The Best of 2022

2022 was a strange, often not very pleasant year for a number of reasons, and until I started putting the photos together for this blog I was ready to write it off and consign it to a history I didn’t want to remember. However, looking back at what I’ve done this year and particularly recognising a few pretty huge leaps I’ve made professionally has made me realise that actually, it wasn’t all that bad.

This year I’ve learned a huge amount, continually finding out ways to improve how I take and edit photos and perhaps most importantly realising I actually knew nothing about filming videos and taking big steps in both equipment and skills to remedy this.

It should also probably be mentioned that I’ve been lucky enough to go to Australia twice in one year, which I realised half way through my ‘woe is 2022’ mini-rant is probably a lot of people’s dream.

Despite both trips being pretty whirlwind affairs with not a great deal of free time, I obviously managed to find some to take a lot of photos, a number of which I’m fairly proud of. These included a whole gallery from my brother Austen’s wedding to his beautiful bride Nicole, which was definitely one of my highlight days of the whole year and an absolute joy to be a part of.

While we’re on the subject of weddings, I’d have to say this was probably my biggest breakthrough of the year. In my career up until now I’d always seen weddings as a terrifying prospect far off in my future that only ‘real’ photographers could hope to achieve, mostly because of the level of organisation involved and the pressure that you really only get one shot at the big moments.

Before this year I’d done one half hour civil ceremony wedding that was a lot simpler that the full day monoliths in my nightmares, but thankfully this was enough for my good friend Jack to take a punt on me and ask me to do his whole wedding day. Let’s just say I’m very glad he did, as at the time of writing I’ve now done 3 full weddings, each of which seemed like a monumental achievement and taught me an incredible amount about taking photos, handling pressure and what I could actually do if I had the self belief to just go for it. So big thanks Jack and Lisa!

2022 has also been a year of milestones in all other forms of media. As mentioned, I’ve taken big leaps in the world of video; filming my first corporate promo video, filming/being in 3 music videos and most importantly realising just how little I originally knew about the format and particularly what can be accomplished with a decent camera.

I also achieved a lifelong dream this year of recording and mixing a full length album, which as well as being an absolute blast has again taught me a gigantic amount about something I already thought I knew everything about. Big shout outs to Tim, Joe and Ed Ripley for making all that happen.

Last but certainly not least, I joined the wonderful Our Own Brand as a part time content creator this year. From past experience it’s pretty rare to find a company who not only value you and nurture your skills, but are also a hoot-a-minute blast to work with, so big thanks to Sarah, Rich and everyone else on the team for having me!

Here’s some particular highlights of 2022 in photos:

So in summary… I guess I was wrong, 2022 wasn’t all that bad.

And the final icing on the cake? Right at the end of the year I decided to throw all caution to the wind and hit the credit card hard with a brand new Canon EOSR6 Mark 2. This is the only time I’ve ever bought a brand new camera, much less one that is so up to date accessories for it don’t even exist yet, and I could not be more excited see how it impacts my work. Far more than having a new toy to play with, a purchase of this magnitude seems in my mind to be a real commitment to photography and to my own career, which is something I’ve never really done before and therefore is a pretty exciting thing to have done.

Happy New Year Everyone, for once I truly cannot wait to see what this one holds!