I’ve recently become a subscriber on Feedly. It’s the best. I’ve always wanted to follow blogs regularly, but could never remember to dig them out of my bookmarks. I would end up following the author on Facebook, and even that was hit or miss.
Now that I’m a regular Feedly subscriber it’s super easy to keep up with everything. (This is not a sponsored post. I just legitimately love this service.) Yesterday and today my feeds were filled with year-end recaps – Some seriously inspiring stuff.
I’ve attempted to do year end posts before, picking my favorite images – my favorite moments from a year, and it seems like the most overwhelming task ever.
One year I spent 5+ hours building a post. It never saw the light of day.
This post is different. This past year was different. The way I shoot is different. The way I feel while I shoot is different.
I constantly feel like an angsty teenager trying to figure myself out, and it’s most telling in my work.
The iPhone has changed the way I take pictures. I can’t decide if it’s for the best or not. There are shots I get that I would never get with my camera. I’ve become slow with the camera at home. More deliberate. I’ve become too dependent on my iPhone for pictures from our daily lives. As I type this entry I have 6,427 pictures on my phone. Six thousand, four hundred, and twenty seven… that’s just from the last eight months. (and it doesn’t count all the pictures I’ve deleted.)
Between my DSLRs, Lomos, and iPhone I have easily taken 40,000+ images this year.
Here are 89 of MY favorite pictures taken on DSLRs from 2014. A mix of both my personal and professional world. (I may make an iPhone post…. maybe.)
I started with 100, but while I was adding captions it whittled down to 89 88.
This year I started something called Project Bedhead. My youngest gets the most absurd bedhead EVER. I am in love with this picture. I can practically smell the fixer dripping off this. It should have been printed in a dark room… not edited in Lightroom…Project Bedhead.The Mighty Flynn!Art show at Revenge Tattoo Parlour in Amsterdam, NYRevenge Tattoo Parlour’s grand opening.The first wedding kiss of 2014.I love this picture so much. She’s so fierce. LOVE it.This is another one of those photographs I wish I had hanging in a dark room while it drip dries.The Mister and his father started making fancy lamps. (You don’t get to see them yet) This is my reintroduction to commercial products. I actually kind of enjoyed it. These were the Easter eggs we colored earlier in the day.•Where The Wild Things Are• While I had the make shift commercial studio set up, we decided it was time to sell these guys. They were huge. I’m glad we got a group picture before they went to their new home.In 2013 these two got married in the New York State Museum. For their first anniversary we spent the afternoon wandering around Troy taking anniversary pictures. It only made since that we stop in River Street Beat Shop.I adore shooting through doors and windows.Ooo Kitty Kallen.This year we spent many of our days at the lake. Even on days it was too cold to go in the water.“try to pop his head off” … works every time.The original Adventure Kid.Baby toad, or is it a frog?This kid is the baby whisperer. (Also, remember The Mighty Flynn from the NICU, there he is on the bottom ♥)Our local favorite romance author. You can’t tell, because I’m obsessed with black and whites, but she is wearing the most stunning red lipstick.The author and one of her favorite boys.Swinging on the top of Montgomery County.Father daughter dances destroy me.Daddy’s girl.Eat it raw.I’ve never seen people have so much fun with a garter before.Ever.A mother daughter moment.Too hot.My childhood BFF with her family.Those eyes.Take note of grandma on the bottom right! There is so much about this image I love, but grandma covering her eyes just makes it. Grandmas are my favorite.He has a dual to get to after the reception.The light in this…L O V E.This works in black and white and in color. It reminds me of Anne of Green Gables.The lights around this reception were amazing and the soundtrack couldn’t be topped.Wedding Crashers.First Dances.This is hands down my favorite image of 2014. I’m obsessed with it.YES!Can’t get enough of these bangs.Watch out. This girl is going to do great things.Mother son moments are pretty rare, but I caught one.Hugs.I think I mentioned that we spent a lot of time at the lake. It’s true.Sparklers… at the lake.100% un-posed family portrait.My oldest just making some yarn.We bought our first ever new couch this year. Because things like this happen daily on it, it’s always covered with sheets.I took this on one of those super moon nights.Sisters.Tea wedding favors.Forehead kisses.A take on American Gothic. This is my favorite couple photograph from 2014. In the photographs surrounding this one they are laughing, but when I said “stoic” they both instantly killed it.Backyard Poolside Wedding.Little sister.Big Sister.Someone has to get the wood for the fires.The first day of school. When you’re one of those weird homeschoolers you get to spend your first day of school in your pajamas. (If you didn’t know, we are those weird homeshoolers.)I’ve never seen this girl smile so hard or genuinely until she heard everyone singing Happy Birthday to her.mmmm cake.Surprise visits from ice cream trucks make birthday parties awesome.I have a thing for doors, high contrast, grainy, black and white images. Ya’ll have to deal with it.I adore this.…and this. More forehead kisses.YAY! Love these two. Megan and I were friends in high school and their wedding was one of the first weddings I ever photographed. They were guests at a wedding this past fall and it was so awesome to see them again.On the train to Milwaukee.Hour 19 on the train to Milwaukee.We stayed at this hotel in Milwaukee. It was amazing. I wish we could go back. We really liked Milwaukee. Milwaukee. We like to say Milwaukee.First birthdays and independence.This family + Troy + autumn = one of my favorite family portraits from 2014.Adventure Girl.Mummy.This picture is the best. Adventure Girl reminds me of Bill Murray in the best most awkward way. Maybe it’s the hat. Maybe it’s the awkward pose, but I see this picture and think Bill Murray getting attacked by a Mummy.My bookworm that thinks she is a cat. She’s not on the couch. She’s perched on the windowsill behind the couch.I see these two once a year. We took lots of pictures of them looking all amazing looking into the camera, but this one… there’s so much to it. Siblings for the win.♥When you have no other way to keep a window up, The Stand works quite well.…I just can’t. I can’t ruin this moment with my words. In color, in black and white… it’s just perfection.So much motion.The first snow fall.Every year we take pictures on the floor. We put a yellow baby blanket under our heads and chaos ensues. These are what our family portraits look like. However after five years the blanket seems to be shrinking.Tricked ya. It’s a coffee mug. Still sad, but not so bad.Girl Scout Camp.Girl Scout Camp.Winter Wonderland.Texans in the snow.My favorite family portrait of 2014. Could be the family. Could be the snow. But really, it’s all of it.
 I hope 2015 brings you all amazing things. I can’t wait to see where 2015 brings us.
