This year was a big year for me. I bought a DSLR and got work published for the first time.

This is one of my favorite photos I’ve taken this year. What I like about it is the orange of the washing machines with the blue of the jeans. I like the position of their body’s and the clothing they’re wearing.

Lately I’ve been really into cropping out peoples heads too, so that’s a plus.

This and the previous photo are both from the session I had with my friends The Crylics. See more photos from that experience here.

This year I also took some portraits I’m particularly proud of. Clicking on the photos will take you to the posts they appeared in.

I’ve also worked a lot on my studio portrait technique this year.

And started shooting skate, which is something I intend to pursue next year.

I even did a few landscapes, which I’m stoked on.

I think if I had to chose one favorite photo that I’ve taken this year it’d be this one.

So that’s my photographic year in review.

Next year I’m looking forward to shooting more skate, band and editorial. I’d like to get some skate photography published and work on a few more photo essays as well.

2009, what what.

A while ago I decided that my sister needed photos. She’s a librarian in Maine, so I thought it’d be fitting to have some photos of her in our library in Provo.

So now I have birthday presents for my mom for the next 5 years.

Killer.

Update – 1/23/09

I feel like this post on my sisters blog explains her personality very well.

On the 12th the moon was as bright as it’s been in 15 years. It spent a few minutes shooting some long exposure photos around my house. A friend said that it reminded her of a manger. I didn’t intend for this picture to have any religious significance, but I think a contemporary manger is an interesting idea, so I’ll leave you with that.

Merry Christmas.

I didn’t know Haleigh that well (still don’t), but she was down to come and get her photo taken. It was fun, we talked about art and made fun of our high school art teacher.

I’m really happy with all of these photos. Haleigh is a good subject for black & white (albeit a fidgety one).

I’m already missing ya. Have a good two years Gabe.

Katrina is a feminist-anarchist, likes to talk about obscure televison shows that were canceled too soon and is the best writer I know.

We like to talk about people who look like zombies, graffiti and plan the return of my zine It’s Murder! (coming in a little less then two months).

She has also punched me in the face multiple times. More on that this February.

So a few months ago a friend and I started working on a journalism piece for his colleges paper. We were going to shoot/write about the local chapter of Battleguard (Battleguarth?). The paper ended up not liking the piece so we killed the project.

I remembered yesterday that I never posted the photos, I originally intended to go back and shoot some more but never did, so here they are.

These photos were fun, but hard to take. The action happens very quickly and to get a really good photo I found that I just had to keep my camera at waist level and run around shooting whatever I could. It’s a hit and miss technique (with a lot of miss).

Projects like this are what I really want to shoot for a living. My dream job is to have magazines send me out to shoot people doing their thing. Battleguard isn’t glamorous, or an especially popular pastime, but it’s interesting to the people who do it, and they have fun.

You could do worse then to spend an afternoon with these guys.

Gabe likes Speed Racer, Fight Club and About a Boy.

Ten Love City points to whoever can name the two movies I like.

Every few months I go through my old photos. It’s usually to see if there’s a good shot I missed or to try some new process or technique that I’ve learned since my last go. These photos are from about six months ago.

The top photo appears in black & white in this post. The bottom photos are from this post.

A lot of my black & white work is much more high contrast then my late color work as been. The other day I read an interview of Nick Hance on Too Much Chocolate that was very interesting. Nick uses film so a lot of his photos don’t have lows that are very dark. That’s been something I’ve been playing around with.

The last photo is my favorite. It feels like a very personal portrait to me.

I shot some skate stuff with Brad Doran the other day. Overcast days are my favorite kind of days to shoot. Tuesday was as perfect as a December day could be, which was pretty good.

We shot at a chain gap for a bit and then went to a sketchy ditch.

This fall looks much worse then it is, I think he even landed on his feet.

I submitted this photo to a forum for critique and one guy said that the tilt made the bank/fall look worse then it is. A “visual lie” he called it.

After the bank session we crossed the street and headed to a water/flood. . . thing. The bottom has been made skatable in the past, but is out of commission due to the cracked cement run up.

Brad and I checked out the top a little more and he decided to drop on to the top of it. A fall to his right is grass & dirt about 7 feet down, but a fall to his left would be much worse. Sharp rocks and more then enough incline to be impossible to stop a fall. Scary stuff. It also got pretty windy. Brad pulled a gnar trick.

I’m excited to go back.