2018 Highlights

At the end of every year, I enjoy reflecting back on the significant events and the progress I’ve made in the past 365 days. As I look back at 2018 in review I’m reminded how many amazing things happened to me this year, both personally and professionally. In this post, I would like to highlight my major professional accomplishments, life milestones, career updates, trips I took, and some fun facts in between. Let’s jump right in and start with a few personal life gains!

 

#1 The Proposal

Easily the biggest milestone of 2018; I’m finally engaged to Erin! On March 14th, 2018 we embarked on an extremely grueling hike together to experience the rare spring wildflower bloom on Grass Mountain. Despite being somewhat spontaneous and being extremely nervous, the proposal went so well that I couldn’t have scripted it any better. It was an incredibly magical day. I also captured a photo that later ended up going a little bit viral on Reddit. Check out the full blog post about it here.

 

 

 

 

 

#2 Ninja Warrior

Yeah, this happened too! It was a dream of mine for years to compete on American Ninja Warrior, the TV show on NBC where athletes try to conquer an upper body intensive obstacle course. After training aggressively throughout all of 2017 I finally had the chance to compete on the show. After making it through to city finals I was disqualified because my toe dipped in the water on the 5th obstacle dismount, leaving me literally inches away from going to national finals! It was an unfortunate ending, but an incredible and fun experience regardless. I also competed in the National Ninja League and qualified for NNL World Finals later in the year. You can check out my ANW submission video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdJCK9ZfPew

 

 

 

 

#3 Injuries

My body took a few big hits this year which have caused me to take significant time off of physical training and doing the activities I love. First, while rock climbing around the new year I tore a tendon in my ring finger. This took a few months before I was comfortable using it again, and now a year later still isn’t back to full strength. Then in September while training at a ninja gym I fell from a tall salmon ladder and badly twisted my ankle in the crack between two mats. What I thought at first was just a bad sprain, ended up being multiple torn ligaments on both sides of my ankle. It put me on crutches for almost a month, and now I’m in a boot for at least a few more. While my ninja hiatus is obviously very unfortunate, it has also given me the chance to focus more deeply on creating art and developing my business. Because of the ankle injury, I decided not to apply to ANW this year. However, I’m planning on making a big comeback for Season 12 in 2020!

 

 

 

 

#4 Travelling

I didn’t quite realize it until I looked back at my calendar, but I took a lot of fun trips to new places in 2018. Throughout the six years we’ve been living in California, Erin and I have talked about seeing Yosemite but never actually did it until this year. In March we made the 6-hour drive up to Yosemite National Park with our friend Dean. It was frigid, snow-covered, and just as epic as I imagined. In April I flew to Colorado to visit a few friends where we went snowboarding and explored Boulder and Golden. From there we took a road trip through western CO and Utah; camping out, photographing the stars, climbing and hiking through national parks a few days. Erin and I also did a lot of traveling to celebrate our friends’ weddings. We went to Long Island and upstate New York, as well as a road trip to Sedona Arizona to see our friends tie the knot.

 

 

 

 

 

#5 The Northern Lights

While this would technically fall under the previous category of traveling, I thought it deserved its own acknowledgment. In the cold of winter, a friend James and I made a once in a lifetime trip to Fairbanks Alaska for almost a week specifically to photograph the Northern Lights. It was an incredibly surreal experience in which I produced some of my favorite and most unique images. I held a print sale that was popular among my audience. Between that and image licensing, my content virtually paid for the trip! I won’t go into much more detail because I wrote an entire blog post about the trip. Read it here.

 

 

 

 

 

#6 Lectures

I’ve always enjoyed the idea of teaching and sharing my skills and experience with others interested in learning about photography and videography. This year I had a few opportunities to give presentations for the first time in the local community. The first was at the Santa Barbara Drone Club on the topic of drone settings and photography. The second lecture I gave was at the Channel City Camera Club on the topic of Photoshop and digital compositing. You can check them both out on my Youtube channel here. I don’t know if teaching is something I’ll continue doing, but It was definitely rewarding to help people and beneficial to establish myself as a leader in my community. Taking initiative in those local groups actually led to a few more professional relationships and client opportunities down the road.

 

 

 

 

 

#7 Publications

This year I had my photography published in more diverse platforms than ever before. First, to kick off the year in January I had a full two-page spread published in 805 Magazine in a story about the Blue Sky Center in New Cuyama. In that same issue, one of my photos was also on the Contents page as seen below. In addition, I had my work published in an issue of F-Stop Magazine, on the cover of a brochure for AIA Santa Barbara Architectours, and as a finalist in the Photographer’s Forum annual coffee table book titled, “Best of Photography 2018.” After posting my Northern Lights time lapses to Vimeo, the National Park Service reached out to me about licensing my clips to be used in a video montage at a museum in Alaska. Most of these opportunities were unexpected and unsolicited by me. This makes me realize my work could exist out in the world more often if I took more initiative to reach out and market to publications.

 

 

 

 

 

#8 Shows & Awards – Lucky 5’s

Despite primarily focusing my efforts on the commercial side of my business this year, I still maintained relevance in the Fine Art world as well. Throughout the year I showed my work in five different gallery shows on all sides of the country. Including at the Black Box Gallery in Oregon, the Royal Mayors Ball in Albany NY, and a new Photography gallery called “WideOpen” in Santa Barbara, CA. I also received five different awards for my photography, including a citation award from the American Institute of Architects, and a first-place award from the New York Center for Photographic Arts. 

 

 

 

 

 

#9 The Office!

Ever since my I started my career I’ve operated my business from home, combining my bedroom and my office into one cohesive workspace.  For the past six years this worked well for me and it never even crossed my mind to look into alternative options. It wasn’t until a professional acquaintance was in desperate need of filling a room in their shared office that I considered the idea. After some deep analysis with my friend and production partner Chase, we decided to join the office crew for a year and lease our own room together. While I was a bit skeptical at first, the office turned out to be one of my best professional investments for a number of reasons. For starters, I am now able to invite clients and collaborators over to meet in a nice clean space outside of my bedroom or a coffee shop. Secondly, I’ve enjoyed the separation of working and living spaces which gives me a place to store my bulky gear, and keeps my precious lenses clean from excessive dust and cat hair. Third, the office connected me with an awesome community of local creators who I’ve learned from and collaborated with. As a total of seven office mates working in similar industries, we share professional insight, experience, and even hire and pass along gigs to each other. We also have a shared gear closet that has virtually any piece of kit you need for a shoot. Beyond just working together, all six guys at the office (Chase, Jesse A, Jesse N, Max, Eric, & Tony) all became really close friends of mine. The last office bonus; I enjoy being downtown more frequently, which has enabled me to shoot a lot more Santa Barbara sunsets and diversify my portfolio.

 

 

 

 

 

 

#10 Business Takes Off!!

At the beginning of 2018 I completely quit shooting weddings with the goal of growing and focusing on my architectural photography business. I couldn’t be more proud of how well that decision turned out. It’s been clear for a few years that shooting commercial architecture was my real calling. Not only do I thoroughly enjoy the work I’m doing now more than any previous year, but on a financial level, I also doubled my income from the previous year. Below is a partial list of the clients (from local organizations to international firms) that have used the content I’ve created throughout the year 2018. I’m grateful to have discovered a career that gives me the opportunity to cultivate my skills and passions by creating content for incredible organizations. I’m very excited to make a name for myself in the AEC industry, and continue building solid and genuine relationships with my clients. I can’t wait to see where my business takes me in 2019!

 

 

I’m so proud and grateful for all my achievements this year, and so glad to have you along with me on this amazing journey. Thanks for being part of it!