2009. Best...year...ever. (part 1)

Here it is, the last day of 2009. I'd like to take this opportunity to show some photos I haven't put up before and talk about some of the amazing things I've had the privilege to experience this year. Of course if you haven't seen them, you can find more photos in the "Archives" page.

January. The Inauguration Of Barack Obama. Traveled down to D.C. with my cousin Ralph, got up at 3 A.M. and took a PACKED train into the city to stand on the National Mall (20 degrees without the windchill) with 1 million of my fellow Americans to watch the swearing in of the first African-American President Of The United States.

I can't describe to you the feeling of looking around during the oath and seeing people young , old, rich, poor, of all shades waving flags, cheering and for that moment being united behind the truth that they held self evident. That all men are created equal and now it wasn't just empty rhetoric. America was fulfilling it's promise.

I remember noticing a middle aged African-American woman standing directly in front of me crying with a wide beaming smile on her face and realizing I would never know what she felt at that moment.

February. Danielle had a concept she had been kicking around for a while that our friend Ryan Ashley helped make into a reality. We named it Self Made Man.

We didn't have enough space in our home studio to get the distance I needed to get this shot so I had to open up a window and shoot this standing on a step ladder outside my house through the window. Kudos to Ryan for being a trooper and not even complaining about the February winds blowing right up his bum.

Space issues aside, the home studio space has been a great investment and we're quite proud of the work we've been able to get out of it.

Late in the month, Danielle and I decided to get married. We both swore we'd never do it again but we decided we could make it the way WE wanted it this time without conforming to anyone else's expectations. And we did.

March. Did a fun photo shoot with the Grand Valley U dodgeball team.

But most of the month was spent getting ready for the wedding. O.K., maybe that's not quite right. We didn't actually do a whole lot for it.

We got Rev. Charles to officiate because, well, I wouldn't have had anyone else. Our good friend Randall offered to take the photos (and bring cookies). We had the ceremony at our house with the girls, our parents and a couple of witnesses to make it legal. We designed it to have everything we wanted and nothing we didn't. Sarah and Lily took part in our hand fasting and picked out the ribbons themselves. Afterwards, we met friends at Founders for our quasi-reception and headed out the next morning for our honeymoon. Which brings us to...

April. For our honeymoon we decided to take a road trip south and see where it took us. We spent a day in Louisville, walked around Nashville in the rain, went to the Mammoth Caves, and generally just had a great time together.

We also did a couple photo shoots later in the month. One with Fallon and Danny that became "Class Warfare" , and we visited our friends Ken and Gabe and did quite an *ahem* unconventional portrait of them in their living room.

May. As the weather started getting better we got more active. Did 2 more shoots with Fallon and Danny which produced what we call the "Romance" series that includes "The Proposal" and "The Courtship". Both shoots proved to be quite an adventure but for different reasons. We shot "The Courtship" in the woods behind Danielle's parent's house on a weekend that must have been the middle of a mosquito family reunion. I've never seen that many mosquitos.

The shoot for "The Proposal" was challenging for a completely different reason. Because of our schedules we had to set up the shoot shortly after sunrise. There was frost on the grass in John Ball Park when we arrived to set up. Not the greatest weather to have water poured over your head in or to stand in a tree with not much more than a piece of fabric wrapped around you.

Don't know if it was the cold, the height, if she was in a stressful pose, or a combination of factors that triggered it, but about 10 seconds after getting Fallon down out of that tree after the last shot was taken she passed out and had a seizure. Next time, more safety precautions.

I also got back to shooting concerts this month after a bit of a break. Dragonforce and Queensryche at The Intersection and photographed Static X at The Orbit Room.

Queensryche was especially important to me because they were my favorite band as a teenager. I used to listen to Operation: Mindcrime like I was reading parables into some kind of religious text.

I'll take a break here because the next few months need blog entries all to themselves. Still to come, festival season! Rothbury, Lollapalooza, Festival Of The Arts GR, more big name artists and what I'm sure is an admission of a criminal act.