Looking Back on 2012

Here we are at the end of another year. 2012 turned out to be another great year with a lot of fantastic experiences shooting! You can view the photo gallery: "My Favorites From 2012."

The year started out with a model shoot and rolled right into the early spring with senior photos, events at the Ferguson Center for the Arts, and shooting a few Norfolk Admirals home games (they won the 2012 Calder Cup Championship and set an AHL record with a 29-game winning streak). As spring continued on, wedding season began and it was another fantastic year for weddings. One of my first weddings of 2012 was a destination wedding at the Gran Bahia Principe Resort on the "Mayan Riviera" in Akumal, Mexico. The 5-days I was in Mexico documenting Steve & Sarah's wedding was an unforgettable experience! Then it was back home to the states to shoot an AHL Eastern Conference Finals game the Admirals were playing at the Norfolk Scope and a few more weekends of weddings.

During the spring of 2012 I also shot the annual Civil War reenactment at Endview Plantation, which I always love shooting, and this year I was shooting it for the City's Tourism Development Office. As summer began to approach I shot more weddings, a few of AAA baseball's Norfolk Tides games, and photographed a performance by one of my two favorite musicians...Willie Nelson!

As summer kicked off, I shot a number of really fun engagement sessions, a 4th of July event for VA delegate Rick Morris featuring VA Governor Bob McDonnell, and several events for the City's Tourism Development Office that included a wine festival and a children's Civil War camp. I was also able to enjoy some surf throughout the summer and I shot with my surfboard mounted GoPro.

I also shot a few charity events including a Surfers Healing camp. Surfers Healing hosts day camps at the beach where autistic children and their families can be exposed to the therapeutic experience of surfing. The event was so moving, I'll be doing my very best to shoot it every year. Speaking of working with charities (view my blogpost on my charity work here), I donated $1200 in gift certificates that were auctioned by a number of locally affiliated national charities to assist their causes. This year I also shot a wedding and a number of portrait sessions (all at no charge) to help families in need. I was accepted as a "Wish Granter" for Wish Upon A Wedding, a nonprofit organization that provides weddings and vow renewals to couples facing terminal illness and serious life altering circumstances.

The summer rounded out with winning a dispute over copyright infringement, a couple of weddings, more surfing, shooting for a local homebuilder, a few more event shoots for the City's Tourism Development Office, and senior photo sessions. With fall, the work kept rolling right on along with more work for the Tourism Development Office, portrait sessions, an event for Congressman Forbes, and weddings. By Thanksgiving my last wedding package had been delivered and there were a couple of senior photo sessions booked. December kicked off by shooting one of the many cool things I have the opportunity to shoot... firefighter training.

It was a good year all around! I didn't lose any gear; except for rechargeable AA batteries confiscated my Mexican TSA who said I had too many lithium ion batteries. As it turns out they weren't lithium ion, but they took them anyway. I shot a lot of great weddings in 2012; from Mexico, Virginia Beach, Chippokes State Park, and the New Kent Winery to the Outer Banks, Yorktown, and right here in Newport News. I shot a wide variety of work for a lot of new clients and donated my services to charities. Head over and check out my favorite photos from 2012. I'll be posting a 2012 Wedding Highlights photo gallery in January and I'll be making a blog post, "Take Time To Make Time," in January. So until then, enjoy the 2012 photos and have a Happy New Year!