Best of 2024 | Year in Review | Colorado Wedding Photographer

featured, Personal

December 29, 2024

This is my 7th “Year in Review” blog! It’s always fun to write these, and even more fun to look through all my favorite photos from the year. Here are some highlights and stats from 2024:

This was my third year as a full-time photographer in Colorado!
I photographed 75+ projects in 2024, including weddings, elopements, engagement sessions, and commercial shoots.
My commercial clients included Stio, Pela Case, Sanitas Brewing, Quarter’s Bar + Arcade, Airalo, and Uber Eats.
I got to do a tourism marketing shoot for Visit Longmont! I love tourism photography and I live in Longmont, so working to promote tourism in my town was super exciting and fun.
I had some BIG travel weddings this year. I traveled to Hawaii, Wyoming, Georgia, Texas, and ITALY!
After photographing the wedding in Italy, I stayed for 2 more weeks and did a 5-day solo hut-to-hut trek in the Dolomites. I also visited Venice, Sardinia, and Florence on that trip.
I saw The Eras Tour twice – Paris N1 and Vancouver N3!

2024 was a good year overall and a great year for my business. I’ll get more into some personal updates below, but this year was the biggest year for my business that I’ve ever had. I traveled a lot this year to some dream locations.

Thoughts on Travel This Year

A few years ago, I saw a post from a photographer that I admired talking about how she was flying to London to photograph a wedding, and she said something along the lines of – “How did I become a person that couples will fly across the world to photograph their wedding.” I remember seeing that post and being kinda in awe. How do you become a photographer that couples will fly across the world so that you can document their wedding? It seemed like a wild, unattainable concept at the time.

Well, now that’s me. This year couples flew me to Hawaii, Georgia, Texas, and Italy. How did I become the photographer and person that couples choose to fly across the country or the world? That’s rhetorical. I know how I did that and I worked really hard. But it’s still incredible to me and I’m so grateful.

Though I do want to add this too – while traveling to weddings is amazing, the location is not the most important thing to me. When I think about my favorite weddings or elopements, they’re not my favorite because of the location. They’re my favorite because of the people.

Personal Updates and Thoughts

Here’s another change from this year – I got a part-time, in-person job! I now work in marketing at the Dairy Arts Center, a nonprofit arts organization in Boulder. Why? It’s not because I needed the money or needed something to do.

I’ve been on a bit of a mission this year to feel more connected to life in Colorado. Living in Colorado has been really great in some ways, and really hard in a lot of other ways (go back and read my last two yearly recaps if you want more context.) I had a really hard end to 2023, and 2024 felt weird in a lot of ways. I found myself feeling really unstable, unsettled, unconnected, and kinda unhappy. So I made it a bit of a mission to change a few areas of my life. I accepted the job at the Dairy to diversify my professional work, have coworkers again, and feel more connected to Boulder. I also took up swing dancing, which has been really fulfilling!

Some other fun personal things this year:

I went to Spain with my family.
Saw the Eras Tour twice! Once in Paris N1 and once for the closing show of the entire tour in Vancouver N3.
I spent 2.5 weeks traveling solo in Italy and celebrated my birthday in Sardinia.
Finally climbed Longs Peak, a Colorado goal of mine.
My parents visited me, and we went to Aspen for peak fall colors – another Colorado bucket list item
Went to Crested Butte for the wildflower festival, which was amazing.
Saw the sandhill crane migration in southern Colorado!
My parents happen to live in the path of totality for the 2024 total eclipse, so I went to their house in Dayton, Ohio to see the eclipse.

Reflecting on Goals from 2024

Here’s a look back at the goals I set for 2024 and how I did in working towards them:

Uplevel specific points in my client experience: Yes! I created branded templates for some key contact points, updated my guides, and improved some parts of my client experience.
Test working with team members: I did this too! I tried having an associate team member this year. She had been second shooting for me for a couple of years, and in 2024 she associate shot multiple weddings and elopements for me. A huge thank you to Alle LaCoste for associate shooting and second shooting with me in 2024!
Invest in new gear: Heck yeah! I bought some new gear this year that really streamlined my shooting. For several years, I had been shooting with two different camera bodies from two different brands. I had no great reason for this and in 2024 I finally switched to using two of the same bodies from the same brand – Sony. I don’t know why it took me so long because it has made a massive difference!
Continue to make industry friends: I did this, but I still feel like I can do a better job! But I do feel generally more connected to other wedding industry pros, and not just photographers! I made connections with venue managers, florists, DJs, and planners this year!
Travel well: Absolutely!

Goals for 2025

Mentoring?: I’m not sure about this one, but it’s been something on my mind for a long time. I had a lot of newer photographers reach out to me this year asking to second shoot, assist, ask me questions, work with me, etc. I want to help everyone who reaches out, but I just don’t have the capacity or the systems set up to do so. This year I want to think about how I can help newer photographers in a way that works for me and is beneficial to them.
Share more work: I didn’t do a great job sharing work this year. I have so many photos that I love that I just never shared. So I want to share more this year, whether that means on social media or on my website.
Industry friends: Ok this is always on my goal list because I’m never done with this one!
Pivot a little bit for the types of weddings?: I’m not sure about this one either, but I’ve been thinking about it. TBD! Check back next year. 😉
Keep trying new things, meeting people, and building community: I really tried to do this in the second half of 2024, and it was really rewarding and fulfilling. So cheers to trying new things and meeting new people!

Thank You to My Second Shooters!

I want to end by saying a huge thank you to my second shooters this year – Alle May, Alex Segall, Katsposure, and Rachel! Thank you all for helping to make my couples’ days the best they could be, and for capturing more moments than I could do alone. You all are the best and I appreciate you all!