So the challenge was to pick 5 of my favourite images from the year.  You would think it would be easy, but with the number of weddings, mini escapes, shoots and iphone photos of the every day…it almost felt impossible.

I was going to sit and go through the weddings and shoots and pull out my favourite images but I decided that was an easy option, that was a safe option. So instead, I decided to show a little of my personal work, share a little bit of myself with you all.  I share a lot of my wedding photography on my blog and shy away from sharing myself and what I document on a day to day basis. Maybe I am scared of opening myself up to criticism, sharing a side of myself that very few people see, maybe its none of the above but here goes.  Here are 5 of my favourite images from my personal log.  This is me, this is what I see.

I see a lot in reflections, I seek them out as a way of telling a story.  I walked past this window several times over the course of a week and hadn’t really seen it. I looked at it, repeatedly and saw nothing, then one day, I was feeling a little lost in a see of people, I had been thinking a lot about the past year, and everything that had unfolded, I was trying to make sense of where I was and a reflection caught my eye. That one day, at that one moment, I saw this.

I generally shoot up close and personal, engaged with the people, subject in front of me. Very rarely do I take to the streets and document the people around me. When I got on the train the sun was shining, when I got off the train and stepped out onto the street, the rain was pouring.  It was like a monsoon.  There was something really beautiful about it, the smell, the sound, the excitement. I wanted to take a photo of the rain but was a little scared to step out in it with no protection for myself but more importantly no protection for my camera. I stood under a shelter, waiting patiently for the right moment, this was it for me.

I always have a little projects on the go, in the back ground while wedding season is in full swing. This is one of the projects I have been working on for a while and it is constantly pushing me, challenging me, driving me to be better, to really tell a story.  I wanted to capture something different, to push what I had be documenting and making it something different, to step outside the box I had put myself in.

Pushing myself, pushing outside my comfort zone…my heart was pounding while I was on this shoot. I was scared of what I would produce, to see if I could produce what I had in my head.  When I checked the back of my camera and saw this image, everything in my head was shouting at me, telling me no one would like it but my heart was happy and I felt proud because everything came together.

In a new city, not knowing anyone, I sat on a ferry a little scared. With the rain pouring  I looked up to see this man sitting on his own just watching the world go by. He wasn’t aware of any one on that ferry just focused on the world outside that window. It was calm and peaceful.