I worked hard this year to keep traditions alive and stay close with family and friends. This starts with the basic day to day things like trying to respond to every text message (not one of my strong skills) and continues with planning trips and hang outs far in advance. We kept our annual Pawtuckaway trip going though the cast of characters has changed every year. We also went back to our old neighborhood in Menemsha staying with our friend Aidan and her family who showed us new ways to zip through backyards and old paths on bikes and on foot. My mom instigated a new Sunday night dinner tradition this year which was a great way to stay close with everyone and gave us lots of time to read and play with our niece Ingrid and nephew Calum. We also had to say good bye to our beloved family dog Acadia and welcomed Maisy into the family. Things keep shifting as well with new traditions like a classy passover dinner at our house, New Year’s Eve at the Earle Family Farm, and an LA and Piers camping trip.

This was a huge work year as well and I’ve never had to pay quite so much money to the federal and state governments. I need to give a big special thanks to Harlem, Charlie, Erin, Paul, Hadley, and Dylan for all their amazing help on video and photo shoots this year. Thanks also to all the awesome clients and agencies I was lucky enough to work with from giant crews to just me and a subject. I froze on top of mountains and sweated on the beach in Florida. I also had to deal with my first client declaring bankruptcy. A production company that used to represent me folded and still owes me five figures as well as tons more money to other creatives. Oy.

My most frequent client was MIT and I’m happy to keep finding new spaces and creative dreamers all over their campus. My biggest client was Steward Healthcare with a huge project by Boathouse Group to photograph eight new hospitals in Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. I also had opportunities to partner with nonprofits I care about like the DOVE Project run by the NH Bar Association, The Trust For Public Land, and Mass Audubon’s Drumlin Farm.

Emma and I kept collaborating on wedding photography this year. We photographed so many weddings in so many wonderful places. Thanks to all our lovely couples for trusting us and welcoming us into their families.

It’s a special treat to photograph and film runners as an avid runner myself. Kim Nedeau and her husband wowed me with their home gym and their obstacle course put my upper body to shame. Martinus Evans showed me that you can start running at any point in your life and still be deeply affected by its power. Although we were almost attacked by a rogue dog, Evans kept his energy and excitement level so high during our shoot. I partnered with the young ultrarunning phenom Patrick Caron for two projects, a cold winter sunrise photo shoot on my home trails in Lincoln, MA and a short trail running documentary running up Mount Chocorua (thanks to Alex Earle for the idea!).

Emma and I kept up our crazy routine of over the top long weekend adventures all over the North East. We returned to our favorite Nordic Spa in Quebec after watching Alex Earle crush a 125km race in Charlevoix. We had a wacky long weekend camping at Lake Willoughby with Emily Nink and Henry Blanchette. I met them on my bike after a three day bike trip with John Work where we stayed up at Camp Ladue (thanks Arlin for the ride) and we had a goofy time trying to find the best camping spot and learned a new way to play Bananagrams. Mimi and Nate’s wedding brought us to Hawaii for two weeks where we watched big wave surfing and Emma returned to the infamous Koke’e Lodge for the world’s best cornbread. We also stayed in some Yurts, filled our car with way too much stuff way too many times, picked up hitchhikers, and did some pre and post work shenanigans around Lincoln and Concord.

We also made the most out of our time in Somerville, with many walks, runs, and bikes, game nights, music nights, and baking extravaganzas. After my Mom was injured on a Backroads trip in Sweden and wasn’t able to try the cardamom buns, we smashed the cardamom pods Meghan Bodo had brought back from Uganda and tried our best to replicate them. We also popped many gallons of popcorn and made far too many cookies for any guests.

Before 2017 started, I applied to my first couple of artist residencies and also started submitting work to gallery shows. I was really happy to focus in on pinhole photography work for the art side of things and had work included in the Krappy Kamera show at SoHo Photo Gallery and the Somerville Toy Camera Show. I applied to the Manoog Family Residency in Watertown, MA and was accepted in their first group of artist applications. This was my first time having a dedicated studio space and I developed more film than any time since my freshman year at Tufts. The residency was run in cooperation with Cannistraro, an HVAC, plumbing, and fire safety company, and the Plumbing Museum. I brought my pinhole cameras to construction sites and factory floors and had so much fun playing with photography again. I also worked on a bunch of side projects during the residency, including my first little zine, “After the Flood”, a series of pinhole photographs of flooded trees on the Concord River. The residency culminated in my first large gallery show, which I built a pair of wearable camera obscuras for and framed my work with help from Stanhope Framers. I stayed involved with the residency by producing a short documentary on the resident artists that followed me.

I worked especially hard on a short documentary on artist Kit Collins and her Grandmother, Renee, that looked at what we want in life and how/if that changes as we grow older. I love filming and photographing artists and was so thankful that they welcomed me in.

This was a roller coaster year for rock climbing. I never really settled into a training groove and whenever I did have time to climb outside, I hadn’t climbed at all in weeks or it was crazy hot out so my goals eluded me. I hurt my right arm from too much tennis and bouldering at the end of August and had to take off the next three months so never really got it all together. I still was lucky enough to get outside a handful of days and climb with tons of new people. I’m hoping that 2018 brings some more training consistency and a few more focused climbing trips so I can finally knock off some of my life climbing goals… I still have never learned to trad climb!

This was kind of a mellow year for biking too. I biked so many miles around the city for commuting to shoots, running errands, and meeting up with friends but only pulled off one three day bike trip up in Vermont. I flew to a more assignments than ever before this year which kind of cut into my training and longer trip time. I think this next year will bring lots of long days biking around New England.

Emma and I continued to jump into as many ponds, rivers, and oceans as we could.

I did finally figure out how to surf right though! I’m now way more confident and ready to catch waves whenever they exist.

This was the most epic Saco River canoe trip ever. We had a record setting flood!

I made a big effort to run up Mount Monadnock in as many sketchy winter weather situations as possible. These snowy and icy efforts have turned into a small black and white photo series that I hope to continue for the next couple of years.

Running! I did get to run a lot this year. I never got badly hurt which is cool but I also never strung together a proper training cycle. I didn’t adequately prepare for my first ever trail marathon and slip-slided my way to a much slower than expected pace. It was a fun weekend though, enjoying DC and catching up with old friends. I made a very bold move and signed up for my first track race since middle school field days. It was a mile race put on by the Heart Break Hill Running Company and although I guessed my time really accurately, I ended up in the fastest race of the night and have never felt so slow. To train, Emma biked next to me while I ran a very hilly road mile up in Georgetown, ME. We also celebrated my dad’s 60th birthday with a team marathon including: Thomas, Emma, Maria, Myself, Stephen, and my Dad. My most successful run was a 14+ mile mountain run up Mount Marcy in the Adirondack’s. It’s the highest point in NY and I showed up late in the afternoon, racing up and down in under 3 hours right as the sun set. I think 2018 will be full of many more bold runs!

We had carefully planned a new shoot a few weekends ago and at the last minute our subject was forced to pull out. We had the whole production crew lined up and had already rented an ARRI Amira so we decided to come up with a new project at the last minute. I thought we should make a little documentary on why people run and we posted away on social media to see who was available and willing to run for our cameras in the Boston area.

We had a great response and busy weekend of traveling all over the city to meet runners and photograph and film them in their neighborhoods. Everything went super smoothly on the talent and weather front but I ended up taking one big tumble while running backwards and photographing one our runners…

It’s amazing how much new running photography content you can create when you decide to make something new rather than sit at your computer.

I had met Michael earlier in the year while on assignment for Runner’s World and it was inspiring to see how great of a father he is. He has instilled a lifelong love of running in his kids and keeps everything fun and creative.

Kyler is a native Somerville runner and started running on the Somerville High School track team. He is now part of the November Project and continues to train and race competitively.

I fell just a minute after taking this one:

The lake, which is mostly in Quebec, allegedly has a serpent which has been sited occasionally for the past 200 years.

White puts on events to help bring tourists to the area throughout the year. He had a setback this January when his truck went through the ice while plowing for the speed skating marathon. The truck was named Rolling Thunder and White escaped without injuries.

Volunteers helped keep the water moving in between races to prevent ice from forming:

Special thanks to Hadley Green for assisting on all the shoots.

Epilogos was founded by Mike + Susie Jenkins, a truly wonderful couple that met and married while in Peace Corps in El Salvador 50 years ago. Their wedding was a huge deal with the El Salvadoran President and US Ambassador in attendance. After working in New Hampshire, they retired 14 years ago and moved back to San José Villanueva. People still remembered their wedding from 36 years prior and they quickly got to work starting Epilogos and rebuilding friendships and connections in the town. Working with the local community, government, and catholic church, their non-profit weaves its way into every part of the community including: electricity, education, health, dental, clean water, clean stoves, arts, and small business projects. We were there filming their story as they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in the same church they were married in.

Newborn lamb in Loudon, NH:

Revisiting old fields from my high school days in Groton, MA:

Surfing at Rye Rocks:

Testing out the pinhole camera with 4×5″ polaroid instant film:

Filming in Sandwich, NH for a short documentary on climate change and maple syrup:

Burning the christmas tree in Nahant, MA:

Fire in Turners Falls, MA:

Drumlin Farm:

Morning commute in Ayer, MA during the first snow:

Fitchburg, MA:

This daily project kept me hustling again all year and pushed me to do my own photography every day of the year. I’ve shot more film than I have since high school and have tried out new styles of photography and photo illustrations. One of my favorite trial projects looked at collections of things like CSA vegetables, backpacks, and hard drives. Daily walks around Somerville have become the norm. I didn’t hop on a plane once this year and have been happily focused on New England photography. There is so much weird and wonderful stuff to document around me.

The color of each day.

More than any year before, I was able to take assignments that were a good fit for me. I turned down more than one bad contract and was able to work on more magazine stories and commercial projects that pushed me in the right direction and made me feel good. I had a few art directors say they even looked through my photo a day project and were able to get a strong sense of who I was before hiring me.

Day 284

The year started off with a small catastrophe when Emma and I unexpectedly were flooded out of our new apartment in Cambridge and forced to relocate during the snowiest winter ever. It wasn’t too much fun but we settled into an amazing new apartment where I set up a very comfortable office and we now live among a jungle of house plants.

Day 013

I started a new long-term photo project on winter games around New England around the same time as the flood. I explored the activities that keep people outside in the cold all winter long, like ice yachting, dogsled racing, and ski jumping. I hope to continue to grow the project next year and also create short documentaries on individuals and their winter sports.

Day 044

My brother Stephen and sister-in-law Heather had their first child, Calum. Emma and I babysat him throughout the year and I learned how to hold a baby. He also became a regular fixture throughout the photo a day project and will probably continue to be a part of the next year’s.

Day 063

Running was a constant all year. I didn’t get hurt once, ran more races than I have since high school cross country, and created a whole new portfolio of trail running photography that led to my first assignment with Runner’s World magazine and a photo in Trail Runner magazine. Dylan and I decided to partner up to hire models and took a big risk to each try and push our work to new places for a sport we both love.

Thanks to my new printer, the apartment portrait project has continued to grow. It’s become a glossary of family and friends and a record of Emma and my life here in Somerville and I hope to continue it for as long as we live here.

I did a lot of boring logistical stuff this year too: I started paying my taxes quarterly(like I’ve been supposed to do for the past couple of years now), bought new car and health insurance, and even got a local doctor and regular person to cut my hair. I’ve never felt so responsible.

I ended the year with my first job as a director for a series of documentary-style profiles for a diabetes pump company. Minder took a big chance hiring me to direct and I think it worked out really well. It was an intimidating experience, but once we started rolling I felt confident and creative, ready to take on all the challenges. I feel like every time I go out to take photos or make videos, I still have the nervous feeling I had when I started. It’s an emotion that keeps me on my toes and it’s probably time to move on from photography if I ever lose that sensation.

Day 274

At the start of the year, I still felt guilty leaving on a “work day” to take pictures for myself. I think spending more time with other freelancers and seeing the positive impact of having a strong personal work has helped me feel more comfortable setting my own kind of schedule. I am a photographer after all, I should be off taking pictures and not spending all my free time emailing. It’s still surreal that I’m living the life and doing the job that I always wanted to do. Not to say it’s been an easy year. There were tons of times throughout the year where I was certain that jobs would never come and I’d be forced to give this whole career up. I’m finishing the year with a stronger and more stable foundation than ever before. This will allow me to start off 2016 following my own inspiration for winter photography projects and not worrying how to make a quick buck.

I think the sum of all these photographs makes me imagine how others will view my work in its entirety. It’s a portrait of a New England rambler, searching for quiet moments.

I would definitely prefer photographing(and sweating) with a bunch of happy bees than sitting at my computer on a lowery day like today. These sunny photos feel more like a dream than a real day I lived.

Best Bees runs hives for customers all over the country, maintaining healthy bees and delivering honey. They use the income from that side of the business to fund bee disease resarch.