It’s easy to miss your own growth amidst the busyness of everyday life, but upon looking back, I’m very proud of the work I did in 2022. 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 think I may have taken a few less projects in total this year than in some years prior, but I did bigger and more interesting projects than I have in a long while, and I hope that keeps up into next year. This year-end review is my favorite thing to put together and share each year, so thanks for taking a moment to help me celebrate my work from this year.

Most of all, 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 2023, but I can’t move on before sending all my love to the people who’ve helped me get here.

This project was an absolute blast. The team at the Chicago Athletic Association Hotel was in need of updated imagery for a full website overhaul, so I was tasked with capturing the lifestyle stills. I got to collaborate with a lot of old friends and make a bunch of new ones during the course of this shoot, and while I was responsible for the lifestyle imagery, I was working in tandem with my friend, Chase Daniel, who was capturing the architectural imagery. We worked on this for three days and walked away with so much good stuff that culling it down for a short review like this is painful. I included a handful of the BTS shots I snapped while we worked on some of the scenes because, though it’s such a gorgeous hotel, it was such a challenging and dark environment to shoot in, and I was really proud of how we problem-solved to capture it.

Photographed in Chicago.

I feel bad saying I even have a favorite project from a given year, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit this was it for me. Wheels Up asked me to come help capture stills alongside an amazing video team for their “Up Pets” campaign to showcase people bringing their animal companions along with them on Wheels Up’s fleet of private planes. From shooting on a live tarmac to shooting from way up in a cherry picker, this shoot was just exciting and fun in every element. Also, dogs. So many cute dogs. Huge thank you to the WU team for having me, and special thanks to Bradley Adams and Cass Letson for assisting along the way.

Photographed in Denver.

Soho House will always hold a special place for me. 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 sixth 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. The work is 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’ve worked fairly regularly with Anna and Nathan from Rifle Paper Co. for the last few years, and every time I’m as excited as the last. 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. This year we worked on a handful of product shoots in-studio but also ventured out and did one location shoot in Miami Beach as well.

Photographed in Winter Park and Miami Beach.

For me, one of the most fun things about being a freelancer is seeing where the people you work with end up over the years as their respective careers continue to grow and evolve. One of my first “cool” clients was the Sydell Group (LINE, Saguaro, NoMad, Freehand), and I’ve continued to work with so many of the lovely people I met in the early years of my time on Sydell projects but on countless new endeavors and for companies they’re all now involved with. This one was the start of a very exotic and tropical summer for me, but it became the standard by which I compared everything else. What Cambridge Beaches is doing in Bermuda is really special. I was also lucky enough to bring my family along, so that after a couple of days shooting for the resort, I could also enjoy some time taking it all in with my loves. Huge thanks to Erin and Kat and Phil for having me out to capture such an incredible project.

Photographed in Bermuda.

I’ve been working with Loews Hotels for close to five years now, and it’s been such a treat to continue to be trusted with projects big and small. This year was a particularly fun one as we did two larger shoots this year — one week-long production for a wedding campaign and another for Loews Kids programming. These were both such rewarding shoots alongside amazing teams, including my oldest two kids as talent in the Loews Kids shoot this December. Huge thank you to Jeff Broder for your help making these happen.

Photographed in Miami Beach and Chicago.

This shoot with The Mercer in New York was a really fun challenge for me. In addition to capturing the stills for a website refresh, I was tasked with helping produce the entire shoot for photo and video, which allowed me the pleasure of hiring lots of friends for this one. Special shoutout to Colton and the team at Three Strikes Inc. for coming in and killing it on the video elements of this shoot and also to Chandler for coming in clutch with the assist on this one. I’m really stoked with how things came together and looking at everything again here as a set is only reminding me of how much we really accomplished in just three days. Thank you to David, Matt, and Mark for trusting me with so much at such a storied hotel.

Photographed in New York City.

Summer 2022 was a wild one. Between two separate weeks in the Bahamas, one week in St Barths, one week in Bermuda, and more trips to Miami than I can count, I was as sun-kissed as my days as a lifeguard in high school. I had a handful of “pinch me” moments this year, and working out of the country with Rosewood was definitely atop that list. We were primarily capturing food and beverage imagery, but thankfully the agency I was there with had a great vision for the shoot and it wasn’t simply food or drink beauty shots — we did lots of lifestyle and editorial photos with talent as well to vary the imagery as much as possible. I felt so inspired in St Barths that I also experimented with shooting a lot of the scenes on Fuji instant film using my Mamiya RZ67 and a Zinstax film back.

Photographed in Nassau and St Barths.

I’ve done a good bit of mentoring/coaching over the years, but the thing I get asked to do most is to help with lighting. For me, learning off-camera lighting felt so daunting and impossible until I started to get hands-on and learn from people I admired in person. I learn best in person, hands-on, and while I wanted to help people that asked me for lighting help, the only cost-effective way I could figure out to help was to just point them towards a few things online (aka “YouTube University”) because putting together a fully produced shoot just to teach one person was extremely cost prohibitive. Then I started to dream a bit and thought it may possibly work if I did it in a workshop setting with a group — that way we could afford to do it right. I reached out to Kirk Chambers and Caleb Shane, two of my closest friends and two very gifted photographers, and asked if they’d be interested in making something happen together. A few months later Sum+ Studios was born. I’m not sure exactly what Sum+ will be five or ten years from now, but for now we are simply hosting yearly lighting workshops in the way I always needed when I was trying to take my photography to the next level. We sold out our first workshop in Miami Beach in early August this year, and I couldn’t have had a better time doing it. Sounds cliché, but I made so, so, so many new friends, and the feedback from the teaching and the programming has all been so encouraging. Huge hugs and kisses to everyone who trusted Caleb, Kirk, and me with their time and their resources and, in some ways, their careers.

We’re already working on workshop number two, which will be in Los Angeles in 2023. Sign up for my email list to stay in the know when we announce dates and info. These few photos are just some of the BTS shots I took during the long weekend at our studio and location sessions. This weekend workshop was the highlight of the year for me.

Photographed in Miami Beach.

OK, now for the best part … 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 (and kind enough) to allow for me to bring along my family. We took full advantage this summer as I bounced from exotic island to exotic island, and it made for my most memorable year to date having them along with me. In moments, having three little ones in tow is all of the challenge that you may expect it to be, but I promise you it’s 1000x the joy that you could ever hope for it to be. This year our littlest, August, turned one, Ansel turned five, and Harper turned nine. I love being a dad to them more than I can express, and I love doing it with Kimberly. This year also marked my and Kimberly’s ten-year anniversary, which we celebrated in New York, again with the whole lot of us! India, our golden retriever pup, turned four and can typically be found below my desk as I work each day in my home office.

Photographed in Winter Park, New Orleans, Tallahassee, Miami, Bermuda, Nassau, 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 Klein for copy editing this mess. All of my love to Matthew Barrios for assisting me throughout all of 2022. You killed it and I can always count on you to be such good help but an equally good time. Here’s to making even better work in 2023!