my favorite photos from 2012

After spending almost eight hours over the past two days, I am excited to finally post this.  Most of these are my photos.  A few of them are not.  But each one is attached to me in one way or another.  They are memories in pixels and colors that I will never forget.  There is the family reunion photo, still with fifteen people missing.  There is summer, with tomatoes and barefeet and the lake.  There is the week in July - the one I will never forget - that went from nervous excitement to laughter, growth, and lasting friendships.  And there are the days before Christmas (which by the way, went by way too fast), when we celebrated traditions, ate way too much sugar, and burned all the firewood.

I will be sharing my thoughts on the past year and my goals for 2013 in a later post, but for now, I will share these photos.  As I went through each folder on my computer, it became clear that 2012 was a year of growth in my photography.  It was the year I started my business and changed my focus.  Photos of leaves and flowers became photos of the little things - faces that smile, the way the kitchen looks at night, the birthday dress, the moments of everyday life.  Those things became more important, and so did the desire to capture them with my camera.  My heart resonates with simple life, with traditions and family as the focus, but I didn't know it until this year.  It was a good year for photography, but I have the feeling that 2013 will be even better.  Enjoy!

the two photos above were stolen from hannah nicole  :)