Dec 23

Dec 23 My 2016 in Photos

Out of all the things I create, I enjoy pulling together my year in photos the best. Scrolling through all of the photos I take and share brings back memories of the little things I forgot. The trips that blend together. The faces, places and meals shared.

These roundups are not of my "best" photos, but the ones that stand out to me for one reason or another. I share them equally for you to enjoy and for me to remember.

Of course this is best viewed on any screen bigger than your phone, but I'll leave that up to you.

Happy Holidays and see you next year.

2016 started off with Clarence and I taking the train to New York City. We wanted to go take photos and discovered an empty and quiet New York that we had never seen before.

Louisville wanted me to speak at an event and the sponsors insured I had a good time while in town.

They set up a VIP tour of the Louisville Slugger Museum and bourbon country. I definitely need to return to see more of Kentucky because my camera would have a very good time with the beauty of the rolling hills.

Life is about little moments too.

Nadia laying in my office keeping an eye on things and coffee with Ann at her house.

St. Louis was a city I had never visited before, but keynoting a travel conference brought me there. Having local friends like Matt to show you around means you see places that you'd never randomly run into.

Victoria joined us from China for two weeks. She arrived scared of dogs and was sure that Nadia would bite her.

Before she left I took this photo. As you can see they became fast friends. It was adorable to hear her sing to Nadia. No idea what she was singing, but it was beautiful to see her get comfortable with a dog.

Tolkien use to get together with a band of other creatives and they were known as the Inklings. This little group is what I call "Inklings 2.0" and we don't get together nearly as often as I'd like.

A walk in the woods. Rucks on back. Cameras in hand. Never a bad way to spend a few hours.

I decided that I was going to only bring my "new" film camera to SXSW and before heaving I had this custom leather strap made for it.

No matter how good and comfortable with photography you get, you'll always make rookie mistakes.

This photo reminded me of that as I was shooting photos for a web feature and completely missed myself in the mirror while taking the photo. Whoops!

We set up the SocialGood.club storefront in Austin. It felt amazing and people enjoyed it. Sadly it is no more and I don't know where or what is going on with it. One of those big question marks from the year that I have deep rooted, mixed emotions over.

Meeting a robot with the brains of IBM Watson was interesting, fun and scary all at the same time. Skynet is coming for sure.

Out of all the film photos I took in Austin, this is one of my favorites. It captures the randomness that is SXSW. Plus, the guys shirt to me is a sad statement about what so much has become.

Now that I have a drone, my photography goes beyond what I ever thought I could take. I now look for and think about whole new angles.

I've always wanted to capture the American Flag on this old stone church, but never had a way to do it until I flew my drone up over the reservoir and took this.

Dylan and I traveled to Philadelphia to visit a college and he had never had a real cheesesteak before. Needless to say, it changed his world.

During my drive to the University of Rochester to speak I paused to capture this at a rest area along the way. I stood there longer than I should have waiting to get the shot.

Fun to realize that Clarence appears so much in my 2016 memories. He is the first non-family member I've ever shared Echo Valley with and while it was only a single over night, it was the perfect escape from everything for both of us.

Without a doubt, this next photo is my favorite one I made this year. Everything about it clicks for me and it was a perfect moment out in nature where I'm most happy.

I consulted with Minute Man National Park and somehow had never been there before. Nadia and I went to scope it out before the work began.

Montreal had me attending a conference and thankfully a lot of the time there was spent with my buddy Mitch. Including jumping into a ball pit.

Social networks are fun, but they'll never be as much fun as a ball pit in the middle of a conference.

A friend asked if I could bring my drone over and shoot some footage for a television show he was working on. How do you say no to that?

I learned a valuable lesson on this shoot though and that is that my drone makes enough wind that if you are flying inside of a half built tree house surrounded by other trees it might crash itself. Thankfully the drone survived.

While trips are fun and I love to travel, there are plenty of great memories close to home as well.

From a front porch concert to a father's day brunch on top of a mountain. I love my neighborhood and the friends who live here.

How can I not mention the off road, in the desert trip we took to Yuma, Arizona with my in-laws to find a geocache.

We ended up WAY off road and while it wasn't fun at the time it sure did make for great photos, laughs and memories.

Easily the saddest time of this past year was when our community lost a young woman to a horrible car accident. The pain the entire town felt was tough to go through.

Filed under "things I never thought I'd do" was being invited to London to attend a Star Wars Celebration.

The level of behind the scenes and exclusive access we were given was amazing and I'm thankful that Rogue One lived up to all of the hype.

This is another one of my favorite photos from the year. Seeing it makes me smile because I remember how excited the little girl was and for me this captures the variety and love of Star Wars fans.

While in London I was lucky to see a few friends and got to spend time laughing and walking around the city to see parts I had never seen before.

Taking Dylan's senior photos was beyond stressful for me. Thankfully they came out great and we even had a few laughs while taking them. This outtake warms my heart because it captures Dylan at his more real.

I'm a blessed man. To have Laura as my wife and Dylan and Emily as my children. I honestly can't ask for more.

Photography for me is about capturing moments and this was one of those perfect ones that you have to bring home with you.

We had gone to Lowell for the day and she was catching Pokemon or checking her messages and everything lined up. The color of her hair against the brick and her leather jacket all came together and I'm so glad she allowed me to take it.

Yes, that is Rob Gronkowski and his brothers.

I was hired to shoot behind the scene photos for a video shoot they were doing. It was fun to have a secret shoot that I couldn't talk about for months.

We welcomed Jaz into our family. This was the moment I met her and instantly fell in love.

Who knew we'd visit Martha's Vineyard for the first time in our lives and it would be to adopt a puppy.

Niccolo joined us from Italy for a few weeks and we had fun taking him to King Richard's Faire before he left. Dylan is excited to see him again early next year when he travels to Florence.

GORUCK asked me to take photos for them for their first Gold Star Family Challenge. It was an honor to do so and shooting in sand, water and darkness made for a day full of good living.

Iceland, what can I say? It was everything I've dreamed about.

Spending our 20th anniversary there is something I'll never forget. I'm eager to return though since we didn't see any waterfalls or northern lights. So much more to explore.