As 2022 is coming to an end, it’s really easy for me to say that I am done with this year and I’m ready to start fresh again. The New Year always has a feeling of new beginnings for me. I like closing the book on a year, marking its end, and opening a new book with fresh blank pages to start again in the New Year. 2022 has had its challenges and I’m sure many could agree with that. Both personally and professionally there has been things I’ve had to work through. I can easily think of it as being a failure year. That was my cue to stop and go back and really look at what has been accomplished over the year.

Over the last week I took some time to look back at all the images that were created over 2022. My work is very much a reaction to inspiration in the moment I am in. I am typically not a theme photographer, as in I name a project and I go looking for things to fulfill that project. Instead, as I am going about my day to day and interact with places, people, and things I react to what inspires me in that moment. I observe moments with a heart of gratitude, eyes to see God’s beautiful creation, and an overwhelming desire to create something from it. That is exactly what I see in the work created this year. From how the Paperwhites grow out of a bulb, to the butterflies at the botanic garden, the flowers growing in my garden, the clouds during sunset, and the locations I visited. I’m in awe of how beautiful these things are and how complicated they can be yet focus in on something unique that my eye sees and then share it.

There is not a cohesive collection exactly (except maybe flowers) but they are a collection of moments and I’m proud of them. I’m glad that I take the time to view the world around me and appreciate it. That I can see beauty and good things even when life is hard and the world is negative. I have always had a big dream for the body of work sitting quietly on hard drives but my one and only hope is that when you view my work that you see and feel that beauty and good, too.