Exploring | Vancouver, BC

This trip in a nutshell: an all-around great time with some of the best people I know. We drank a lot of coffee (mostly at Revolver), ate a lot of amazing food (those wings at Phnom Penh!!!!!), wandered around Gastown a lot, hung out in a forest in the pouring rain, soaked in some warm sunset rays on the beach, experienced the most amazing sunrise I have ever seen, and then drove home while having the most epic 12-hour car karaoke session. I can't wait for the next trip.

All photos shot with the Fujifilm X100T.

Michael Bernard Fitzgerald | SingItFwd, Vancouver BC

I had the pleasure of dipping in and out of Vancouver last week with Michael Bernard Fitzgerald for #singitfwd, a two-night benefit concert to raise funds for the Saint James Music Academy. Between the insane amounts of sushi and hot sake we consumed, the 1AM karaoke, hanging out at The Peak, and watching Michael kill it once again on stage, this trip was a blast and I'm so glad I was brought along to document all of it.

2012

Before this year I didn't really act much on what I really wanted to do. I would just imagine what my life would be like if I were a photographer. I would take photography seriously but not serious enough. It was always "what if?" and "maybe not". It was just a hope, always in the distance. I was studying something I really, really did not want to do and even though I tried to grind my way through it, there was no way I could lie to myself and think that I was actually happy in the field I was in. I was miserable. It was not what I wanted to do. It finally got so bad that I snapped and suddenly this wasn't a dream, suddenly this was the only thing I wanted to do and it weighed so heavily in my heart that suddenly all my fears were nothing. Yes, I'll switch majors. Yes I will practice and get good at this and the maybe's started becoming definitely's. One night at two in the morning I made a website. I bought a new camera. I spent a whole summer saving up for the only thing I've really wanted to do since I was sixteen.

Looking back on the year, 2012 was pretty big for me. I put myself out there and really tried, and I'm pretty sure it's working. I've never been happier, really; I've met so many great people who have helped me out a ton, both in giving me advice and encouragement and in pushing my limits in what I can do. I've started taking pictures that I am actually proud of. I've got a whole bunch of people I love and who are so supportive sometimes I just lie in bed at night and think about what a lucky person I am. 2012 was very good to me and I'm really excited to keep moving forward and seeing where I end up a year, two years, ten years from now.

I'm just really excited about life in general, and before this year, I don't think I could have really honestly said that.

Vancouver/Victoria

Took a little trip to say goodbye and hello to family members. Saw some nice things along the way.