And so, another year comes to an end. I ended last year hopeful. Hopeful for fresh opportunities, unfamiliar experiences and new friends. 

This year I decided that I would pursue photography as a career, not just a hobby that was rapidly taking over my life and all my free time. With this came a shift in mindset and a demand for change within myself. The creative professional field is relentless and cutthroat, but also incredibly caring and empathetic. Maybe it's the nature of our craft; to be more involved with the people behind the stories and pictures than the numbers that make them up.. 

It was thanks to both friends recommending jobs to me and aggressively pursuing clients that I was able to learn so much first-hand on what it takes to run a photography business and what kind of photographer I want to be.

Someone I want to thank in particular is Jose. Thank you for bringing me on shoots and weddings with you, even though you hate shooting weddings. Thank you for being a positive force through Creatives Aga;nst Depression, and thank you for finally getting married after 90000 years and inviting me to shoot that.  Looking back, it's almost hard to imagine that so much could have happened in the span of 365 days, but somehow here we are. 

• I successfully got my first studio internship.

• Upgraded my gear. Took the leap and bought a D810 after saving up for almost 2 years.

• I changed my major. It's official now, I suppose.

• Started interning for L.A. Birdie

• Set myself up with Major League Hacking's photography department

• Got a job at Lifetouch (boy's gotta eat, nawmsayin?)

• I joined M Magazine as a staff photographer.

• Flew to Minneapolis for the Associate Press Conference

• I secured a spot as a Shattuck Intern at UMBC.

• I created an internship working for the Creative Mornings Baltimore team doing video production and editing.

• Successfully shot a Trevor Noah show.

• I (finally) turned 21.

• I flew out to Louisville and got to work with Clay Cook and his team for a few days.

• Traveled to Sweden and Finland.

• I bit the bullet and bought a Mac (why are they so expensive...)

• To wrap the year, I shot my first wedding solo (I'll be blogging this soon!).

I'm nowhere close to where I want to be. Not even close. But this year has been another step in my journey, and a wonderful one at that. So thank you. Thank you all for trusting me, for believing in me and for continuing to pull for me. 

Here is my 2017 in photos.