2019 Review

My favorite images of the year

This is the first time I’m doing one of these end of the year posts. I always found them a little cliche until I decided to do one. Turns out it forced me to look back at what I’ve done, who I photographed and how my work changed in the past year.

2019 turned out to be pretty busy. I photographed 49 weddings and pre weddings. Some people I photographed twice, some people’s weddings I photographed twice :) I’ve had 8 overseas couples coming to Perth for holiday and a bit of pre wedding fun. I tried counting photos I’ve taken but it proved hard. My Lightroom catalogue for 2019 holds nearly 100 000 photos but most of it has already been culled before it landed on my drives. The true number of photos taken last year is probably around 300 000 which means on average I’ve taken around 800 images per day, every day. That number involves couples only - 2019 is a year when I decided to concentrate purely on weddings and pre weddings. The decision behind it was simple. I wanted to become really, really good in my field and I wanted my images to go deep.

I traveled a bit for work again. 2018 took me to Canada and Italy to photograph weddings, in 2019 I spent a week in Ireland.

Last year I also filled my red notebook of wedding ideas and prompts to the brim. I still carry it with me to every wedding in case my brain blanks suddenly. It took me 3 years to do it and it’s my secret weapon when it comes to creating natural wedding photos filled with fun and genuine interactions

The next thing was a bit of a surprise and a big personal validation for me. A couple of giants of the wedding industry, giants in the world wide sense, had some very nice things to say about my images. For someone who lives mainly under a rock and just recently started to enter competitions - it means a great deal…

2019 also confirmed what I suspected for a while, I’m a wide angle type of a photographer. Over the last few years I noticed a growing number of images taken with 50 mm at first, then 35mm. In the last couple of months 24 mm has become one of my favorite lens. In terms of visuals it means I’m drawn more and more to storytelling. In terms of interaction with people I photograph, well, I like it :) And only wide angle allows me to stay close to capture unexpected and keep my muses engaged.

I’ve met ton of amazing people: fellow photographers, wedding vendors, wedding coordinators, venue owners but most importantly, clients. We managed to create together some killer photos and I’m proud of every single wedding, pre wedding and an engagement session I photographed.

Finally, I realized my work is driven by creative portraiture, storytelling, pure, candid images and colours. For a guy who loves a solid, moody black and white the last one was a revelation.

Check for yourself. In no particular order, my favorite photos from last year.