30 books read, 46 blog posts, and at least 83 separate occasions where I took out my camera tallies up the year. Instead of sharing an image from every time I took out my camera (like last year), I’m gonna instead share a few highlights and some thoughts behind them.
First wedding of the year. Always a big one even if I’m only hired for 2hrs and theres only 20 some odd guests. An absolutely beautiful location and the rain didn’t slow us down. The next day, I was on a plane to Europe.
This was the first big overseas trip I did without family. A fantastic learning experience in the planning aspect, as we planned for pretty much everything we possibly could think of. Of course, the unexpected always comes up, which one may say is an even bigger learning experience. We spent most of our time exploring Germany, but we also stopped by France, Switzerland, and England as well.
It was hard choosing one image out of over a thousand to represent this trip, but this was the image I came up with. Its taken in Esslingen, a district of Stuttgart. Pictured is the city church, photographed from the stairs of the nearby castle. I chose this image because it was on this trip that I realized that I prefer doing the activities of locals rather than tourists.
Much of the trip was spent doing touristy activities like seeking out landmarks and such. The thing about doing that is that in those instances, I never felt present and in the moment. It was always just, “Here we are!” *snap, snap*, “Okay, next spot!”. This photo was taken after dinner, on a walk around town with my friend Malte. If I had stuck to doing just tourist activities, I would have never gotten to experience what it’s like to be a local. Sure, with this approach you may see less, but I believe you experience more.
Within the week of my return, I was back shooting again. This here is an image from a styled shoot. I like to do styled shoots every now and then, outside of peak wedding season to keep my skills sharp and to try new things.
Another thing thats good a keeping your skills sharp and allows you to do a little experimenting is engagement shoots. I had the pleasure to do a good number of engagement shoots this year. Some of these couples have already had their wedding, while others I look forward to working with next year!
This wedding yielded some of my favourite images this year. It was a second shooting job that came up on a days notice, and took place on Bowen Island no less! Always be ready.
This wedding also was one of my favourite weddings of the year and it happened on one of the wettest days of the summer. If you were in Vancouver at that time, it was at the end of August when the power went out in several areas across the city. Despite the weather, this was one of the funnest weddings that I’ve ever shot. Good photos have a lot to do with a good mindset.
The three (four if you include my second shooter) of us all met in art school having not known each other before. It’s been so amazing seeing Sarah and Brians relationship grow throughout the years, therefore it was a true honour to have been asked to photograph their wedding. This wedding was also a good example of solid planning.
After the busiest wedding season yet, I treated myself to a trip to Maui for my birthday. Maui, or perhaps Hawaii in general is all about the beauty of the land. Everywhere you go, you’re always surrounded by beautiful landscapes. With the warm weather and laid back atmosphere, it was the perfect way to extend the summer and relax for a little while.
Last wedding of the year. Living in Vancouver, perhaps it was only appropriate for this wedding to be a wet one as well. None the less it was a fun wedding in an amazing location to officially close off the wedding season for me. It’s been an incredible year. More than doubled my personal bookings, and with some second shooting in there, I shot over 4x as many weddings as I did the previous year. I’ve set some pretty ambitious goals for next year and really look forward to taking them on with whatever 2016 brings!