A review of 2016

If the level of procrastination I’ve applied to the task of completing this 2016 review is a sign of things to come, then my 2017 goal of blogging more is already at risk. To be clear, ‘blogging more’ isn’t my only business goal for 2017, it’s one of them. But it seems like low hanging fruit. It is hard to find the time though. I got really busy in 2016 and spending time on my blog suffered, as did other things. My focus was on providing the best service I could before, during and after each wedding. I started having to turn away a lot of weddings, so much so I even got an associate photographer, Alex, who has been an awesome addition to the team. He got to go to Yosemite and Mexico to shoot weddings for me and in a couple of weeks he’s off to Washington DC. He seems to get all the destinations…

Some well respected awards came my way, some didn’t. I won a couple more Fearless Awards taking my total to 4 overall and as well as placing an image in Junebugs Best Destination Wedding Photo Competition, I was also a double winner in their Best Engagement Photos of 2016 – that’s kind of a rare feat. I also won the Best Of Wedding Award with the Knot for the third year running which is really meaningful to me, as it’s based on the reviews from my clients.

I shot all over the states, Alaska again…. and even hopped across the pond for a couple of weddings. As ever my couples made me experience every emotion there is, good and bad. Most were an absolute  delight to work with and made me love life and the work I do even more than before. There were however, times driving home late from weddings, with my muscles aching and a brutal headache punching it’s way through my temples that I doubted my life choices. Those feelings usually subsided by the next day when I saw the images.

From a photography perspective, 2016 was good to me. But to be honest, whatever happened on the business front, I’d still have loved 2016. That’s because it saw our first child enter the world, and everything outside of that is, well, less important. I’ll probably share some pics of Toby soon, I almost included some below but then I thought better of it. He deserves his own blog post.

2017 will see me shoot more weddings than ever before and as far as my photography goes, I intend to take more risks and continue to shoot how it feels, not how it looks, with moments at the centre of everything. In my personal life, I will no doubt be guided by a fresh new outlook and perspective, and I think that will result in some balance. I expect Toby will change things and I’m not sure how all that will play out but I look forward to the challenge of being the best dad I can.

Let’s be realistic, I’ll probably blog less this year.