I say this every year, but that doesn’t make it any less true… if you’ve played any part in my journey up to this point — THANK YOU. 2024 was a particularly special one because, as of a month ago, it marks a full decade on this journey for me. I went freelance in December of 2014 and for as much as I still aspire to do and grow in, I genuinely couldn’t have dreamed that I would be at this place I find myself only ten years later. I love making photos and I feel so lucky to be able to call this my job, so again, if you’ve ever shared my work, sent me a kind word, assisted me or worked any part of shoot I’ve been involved with, recommended me to someone, and especially if you’ve hired me - thank you.
I know you shouldn’t be defined by what you do professionally, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t want to do what I do well and I’m very proud of the photos I made in 2024. This was such a unique year for me where I still got to make a lot of work on location in some really special and fun places but that was balanced with a lot of new and life-giving projects locally that kept me closer to home and my family. I cherish every chance to travel and experience new places and projects but shifting the balance a little more towards sanity and slowness at home was honestly such a blessing to me and my family. Thank you for taking a moment to celebrate with me while looking back on a few of my favorite projects from 2024.
Starting 2024 with a client like Bose was really unfair. I had so many incredible projects this year but to say any of them made me feel as giddy and “I’ve really made it” as Bose would be a lie. I was a small part in a probably 40-50+ person crew on this shoot but it’s such a thrill to be part of a large crew like this where everyone gets to really hyper-focus on their one thing. I was capturing lifestyle product stills for two of Bose’s upcoming, brand-new products - the Soundlink Max Portable Speaker and the Ultra Open Earbuds. I think I recall having a huge ear-to-ear grin on my face every time I would look back at the monitor at what we were getting throughout the three days on set because I just truly love these images and it’s exactly the type of thing I love doing most. More of this, please.
Photographed in Los Angeles, California.
2024 was creatively one of the most fulfilling years I’ve had in my ten years of freelancing and much of that this year was due to challenging myself in new ways. No project embodies that more than the work I did this year with Oade Armagnac. As if I wasn’t busy enough with my regular photo work I decided this was a great time to become the Creative Director for a spirits brand as well. I’ve known Dan, the owner of Oade, for close to a decade and when he first told me he was seriously thinking of starting a Brandy company I basically begged him to let me help him in any way that I could. Dan took me up on the offer this year as things started to get a little more real for him with getting things off the ground and in the time since I started to work with Oade I’ve helped shoot and direct a full photo and video campaign during a bottling trip in Southern France, hired a new team to help design us a new website and web-store, and have taken over on countless creative and logistical tasks to help get us to launch in early 2025.
Armagnac is Brandy, in the same way that Cognac is Brandy, and similarly it is a very regional and distinctive expression of Brandy. From the beginning that’s what excited me and what I wanted Oade to lean into - Armagnac’s terroir and storied, generational history. Many of the families we’ve been working with and sourcing from have been making Armagnac for three or four or more generations on their family farms. I’ve had so much fun getting to decide exactly what this brand should look and feel like and I can’t wait for you all to see (and taste) more of what we’ve been working on! Please go check out our newly updated new landing page that features some of the video work I helped direct and sign-up for the emails there if you want to keep up with the upcoming first releases.
Photographed in Napa, California and all around Southern France.
My friend and fellow photographer Brittany Daniel was looking for help shooting a project for womenswear brand Cartolina Nantucket and not only did it sound fun, but I pretty much take any chance I get to go to New York so it was an obvious “yes” for me. I had never really shot in this way, trading off with another photographer, before but it worked so seamlessly and I love the work Brittany and I got to make in a whirlwind day in of shooting for Cartolina’s Spring/Summer ‘24 Campaign. Rather than two of us shooting at once we shared one digital camera body and would trade back-and-forth based off of whoever had a better feeling about the scene and the other person would run the tether, or hold modifiers, or lighting, etc (aka, we’d assist when we weren’t shooting). Huge thanks again to Brittany and to the lovely Cartolina team for having me up - my family, who were with me in the city that week, still talk about staying in that insane hotel suite after everything was wrapped on our shoot day.
Photographed in New York City.
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. I’ve lost track of how many times we’ve done this together now but it’s at least enough that we now have a enjoyable rhythm and system to how we do things. This year featured a few more on location shoots than in previous years, which are so always so much fun, but it’s also nice scratching my studio itch. My first real photo gig back in 2012 was a studio gig and I love the pace and controlled nature of how the Rifle team likes to work in the studio.
Photographed in Winter Park (Florida), Chicago, and Highlands (North Carolina).
Continuing the local work trend here… I was fortunate to start working with regional BBQ chain, Sonny’s, last year and it has quickly become one of my favorite teams to shoot with. As much as I love traveling and location work, I’m always extra excited to find more local clients that value what I do. This was my first year shooting on a regular, once-ish a quarter, type of rhythm with Sonny’s and I’m so proud of what we captured in our handful of days we did throughout 2024. “It takes a village” and these shoots had so many hands involved I wouldn’t even know where to begin to thank everyone but I can’t wait to do it again next year, y’all!
Photographed in and around Orlando, Florida.
When I was first brought down to help make photos for The Boca Raton I couldn’t have guessed that they would become one of my most frequent clients but it’s hard to imagine a better place to find yourself regularly. The Boca Raton just does everything well and I’ve been lucky enough to have a hand in photographing virtually every element of it’s five unique hotels, countless amenities, and to die for food and beverage outlets over our last three years working together.
Photographed in Boca Raton, Florida.
Where do I even begin with this one!? I’ve known Mia, the principle of Crosstown 119, since long before the school was around - and watching her pour herself into this school and ministry has been so inspiring and beautiful to witness. When Mia first asked if I’d do school pictures for Crosstown I told her I’d be excited to help but only if we could do something more fun than classic, sterile school pictures. With Crosstown only have about 18 students we thought we could do something pretty unique with each kid by asking them to bring in things from home and also grab stuff from around the school that speaks to the things they’re most interested in. I wanted each portrait to tell you a bit about who each student is right now in their life and what they’re most excited about. It was such a fun experience and I’m obsessed with everything about the photos we made but most of all I’m just grateful to have been able to help do something special for so many amazing kids at Crosstown. Thanks again for having me, Mia and the Crosstown team! You’re all awesome.
*Shared with permission from the respective parents/guardians.
Photographed in Orlando, Florida.
Every time I’m at The Mercer I’m impressed by how quietly cool and elegant it is. We spent two days photographing the newly renovated interiors and public spaces throughout the Soho hotel and seeing the images all gathered together here takes me right back to how fun it was working to make these photos as we chased the sun around the hotel. Admittedly the hotel is so well-considered and peaceful that it feels hard to take a bad photo, but it’s always a treat to work with the team at The Mercer.
Photographed in New York City.
Winn Dixie was another new one for me this year but it quickly became a fairly regular thing throughout the last half of 2024. From two long overnights in a store, to shooting on a volume, as well as a classic location day in a beautiful home, I’ve loved the diversity and scale of what we’ve been able to work on in our short time so far. Even more important than how uniquely fun each shoot was though, I love the images we made this year. Huge thank you to the team at Push and to Winn Dixie for trusting me on such an epic project. Let’s do it again!
Photographed in Orlando, Florida.
Ok, another wild one for me here, but when 321 asked me if I’d be interested in shooting for the Brightline I basically begged on my hands and knees to be a part of this. I was so excited a few years back when Brightline finally opened in Florida and I’ve been a regular customer of theirs since (I often take the Brightline down South to my shoots with The Boca Raton) so being able to help make photos for them was a dream come true. I feel a bit like a little kid still with how much I still love being around things like trains or planes so the fact that not only did we shoot in station in Orlando and West Palm but also on a moving train was such a thrill for me. It was a scramble of a day moving a large crew around while sticking to strict train schedules but it went so smooth and I’m really proud of the photos we made.
Photographed in Orlando and West Palm Beach, Florida and everywhere between (literally).
This was the third year of our lighting workshop with Sum+ Studios and this time we took things to the bachelorette party capital of the US - Nashville, TN. I wondered after the first year if we just struck gold and if the community element of the workshop was just an unrepeatable cocktail of the place, the people, and everything else coming together perfectly in Miami for us, but now having done this three times I’m so encouraged that yet again I left the weekend feeling so fulfilled and with a much larger creative community than I had before. Each time now the workshop feels more like Summer camp than a workshop. We all become so close and I love the environment that’s created through friendship while we’re with everyone. Huge hugs and kisses to everyone who trusted Caleb, Kirk, and me with their time and their resources and, in some ways, their careers.
My favorite part of the three days each year has become what we call our “industry panel” where Kirk, Caleb and I invite a bunch of friends that we admire from the wider industry to come do a long Q&A with everyone to help be a resource and give people access to networks and knowledge we didn’t always have when we were getting started. This year’s panel was absolutely insane so huge thank you to Josh Owen, Jody Jackson, Aaron Sterns, Natalie Hales, Joe Greer, and Robby Klein for being so generous with your time and expertise. We’re already working on workshop number four now, which will be likely be sometime in the late Summer or early Fall of 2025. Sign up for my email list to stay in the know when we announce dates and info.
Photographed in Nashville, Tennessee.
OK, now for the best part … more than anything else, I’m grateful for another year of fun memories with my family. We’ve made it a habit to try to say “yes” to experiences and a good number of my work trips were flexible enough (and kind enough) to allow for me to bring along my family. This year had so many high points for me - between taking my kids to their first Formula 1 race in Miami, to staying in a ‘Home Alone’ level suite in New York, swimming and hiking in the North Carolina wilderness, and lots of trips to the beach and to Disney, we stayed busy and had so many “firsts”. This year our littlest, August, turned three, Ansel turned seven, and Harper turned eleven. I can’t believe I have an eleven year old! 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 twelve-year anniversary, which we again celebrated in Boca Raton, with the whole gang in tow! India, our golden retriever pup, is six now and is still a terrible dog but is my non-human soul-mate nonetheless.
Photographed in Winter Park, Vero Beach, Cape Canaveral, Boca Raton, New York, Atlanta, and Highlands.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you! Please 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 Lee Waters for designing all of the title cards above. The BTS video footage in the header WAY up top was done by a bevy of people while on set this year - Josiah Sampson, Harley Taylor, Stephen Bertalan, Calen Rhome, Adam Lora, Nicholas Bui, Alexander Sattler, Bradley Adams, and Sophia Evelyn - thank you each for making that possible and an extra thank you to Harley for editing it all together. Here’s to an even better 2025!