2010: Year in Review

This year has been crazy. I finished up my year in China and said goodbye to everything and everyone I grew to love. I started a photography business, and was inspired by the love of each and every couple I photographed. As I was going through my 2010 photos, I realized this was going to be a really hard post to write. I’m so grateful for everyone who has supported me on this new journey of mine. I’m not the best with articulating my ideas. That’s why I take photos, so I’ll just say I have the best job in the world. I get to be surrounded by love and take photos of love. I go to work and I’m constantly smiling. How could it get better?

I am so thankful for everything I experienced in 2010, even the hard stuff. I remember how frustrated I was trying to design a logo, or get my first client. I have no clue how I survived October, the busiest month of my life. I appreciate all the growth that came from these struggles. I’ve got my resolutions written down (and tracked on goalforit.com), and I’m determined to beat the awesomeness of 2010. I’m coming for you, 2011!

It was a really strange experience for me to go through all my photos I took in 2010. It was an even stranger experience to edit them all down to a group of favorites. I decided to go with my gut on this one. The photos below are my favorite not because of technical photography mumbo jumbo, but because they have a special place in my heart. Whether it’s a time, place, moment, or person, they have touched me this year. I love some of these photos just because of the experiences they remind me of like the freedom of exploring a city by myself, or the humbling experience of hospitality in a foreign land.

Here’s to a great 2011.

1) Sunrise over the rice patties in Duoyishu village, Yuanyang, Yunnan Province, China

2) Sunset in Yuanyang, Yunnan Province, China

3) A farmer walking on the rice patties in Duoyishu village, Yuanyang, Yunnan Province, China. These rice patties completely changed color based on where the sun is in the sky. It’s a photographer’s dream

4) This Hani woman lived in the house beside the guesthouse I stayed in for a week while I was in Duoyishu. Every morning she would lead her 50+ ducks from her home to a rice paddy for them to spend the day. One day as I was walking home from photographing, the ducks started following me! I couldn’t get them to stop, and I ended up accidentally leading them all the way back to their home. I thought she would be mad, but she found it hilarious. I heard her laughing while she led the ducks back to their spot. A few days later, she posed for this photo for me.

5) Yuantong Temple, Kunming, Yunnan Province, China

6) A path on the Tiger Leaping Gorge trek in Yunnan Province China. This photo reminds me of how happy I was meeting new friends and wandering aimlessly around Yunnan province.

7) My friend started to feel sick while we were wandering around the Ganden Sumtseling Monastery in Shangrila, so we decided to find a place to escape the cold. I asked a Tibetan man if there was a place we can sit and drink tea. He lead us to his home, sat us down, and made us all salted yak butter tea, no questions asked. He was proud of his family and his home. This photo is of his son washing his face in their home.  I’m constantly humbled by the hospitality and friendliness of people in China.

8) My friend invited me to spend Chinese New Years with her family in their village. Here we are in the countryside.

9) Our Chinese New Year’s feast. Mmm. Complete with homemade tofu.

10) My friend’s grandfather honors his mother’s grave on Chinese New Year.

11) Playing with kids in Qinghua, Wuyuan, Jiangxi province, China. One of my favorite things about China was running around and playing with kids.

12) A lazy day in Hongcun, Anhui province, China.

13) The famed Suzhou gardens.

14) Muhammad and his father in Turpan, Xinjiang province, China. Muhammad invited me for tea and gave me directions to get back to my hotel.

15) Freakin’ awesome door in Kashgar, Xinjiang province, China

16) Sweet Uyghur girls going to school in Kashgar, Xinjiang province, China.

17) A restaurant owner and his wife in Hotan, China. I had a good time talking with him, talking about life,  and chowing down on all the delicious goodies he kept giving me.

18) A mazar in Hotan, China. Mazars are colorful, sufi shrines.

19) A medicine man in Hotan, Xinjiang province, China.

20) Sand dunes at sunset in Gansu, China

21) A gorgeous sunset on Norris Lake, TN

22) Rowan.

23) My sister and my cousin Crystal tubing on Norris Lake.

24) Carin & Chris engagement photos

25) Jessica & Josh in Walland, TN

26) Jessica

27) Carin’s dad walking her down the aisle.

28) Carin & Chris

29) Sweet Marleigh

3o) Cary & Becki’s first dance

31) New York in October

32) My sister Maddy in New York City.

33) Lakin & Zach

34) Alex & Cristie

35) Bryan & Cheryl

36) My sister Maddy in the snow.

37) Ashley