Pictures has a contract with the UW to take photos for all their varsity sports teams. "There's 22 varsity sports, and I think I do all of them," Eklund said.
That includes 22 team picture days.
"Before their season we get photographs of all the athletes on like a white background and then we also usually do a team photo as well. So, those are kind of fun to try to figure out different ways to photograph the different teams," Eklund said. "I think that for me is the challenge and the fun part of it, trying to be creative when you've got in some cases 40 or 50 athletes and you've got to pose them."
Though Eklund treats all the sports he shoots with the same conviction, he admits that some games are bigger than others. Like when the Dawgs take on the Ducks.
"You kind of just want to be prepared and give yourself the most amount of time to just sort of you know, adjust to what it's because you know, it's going to be big," Eklund said. "You want to tell a complete story. So you don't just want to get action you want to be able to you know, get sideline feature pictures."
And some shots happen high above the sidelines.
"That was the day that I knew the stadium would be full. So, I wanted to get like wide shots to the stadium of when the players enter and the smoke and everything."
As big a Husky fan Eklund is, he can't show it during a game.
"I try to stay pretty neutral because I feel like I have a job to do. And if I get too wrapped up in it, like, what's going on in the game," said Eklund. "You don't want to miss anything, and you want to tell the whole story, what the stadium was like, what the atmosphere was like, tight shots of fans enjoying the game going crazy, and also not miss any big plays and hopefully, if you're in position, there is a big play that happens that you get it."
Through his lens Scott Eklund immortalizes the triumphs and tribulations of UW athletes, ensuring that their stories will be remembered for generations to come.
"I feel fortunate that I've been doing this and the University of Washington seems happy with the job I do."
You can follow Scott Eklund's work on his Instagram page: Red Box Pictures