2022 A Year In Review

A busy year, and a year of changes. That's the gist of what 2022 was.

Strap in, this is going to be a long post! We started out the year working with a company to adjust our visual presence online. It's been a great relationship and a process we are still involved in. We hope to have things fully set and an updated website for you in early 2023. We worked to create an updated set of branding and are working to update our galleries to show a more focused approach to what we do and who we mainly work with.

The year progressed with several of my clients having photoshoots as scheduled through the winter. However, we had a new client that provided us with a new twist. We were tasked with photographing ice cream in studio with very poppy colored backgrounds. I've photographed ice cream plenty of times before, however this type of ice cream had a very unique set of ingredients that made it tricky to scoop. We were either able to scoop it freely, but then it melted quickly, or it came out in chunks if it was too cold, depending on just a couple of degrees in the freezer. I've never had to deal with an ice cream that fluctuated so much with such a small change. In the end, we were able to create some really fun and special imagery! I also feel like I was able to photograph a lot more food this year in general. If you know me, you know that photographing food is one of my absolute favorite things to capture! So, in that way, it's been a great year!

"On location" took on a new meaning this year and ended up being a big part of our year, professionally and personally. We ended up being on location locally or across the country a lot this year. Besides our family moving to Orlando, FL mid year, then deciding it was not for us and moving back to the Lancaster, PA area within weeks, we did a lot of travel for clients this year. We traveled mostly to locations up and down the east coast a bunch. And I felt like I was in FL almost every month this year (not including the time we actually lived there). Coming up in 2023 we have more travel already scheduled for one client in Orlando and another in Sarasota, FL. So, look for some posts on our Instagram account when that happens. We also currently have a client trip scheduled for Montana in July of 2023. And lots of local and semi-local shoots already in the works.

One thing that also changed was letting my studio go. I was leasing space in the warehouse of one of our agencies that we work with. It was a great space that I was able to use for many types of my work including headshots, product photography and as mentioned, the infamous ice cream shoot. When we moved to Florida, I wasn't expecting to move back to PA so quickly, so I made the decision to release myself from the lease. While I still work with the agency, they have since repurposed the space and it is no longer available. For the foreseeable future, I am currently looking to just keep it simple and shoot in my new home studio for the time being of any small projects and renting space as needed for larger work. Again, most of my projects last year were on location anyway, so it just seems like a studio is a little unnecessary at this point. Who knows what the future will hold, and I may consider just building a studio at my new home down the road.

While we were living in Florida, I was able to do a shoot for Landscape Leadership. One of my biggest and most consistent clients. They were in the Orlando market for a conference and I supported them there with some videography to help their new branding and marketing efforts. It was a blast and if you get a chance to stay at the Gaylord Palms in Orlando, I highly suggest it. What an amazing place!

We also worked with a lot of manufacturing companies to create some amazing visuals to really set them apart in their industries. From metal work, to water, wood working, contractors and everything in between. It's great to work with industries that continue to see the influence great visuals can have on showing the quality of their business.

How could we go a year without mentioning products, products, products!?!?! We photographed so many products this year. Studio style and environmental in nature. Photographing products in use and static just seems to always look great and helps companies to have a good amount of visual assets.

And portraits!! A year can't go by without lots of portraits!

This year also saw an upgrade in a lot of my equipment. I upgraded to a Canon line of mirrorless equipment including a new camera and lenses. They have been such a wonderful upgrade, but have also created more challenges. One such challenge was the size of the image and video files that come out of it. They have been such a demanding set of files on my current computer that I was forced to also upgrade my computer. It actually just got delivered recently, so once it's up and running, I expect it will significantly improve my workflow speed. With that upgrade, I've also decided to switch my video post production application that I work with. I took some time off between the holidays to learn Davinci Resolve, moving on from Final Cut Pro X. I did this for 2 reasons mainly. First, the new computer that I bought is optimized for DR specifically. So, that should speed things up. Secondly, I've heard that the color management is much better, and FCPX has been a challenge to get good color, so I'm hoping for better looking footage. I also upgraded my phone from an iPhoneX to and iPhone 14 Pro. I've tested out the IP4p and the footage is surprisingly very useable in a pinch. Additionally, the stabilization is some of the best I've seen. It works very well and is almost better than using a gimble.

Looking forward what to 2023 has in store and as mentioned, we are traveling to Florida twice in the first 2 months. Additionally, we have a trip to Montana scheduled. We are also looking forward to finishing up our website updates. I'm hoping to launch that in January with a big push on social media. I also have a few commercials and interview videos set to film and finish early in 2023. Additionally, we have been working with one of our architects to schedule time to photograph some of their recent projects over the winter and Spring. Below we look back to some of our favorites from 2022 and we see a big year for us as we look forward to continuing to grow in 2023! If you'd like more information on how we can create great visuals for you and your business, send us an email today to get the ball rolling so we can get you on the schedule.

So, Happy New Year and we hope you have a great 2023!