Best Of 2020

This year.

I’m sure most of us feel a little similarly as we come to the end of 2020. There’s so much to say about this year, but in some ways it feels impossible to say anything other than “I’m glad that’s over”.

This year started out with the brightest of outlooks—I was booking weddings left and right, shooting engagements and family sessions from literally the first week of the month, and I was looking forward to a summer packed with shooting and traveling. We had booked a couple of weeks in Scotland and Ireland, and we were considering Japan for the fall, when the leaves would be changing all over Tokyo.

Then March came, and suddenly the world seemed to stop completely. Weddings were moved, cancelled, and sized down, and all my small shoots were cancelled until further notice. I was heartbroken at all the stories of couples who had planned for so long, only to have their dreams crushed in the wake of the shutdowns. My heart ached for the turmoil in the world, the people in every country sick and dying from an unseen virus, and the plans we all had for the year turn to dust.

I spent my days picnicking on the nearby campus, taking long walks, and revamping everything I could think on my site and workflow so I would be ready when business inevitably picked up again. And I was right, eventually it did pick up again—but it felt more like bursts of work followed by days of quiet, instead of the usual consistency of my schedule. Weddings were smaller and I wore a mask at all times, but the love felt as couples united their lives was still just as strong. I had to have two associates take on weddings I couldn’t shoot, either from my own sickness (not Covid) or inability to travel, and I felt grateful for the relief that gave me. I shot a wedding in place of an immunocompromised friend, and captured genuine elopements in the golden hills.

The year brought some sweet surprises and precious moments I couldn’t have imagined, and I witnessed couples and families pull closer together through difficulty—and that showed clearly through lovely, intimate weddings and other life changes—pregnancy, new life, anniversaries celebrated. I brought my camera with me to capture it all.

I had promised myself I would blog more in 2020, but I admit that I just couldn’t find the motivation. It was not for lack of having new work I was proud of to share—I had plenty of that—but in the end, I felt that having a ‘Best Of’ post might better compartmentalize the beauty I saw, experienced, and captured in 2020.

Please press play, and enjoy my favorite photos of this past year.

May your new year be brighter.