Well, it’s that time of year. Time to look back on the work I’ve done and choose my favorites for the “Year in Review” posts.
I’m starting with portraits, mainly because I don’t shoot a ton of portraits, so the selection was easier to look through.
Rather than ranking the top 10 (it’s so hard to make those decisions!), I’ve put some of my favorites in to 10 categories. Here goes…
Category 1: Musicians
These are two of my favorite musician portraits from 2012. The first is Tameca Jones at Continental Club Gallery, which was shot for the Austin American-Statesman. The second is Robert Ellis (left) and his wife, Destiny, in their San Marcos home, shot for the Houston Chronicle. (Click on the names to view more photos and read about lighting and gear.)
Category #2: Family
This is the family of author Tim O’Brien, taken in the kitchen of their south Austin home. They were a great family to photograph. They just made it easy for me to get beautiful pictures. Click here to see more from that shoot.
Category #3: Food
These are my two favorite portraits of chefs from this year. Oddly enough, they’re from the same story about food trailers in San Marcos. (Click here to read the original post.)
The first shot is of India Moore, co-owner of Love Baked Cupcakes, and the second is Wendy Wan, owner of Wanderlust food trailer. I don’t know if it’s the photos or the memories of the tastes and smells that make me partial to these photos.
Category #4: Business
Come on, how many times do you get to photograph a guy with a chicken for a business story? Not that often. This is Vital Farms owner Jason Jones with a chicken next to a Mobile Chicken Unit (MCU) in south Austin. So much better than the usual business portrait atmosphere!
Category #5: News
After Bianca Derka, 12, cycled 2,222 miles across America with her dad, I got to take her picture. She’s a remarkable kid with many great stories to tell! Here she is in her Buda back yard with her bike. (Click here to read original post.)
Category #6: Friends
Most of my friends (who aren’t photographers) don’t usually see me with a camera in my hand. It’s a rare occasion when I do a full-fledged portrait shoot of a close friend, but when one of them graduates from college, I make an exception. This is the gorgeous Cassandra Buckingham, photographed in a San Marcos park.
Category #7: Silly
A family gathering in Abilene on a holiday weekend resulted in the invention of a new sport and it’s inevitable hero. Larry Fick, who’s title of Second Most Interesting Man in the World was given to him after losing to Jonathan Goldsmith, is the founder and undisputed champion of Action Bocce. (Click here to read the original post – it’ll all make more sense.)
Category #8: Sportraits
I’ve covered more sports action this year than sportraits, but here are two of my better shots. The first was taken just last week. Manor high school football players Denzel Hutchinson, left, and Rodney Molette, right, whose fathers have both recently returned from U.S. Army deployments overseas, posed for me outside the MHS weight room. The second is Wimberley High School’s Brenna Lyles, 16, left, and Sophie Bethke, 16, right, at the WHS gym.
Category #9: Cars
This is one of those perplexing images that I keep coming back to for some reason. This is actually the only car shoot I’ve had this year, but, as I said, it stands out in my mind for some reason. It was for a car review for the Statesman by Pam LeBlanc (pictured), and we shot it in the parking lot of a shopping mall that overlooked down town Austin.
Category #10: Stay right there, the light is perfect
This is my husband, Nick Landis. Sometimes photographers really do actually do that thing where they say, “Don’t move! The light is perfect!” and then run to get their camera. One afternoon we were at home and Nick was sitting in a dark brown lounge chair next to a window with the perfect amount of light streaming in. I’m pretty sure he thought I was crazy (what’s new?) for making him pose for a portrait before he had even taken his morning shower. The result is one of my favorite photos of him.
Alright, that’s 10 categories, and a lot of photos for me to look through. I hope you enjoyed the portraits. Next up will be sports or news, I haven’t decided yet.