Hey hey hey

Thanks for following along for the first week of my 2019 year in review. This week we had some underdogs, some photos that I didn’t know that I’d love when I first took them. Let’s get right into it.

Day 1 was probably one of the hardest days to choose. How would I want to start this series? Is there a photo I can choose that properly encapsulates my growth this year? Ultimately I decided that as important as I thought that decision was, there would never really be a way to pick the best photo…so I just chose a photo that people don’t see me create often.

This was taken on a team retreat with Whole Heart Studios down in the middle of Fort Valley, Virginia. Nestled in an AirBnb in the middle of a valley, there was nothing around us for several miles. We could see the stars with our naked eyes. It was incredible. Having recently picked up the Sony A7III, I wanted to give it a spin and see what it could do with that famous high ISO cap in an astrophotography situation. I ended up actually forgetting my tripod at home so I had to borrow my friend Stephen’s tripod….but he also didn’t have the right tripod mount HAHA. In the end, I threw my camera on a Manfrotto head and attached that directly to the tripod base. A janky setup, but we got some cool results all the same, yeah?

HAHA this was funny. Not only the photo but because of a mistake I made. This photo was taken as an assignment for a studio lighting class I was taking at the time. I totally procrastinated on finding a partner (or I got sick and skipped class and didn’t find a partner) and the day before the project was due, I texted Marie to ask if she could come in early to help model for me. FORTUNATELY for me she agreed T_T

Lit with 2 Yongnuo speedlights, both 45º from the model. Shot on a Nikon D810. A little rear shutter drag will do the trick.

I love this photo to this day, but as I realized a couple hours after posting……..this photo was actually taken in 2018 Fall semester. Sorry!

This was a still from a wedding I shot at Sinking Springs Farm in Elkton Maryland for Kayleigh and Zanes wedding. These two young lovebirds had a simple, but sweet wedding. They chose to have a close friend act as their officiant and the expressions she had this entire time were absolutely priceless. Pretty sure she woulda cried if the ceremony had gone on 5 minutes longer. Anyways this was a cute little day 3. Onwards!

This is a photo of my good friend NIM Music, Liam Greaves. Met him when he was a freshman at UMBC and he’s been slowly writing his songs for the past 3 years. It was so incredible to hear him perform his first single at SoFar Baltimore show (thanks for hosting, Averly Farms Roasters). He recently got that single recorded and mixed in a studio with DJ Sole. Now I’m just waiting for him to formally release it so I can blast it everywhere. Love you, Liam. Keep going up.

This photo doesn’t have much story to it. I was out for lunch as Joss Sushi in Annapolis, MD. As I was leaving, I saw this woman sitting by the window. She seemed to be waiting for someone, but when a server asked if he could help her, she declined. I wonder what she was doing.

This photo was fun! I’ve spent a lot of time this year thinking about how I want to weddings moving forward. I’ve worked with so many people with so many varying styles. Some like to be very directive and control the flow and narrative. Some are the polar opposite and lurk in the shadows, hardly speaking a word unless they must. Most fall somewhere in the middle, wanting to stay faithful to the narrative of the wedding day while also making sure they have enough input to make sure they get the content they were paid to create.

I don’t have an answer, is what I’m realizing at the end of my second (third?) year of shooting weddings. With every couple being so different, each wedding day is bound to be similarly varied. With my skills being deeply rooted in documentary-style photography, I think that moving forward I’ll try to step back a bit more in my day-of involvement and let more moments unfold. If you see me standing somewhere, not shooting, you can almost be certain that I’m watching and waiting.

This day started a tiny bit behind schedule, and ended that way. But as we were packing up and getting ready to leave, my second shooter (Biobele) and I realized that neither Theresa nor Jeby had gotten a chance to even really enjoy their cake! With all the family and friends gone, the expectations to perform evaporated, and this moment unraveled before us. Weddings can be beautiful. They tend to be, but they don’t always end up that way. Sometimes weddings end up being elaborate paths to cake.

This image stirs up mixed feelings in me. Last year, I got a job working as an in-house jewelry photographer and retoucher for a local family owned business. It didn’t pay that well, but it was extremely close to campus and I thought the experience was good for me. Long story short, the owners gave me a promise of a pay raise, but ended up firing me with 1 days notice.

I don’t think I’m the best photographer that has worked in a studio. I don’t think I’m the best retoucher to ever touch the land. I don’t even think that I was the best photographer at UMBC, but getting fired from this job was a huge motivating force for me to work as hard as I could to wrap up my time in undergrad. Not just to prove to myself that they made a mistake for letting me go, but also to prove to myself that my work was worth much more than what they paid me. A valuable learning experience, but not something I’d recommend for others if possible. I’m glad I left. i’m glad I grew.

Thanks for reading this weeks blog! I’ll see you all again next Saturday for week 2!
You can find the other weeks right here:

Week Two
Week Three
Week Four