Every year brings new opportunities, and with those opportunities come new photographs. This year, in addition to my usual wedding and portrait business, I traveled to both Kyrgyzstan and Ethiopia. Both places were eye candy for a photographer, and both places I'd recommend for someone who wants to get unique and stunning photos.

Everyone's idea of what a makes a good photo is different. Some want to follow all the rules of composition, some love good lighting. Some people like a photo for the memories they bring back. The photos I've chosen are a combination of all of these. I know this is a subjective thing, so you might feel differently about some of these. But of all the ten of thousands of photographs I've taken this year, these are 22 of my favorites. There were many more that almost made the list, but you have to stop somewhere. Please enjoy, and let me know what you think. Blessings on the coming year.

I always enjoy when I can put some creativity into the work I'm doing. This goes doubly for portraits. So often, people tell me they don't want any of their wrinkles to show up in the picture, and I understand that. But often that also removes the character and personality from the portrait. So when Mike, who's an author, came along and told me he wanted a dark and moody shot for the bio page on his new book, I was excited.

This portrait was taken with a two light setup. One was to the camera right with a large reflector and diffusor, and the second one was to camera left and behind the subject to illuminate the smoke (yes, there was a smoke machine), and to separate the subject from the background. 

I then processed the image in Adobe Lightroom, bringing down the colors selectively. I think it came out well.