Let's Get on with it

Yeah yeah yeah, I know, it is almost the end of January. Well, a lot of stuff happened at the end of 2025 and the beginning of this year, so I needed some time to get to it. Anyways, I think it's important to look back and reflect. You know, try to summarize some lessons learned and carry them with you. That is the goal of this blog post, but I plan on keeping it short. I don't want to drone on and on about how everything means so much, because here is the deal:

Yes, reflection is important, but if reflecting causes you to not live your life in the present, you need to reassess.

So let's get on with it. I am going to talk about what went well, what I still need to improve on, and what I am looking forward to in 2026, all while keeping things short and to the point. It's gonna be a good time.

(Disclaimer: All the photos here will be from my personal projects, not from paid sessions. Secondly, most of the reflections made in this blog will be from reflecting on my personal projects. I will maybe briefly mention the business side, but this blog post is about my personal growth as a photographer, not as a business owner.)

Some good things

Before making this post, I sat down and looked at all the photos I have taken over the last year in my personal projects. It is important to state that I did a daily photography project (I will FOR SURE talk more about this), so I had a lot of photos to sift through. Looking at them, I noticed growth. I saw that in 2025, I paid more attention to composition, experimented with color in the editing process, tested and learned different focal length lenses, and focused more on capturing the "feeling" of a place rather than a physical subject. Each of these things I am still getting the hang of, but looking at these photos, I hold them proudly in my portfolio. Overall, there was growth. I mean, how could there not be? I made myself photograph every single day for an entire year; there was bound to be some growth. I got my reps in. But just like physical exercise, if you overexert a muscle, it can become exhausted and just doesn't want to work the same until it gets rest, and that is the one thing I did not give my photographic eye this year.

Another good thing is the stuff that happened outside of the camera and the photo. Doing this daily project, it meant I had to go out and look for things to take photos of. That means going to more interesting spots, actively pursuing new experiences, meeting and photographing strangers (who sometimes became friends). It meant putting myself outside my comfort zone, and when I felt myself getting comfortable with these new boundaries, it meant finding the courage to step outside those boundaries once again. This project, and my camera, gave me an excuse to live my life, and I can comfortably say I did that. I met tons of new people, tried a bunch of new things (food and experiences), and even went on my first vacation out of state with Becca to Colorado (I will most likely make an EXTREMELY late blog on that sometime soon). Overall, I grew as a damn person, and I felt like I took control of my life a little bit more this year. That is a win in my book.

There were a lot of good things with me and photography this year, but as I mentioned above, I didn't respect it when it needed rest. Because of that, I invited the next section of this blog.

Bad things: AKA Burnout

As I was looking at the photos from the last year, I noticed something else. I noticed a gradual decline. The beginning of the year was exciting, creativity was FLOWING. And it stayed flowing for a long time. I was making consistent work, following my gut, making work I was proud of. It wasn't until August that I noticed a decline. My guess is I just got busier around this time. The daily project started to become something I HAD to do rather than something I WANTED to do. That was the shift. I was still consistent during this time, still posting every day, but the subtle shift was there. This decline continued throughout the year. The work started to become uninspired, I would forget about getting the photo until I got home late at night, and I just wasn't having fun with it anymore. Now granted, I still had some bangers in the mix, and I still had work I was proud of. There would be an event, or something exciting that would excite the muse where creativity was effortless, but after that, in my day-to-day, it was like pulling teeth. I would boil all of this down to one statement:

In 2025, I focused more on hunting and looking for the photos rather than listening and feeling for them.

This is important because, yes, I put myself in situations that caused me to handle the technical skills of photography, and I would get my reps in and get shots, but over time, I would be "deaf" or "blind" to the real photographs that should've been captured. I was so focused on the actual process of taking a photo with a camera that I didn't look past the viewfinder to actually see what I was photographing. To actually feel the moment I wanted to capture. It was here that I realized that my photographs lost their feeling. This is a real eye-opener to me because now I feel like I am getting past the technical side of photography and moving more towards the meaningful side of the art. This is where I start to learn how to create photographs that freaking make you feel something when you look at them.

Moving on

2025 has shown me a lot. I have seen growth in my photos and my personal life, and that alone is enough to keep going. I have also seen where I have been misplacing my attention, resources, and time. This last year,I have focused so much on the DOING, the action of things, and yes, that is so incredibly important, it also harmed my creativity and caused me to burnout which led to creative blindness. Seeing all of this, the growth and the burnout, I think I know what I want to focus on this next year: Patience.

Now, if you know me, you know that I am probably one of the most impatient people out there. I am a "get sh*t done" kinda guy. But what I have learned this year is that sometimes I go into this survival mode to get things done. When I get to that point, I have a real hard time taking a moment to appreciate the things around me and to really stop and assess to see if I am making my best work and being the best person I can be. Now, this doesn't mean I am going to be working at a snail's pace. Patience to me doesn't mean slow or inaction. To me, Patience means acting with intention, listening (to people and the world) before action. It means pausing to appreciate a moment before capturing it. So I will continue to work with passion as I have before, but I will be more intent with my creative spirit, and with my life in general.

Patience is my goal this year because what the hell is this all for if I don't appreciate it while it's happening?

So this year, I am stopping the daily project. There is no need to force myself to take photos and post them when it is just hurting me creatively. I am also taking a small break from projects in general to allow that creativity to heal a little bit. Now, I am still doing paid work and also carrying my camera with me every day, and if I feel called to take a shot, then I take it. That is the point, I am working more on listening for the call, and right now it is a whisper when it used to be a friend.

That is my goal for the year, and if everything plays out like I think it will, then my work will become more powerful and intentional across the board, but more importantly, I will feel like I am creating again rather than just pressing a button on a camera.

Thank you for reading this, and feel free to take a look at some of my favorites from last year.