I was walking through a bookstore yesterday with the kids when I noticed one of my most favourite things about the new year; magazines with the words “year in review” scrolled across the top!  Ugh, every January, I have to stop myself from spending eighty dollars on everything from the best photographs of the year to the best dressed of the year to the top recipes of the year.  When it comes to magazines, I’m definitely a recreational user…but when I do give in, I tend to overdose!

There’s just something so appealing about being beautifully reminded of everything that time tries so hard to make you forget.  Good or bad, I like remembering that it was once there.  In the world.  On the red carpet.  Going viral on the internet.  I genuinely think it’s important to reflect.  We strive so vehemently to become better people…to reach greatness…but we’re so often faced with the miles left to go.  So it becomes essential to remember where you’ve been…where the road has already taken you…the adventure that’s already been traveled.

I’ve mentioned this before and I’ll mention it again…I have the best readers ever.  EVER.  You come back here time and time again to be a part of my life…my art…my stories.  And I am eternally grateful for it.  And you participate in the conversation in a remarkably engaging way.  I’m often finding myself flooded with emails about a particular shoot that you loved or a piece of writing that you want to know more about.  Or sometimes, it’s just to send an encouraging word…share a story of your own…or to remind me that you’re there, watching from a distance.  And it’s humbling.  In more ways that I would even know how to express.

This blog has had an exceptional year.  We’ve had more visitors than ever before.  It has brought some of the most amazing people into my life {one of whom just photographed Lady Gaga last night!!!}.  And most recently, I’ve been approached about potentially turning my little corner of cyberspace into a book {insanity!}.  Regardless of what ultimately happens…I could survive an entire year off that compliment alone!!

In the end though, I’ve had an exceptional year because you’ve made it an exceptional year.  Art – while it can be created in solitude – can’t be received in solitude.  So before we head off into another amazing year, full of possibility and potential…here’s what you, my dear readers, loved most about two thousand and twelve…

5. Keri & Greg: Wedding
It was my first wedding of the season and perhaps the best way to start off the year!  Keri and Greg were a fairly last minute addition to the roster and with nearly a year having gone by since our first coffee date, they have become one of my favourite couples!  I shot their wedding on a wonderfully warm May day…in a beautifully rustic field filled with vintage cars and the most black flies that I’ve ever seen in my life!  It was wedding kick-off bliss!

4. Kate: Portraits
Kate.  My sweet, sweet Kate.  We met up on a dirt road in South Western Ontario to do her portrait session and instead, I found myself flooded with the agony of too much pain…too much turmoil…too many demons battling it out in my head.  I fell apart that evening.  I broke into a thousand little pieces without the slightest idea of how to put them all back together again.  I was hurting…I was afraid…I was a mere fragment of the person I once was.  But God is good…God is faithful…and God gave me exactly what I needed at that very moment.  He gave me Kate.  He gave me one of the most beautiful human beings that I’ve ever met.  And He gave me enough strength to wipe the tears away and capture some of my favourite images of the year. 

3. Lisa & Mike: Engagement
Ah, yes…Lisa and Mike!  The two breathtakingly gorgeous faces that you couldn’t help but adore.   And I was certainly no exception!  Perhaps it was the perfect summer night…perhaps it was the intoxicating light…or perhaps it was their eyes.  Oh, those eyes!  Whatever it was, it makes you want to get all dressed up…go on a first date…and fall in love all over again!  Even if it’s with the very same person you’ve loved all along…

2. Stephanie & David: Engagement
They say that to truly create magic, you have to work just outside of your comfort zone…to push your art just beyond the place that makes your heart beat a little faster.  A couple of days before Avery was born, an amazing couple approached me with the idea of integrating a 1920s silent movie into the images of their engagement.  Essentially, they were asking me to push beyond my comfort zone and create something completely different!  So that’s what we did.  And not only did we create an amazing story to tell, but we created the ideal relationship surrounding a camera; me, having to fully trust their vision and them, having to fully trust my ability to bring it to life.  The result was just as promised…pure magic!

1. Lindsay & Brad: Wedding
When searching through blog stats…some things come as a surprise.  Other things…not so much!  Lindsay and Brad fall into the latter!  Last year, their engagement made the top five posts of the year, along with making an appearance on several wedding blogs.  This year, their incredible day graced the pages of Wedding Bells Magazine as one of their featured weddings.  Between the beautiful DYI decor to the amazing backdrop set along the St. Lawrence River…it was a hard affair to resist!  But at the end of the day, it was all them!  All Lindsay and all Brad.  Two people so unbelievably in love that it makes the rest of us fall in love with them too!  Lindsay and Brad, welcome to the number one spot!

And then there’s you…my beloved readers!  Thank you for making the past year one to remember!  I can’t wait to have you join me on the upcoming ride!

Much love,
Gen xoxo