Five years. December 2019 marked five years, going on six, that I’ve been a full-time photographer. There are few things in my life that I’ve done for more than five years, and I’m so proud and so grateful that it’s been so long! I love doing these years in review because it forces me to look back on the work I do throughout the year. It’s easy to miss your own growth amidst the craziness of life and business, but upon looking back, I’m very proud of the work I did in 2019. I think it’s the best work I’ve ever created by a long shot, and I don’t know if I’ve ever loved photography more than I do right now.

I’m so thankful for all of the time I’ve had with my family this year, both at home and on the road. We’ve gotten to do some really special things together, and we’ve also had a lot of time at home together all thanks to this job. So, as always, if you’ve played any part in my journey up to this point — THANK YOU. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I’m so grateful to get to make pictures for a living and to be able to provide for my family in the process. If you’ve encouraged me, kept up with my work, shared my work with anyone, and especially if you’ve hired me along the way — thank you, thank you, thank you. I have a lot of goals for 2020, but I can’t move on before sending all my love to the people who’ve helped me get here.

This year wrapped up the longest-standing project I’ve had to date, which was with Park MGM in Las Vegas. We first began working together in the fall of 2017 and then did three to four shoot days a month for almost a year and a half as Sydell Group redesigned and reopened all of the amenities and venues across the former Monte Carlo property. As could be imagined, it was an incredibly diverse project, and each month we photographed anything from interiors and exteriors to food and beverage, people, etc. It was an absolute blast and I never thought I would love Vegas as much as I do now, but Park MGM is a really special place, and I’m thankful to have helped capture it being brought to life.

Photographed in Las Vegas.

There are very few bucket-list clients for me locally, but the Orlando Magic was definitely at the top of that list. I never imagined it might really work out, but I’m excited to share the images we made together this past year. We were shooting lifestyle imagery for the upcoming season, but it had to be during a real pre season game so that the stands would be filled out in the background of the images. We had about 30 talent and a 10+ person crew, so as you can imagine that provided a lot of challenges with lighting and moving around during a real game, but it was about as pain free as it could be thanks to Tighe and my killer crew. Thank you Maven for bringing me on for such a fun one.

Photographed in Orlando.

When I first began venturing into photography in the hospitality industry, I would think, "If I could ever work with Soho House, I’ll know I've made it." Well this wraps up my fourth year working with them, and I'm still loving every opportunity I have there. Soho House just does everything right — from the design to the service and the experience, it's all done thoughtfully. We end up doing anywhere from three to five shoots a year together, and they're always a bit different — sometimes food and drink, sometimes interiors and vignettes, sometimes lifestyle — but no matter what it is, it’s always fun. I think I do some of my best work with Soho House simply because it gets me so creatively excited to be there.

Photographed in Miami Beach.

I was called in fairly last minute to help shoot stills in tandem with a local video crew for an upcoming campaign Seasons 52 would be rolling out. Darden was another one of my bucket-list clients locally, and I’m excited to have finally gotten my foot in the door on such a fun gig. Shooting side by side along video can sometimes be chaotic and challenging but I had such a great time working with Mike and the Columbia Street crew. Thank you for having me along for running such a chill and seamless set.

Photographed in Orlando.

A few years ago, my brother got into making homemade sourdough. He had started to sell it by word of mouth to a few friends and acquaintances but hadn’t quite launched anything official yet, so he asked if I’d come up to help make some photos for them to use for web and socials as they started to roll things out more officially. I had so much fun seeing Corey and Annie work — and of course trying all of their delicious food. Keep your eye out, Atlanta! I can’t wait to see what they do with all of this in the future!

Photographed in Atlanta.

I think this was the third shoot I’ve done with Anna and Nathan from Rifle, and honestly every time, I get so nervous. They’re one of the things that make me most proud to live in Winter Park, and I have so much admiration for the company and culture they’ve built here. Early in the year, Anna reached out to me to see if I would be interested in taking updated portraits for her and Nathan since they hadn’t updated their press portraits in a few years — of course I jumped at the chance! Thank you, Anna, for trusting me with such a fun opportunity.

Photographed in Winter Park.

These images were again shot in tandem with a video crew who did a killer job lighting and running the set. We were tasked with capturing stills and video for a Mother’s Day campaign that Flemings would be rolling out a month or so after the shoot. The only challenge was that the restaurant we were shooting in was still open for business every evening, so we shot at crazy hours of the day — for two days straight we had a crew call of 3 a.m. and a hard out of 3 p.m. After capturing all of the Mother’s Day shots we needed, we also built a really fun set to do some chef portraits on.

Photographed in Winter Park.

If you’ve followed my work since the beginning, you may know of my love for Jarrett and his company, Lineage Coffee Roasting. I reach out to Jarrett any time I have some time off and want to test new lighting setups, and this time, I asked if we could make some process photos of him roasting so I could fake some natural light in their warehouse. I like to think that if I didn’t tell you, you’d never know this was a two-light setup.

Photographed in Orlando.

I did some of my favorite food and beverage work I’ve ever done this year and a lot of that was because of this shoot with MoonFish. We brought in a handful of surfaces and props, and I had a blast shooting with their team and the Maven crew for two days. MoonFish was looking to create some updated imagery for new billboard and out-of-house advertising, and I think we killed it. Thank you to Erickson Surfaces for rushing these surfaces out to us all the way from California on such short notice.

Photographed in Orlando.

Rarely are large-scale shoots described as seamless and easy, but that’s exactly how this shoot with Reynolds Lake went. We shot for three days outside of Atlanta, and I’ve hardly had a more smooth shoot. Reynolds Lake Oconee is a massive community that needed updated advertising imagery to better reflect their target demo and show off their many amenities. Thank you FerebeeLane for bringing me on for this and for being such a good hang on set.

Photographed in Greensboro.

OK, now for the best part … Aside from professional work, more than anything else, I’m grateful this year for the memories I made with my family. A good number of my work trips were flexible enough to allow for me to bring along my family and, in most cases, we added a handful of vacation days on the front or back end of those trips. This year, Ansel turned two and Harper turned six and started kindergarten. Kimberly and I also celebrated our seventh anniversary! India, our golden retriever pup, turned one and can typically be found below my desk as I work each day in my home office.

Photographed in Miami, Seaside, Atlanta, Portland, Seattle and New York.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you! Please feel free to share this, if you feel so inclined, and if you’d like to keep in touch, please sign up for my mailing list below. Extra special thank you to Chaz Russo for designing all of the title cards above (and also for doing the rest of my branding - hire him, he’s great!) and to Lauren Langston Stewart for copy editing this mess. Here’s to making even better work in 2020!