#2015review

January

Got a promotion. I'm not very good at my new role. Hopefully "yet", but we shall see.

Discovered Barrel-Aged Old Rasputin, and spent way too much money on beer.

As cool as the other side of the pillow -- Stuart Scott

February

Snow! So cold. For so long. NASA released a photo showing the top half of the US covered in ice and snow. Like Canada had extended down to Tennessee.

Saw the film, Boyhood. There's probably never been a movie as explicitly aimed at my tiny demographic. Divorced parents trying and trying to make life work for their weird kid, step siblings, sections of families as foreign to one another as possible and that weird kid just trying to have a "self". I realize the flick isn't for everyone (a coworker said it was pretty much only for 35-45 year old white males), but man did it worm its way deep into my brain for a while.

My great-aunt Ruth passed away at 99 years old. She was kind and compassionate and is sorely missed by a horde of nieces and nephews.

Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end. -- Leonard Nimoy

March

The world is still covered in Ice, I've run out of taun-tauns in which to nap and recuperate.

Michelle and I go see Rear Window at a normal movie theater. Fathom Events continues to do very interesting things, you should check out their calendar periodically.

A coworker throws a surprise birthday party for his wife, full blown prom theme. Way better than my actual prom, and I was in bed by midnight.

2090 called. You're dead, and you wasted your time on Earth. -- Kimmy Schmidt

April

Michelle and I run away from the Louisville area for Thunder and take a trip to Vincennes, Indiana. The casual racism toward natives is cringe-worthy, but the country really could use another round of public works projects to just build monuments and public places.

Daredevil on Netflix is roughly 100 times better than I expected.

To clear up some intestinal badness I have to feed my dog a probiotic paste for a week. Whatever you're visualizing right now, it was worse.

We take a couple of goofy kids to see a fun little high school production of Seussical.

If the sky that we look upon should tumble and fall

Or the mountain should crumble to the sea

I won't cry, I won't cry, no, I won't shed a tear

Just as long as you stand, stand by me

-- Ben E King

May

David Letterman ends his Late Show. There were many thinkpieces and tributes. Also in May, the new host of The Late Show, Stephen Colbert, funded every single teacher in South Carolina's project on DonorsChoose.org. Sometimes always joking around does pay. Mom.

Michelle and I went to see Nick Offerman and Megan Mullaly at The Palace. Hung around back stage long enough to get them both to sign a piece from Nick Offerman's woodshop. Mr. Offerman signed, "To Mirth" and his wife signed, "To Love". I'd say I wish this celebrity couple got more attention, but I bet they're pretty happy the way they are.

I finally went to an Abbey Road on the River (twice actually, on consecutive days). Heard a lot of people playing music in a lot of different flavors, to varying degrees of success.

The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you -- BB King

June

Surely the worst month for small minded bigots in my lifetime. Gay people can legally get married across the entire nation. All across southern states Confederate flags, historic symbols of high treason and chattel slavery, are finally removed from some public buildings and no longer sold by some retailers.

A trip to San Jose for a nerd conference. The west coast has its charms. That's for sure. No excursion to San Francisco this time, but we did win a trivia contest.

The Science Center starts showing all the Harry Potter movies on their IMAX screen. Michelle and I decide we'll see them all, as they end about a week before our trip to Orlando.

Take her to the moon for me, okay? -- Bing Bong

July

Visit my company's Chicago office. While there, the dog's a jerk and to apologize I buy Michelle some super fancy chocolate truffles from a shop in The French Market. That place was cool.

Some dentist murders a lion on a trophy hunt. The righteous indignation of thousands, or millions of social media warriors reverberates for almost a whole week.

When asked how we're supposed to dress while a big group of students visits our workplace, my boss says, "Dress like an engineer." So I bought a train conductor hat and wore overalls.

The dream team of Chuck, Amber and Doug finally loses a local historical trivia photo scavenger hunt.

Michelle and I again got to make it to each of the 3 main productions of Shakespeare in the Park. The Tempest, Taming of the Shrew and Macbeth this year.

Working gets in the way of living. -- Omar Shariff

August

More IMAX Harry Potters

For the first time since High School, I think, I visited the KY State Fair. The thing that sticks out the most in my memory was the photography. The ubiquity of camera phones means kids have taken a LOT more photographs than they used to. The average skill is way up there.

Hackers leak databases and emails from Ashley Madison. Analysis shows that dudes are way more willing to talk to a program pretending to be a woman than anyone guessed. I would like to reiterate to you, nothing you do on the internet is ever 'safe' or actually private. It goes through too many hands, gets stored in too many databases and gets plumbed for too many 'data driven' campaigns where each exchange is a potential target for a hack, a malicious individual or just a careless administrator. The Ashley Madison data is easy snicker at, but it's happening EVERYWHERE.

I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude.

I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and traveled and thought and written.

-- Oliver Sacks

September

I'm sure other things happened in September, but really, this is all about vacation!

My adorkable wife got addicted to "Disneybounding" before we left, and dressed in a character theme each day we were in a park; Dr. Seuss, Hogwarts Student, Marge Simpson, Cruella de Vil, Evil Queen (from Snow White), Hades (from Hercules), Maleficent, Queen of Hearts, Yzma (from Emperor's New Groove)

Royal Pacific at Universal Orlando was a pretty awesome hotel. The Yacht Club at Disney was not.

Seuss Landing was supremely cool. Michelle being a total Seuss nerd made me spend hours in here, taking pictures of all the little genius theming bits.

Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley are both superb. Both a little small, but I bet that gets addressed.

They do a marionette show from different Tales of Beedle Bard (the Three Brother cartoon bit in the last Harry Potter) that was tremendously entertaining.

Most of Universal's rides seem the same to me. You're in a "car", you go through some stuff with some screens telling a 'story', you get thrown around, there's an environmental effect or two, you get out.

Disney's Halloween party should have been more fun than it was. The fact that in in Florida they don't do the biggest crowd draws indoors seems kind of dumb. You know you're going to get rained out at least 30% of the time.

Goofy photos on rides are a new favorite thing to do.

We still had a good time, but we were gone a bit too long, it was a bit too hot, a bit too crowded.

I never said most of the things I said. -- Yogi Berra

October

There's an Iron Giant Special Edition, in theatres! I go twice. The blu-ray will come out later in 2016, and I'll buy that too. "You decide."

For our 7th anniversary Michelle and I take a road trip to Madison, IN. We drink at microbrews, we wander around a quaint downtown that stopped trying to be competitive around the time of the railroad barons. I highly recommend it for a day trip.

We have a houseguest for about a week. A repeat visit from the first houseguest we ever had in this domicile. Uwe brings us half a german candy store as a host gift. Including my first ever advent calendar. You know how many metric days there are between December 1st and Christmas?

Paul Ryan accepts the Speaker of the House position. Far too many left-leaning people seem to think that since he negotiated for family leave he's a hypocrite. He isn't against the idea of family leave, he's against the government mandating it. In his world employees get to negotiate with employers, and everyone wins. It might not be the real world that most of us live in, but it's not hypocrisy.

You don't need a silver fork to eat good food. - Paul Prudhomme

November

My aunt Peggy died. This death hits me much harder than the veritable litany of them I've dealt with the last few years. I adored Peggy. We saw the world very differently, and still liked each other.

Kentucky elects Matt Bevin. I suddenly don't care nearly as much about moving back from Indiana.

Took my first trip in 10+ years to Churchill Downs with Michelle's company. I don't understand the themepark-ification, but I've always had a weird perspective on that place. And they gots bills to pay.

A coworker and I take a day trip to Indianapolis for a one day Edward Tufte seminar. If you're at all a design/data nerd, you know how cool that is. If you aren't, the "highlight" is the semi backing in to me while we were stuck in traffic just before the Kennedy bridge. Only cosmetic damage, to my car and the pants I wet as a gigantic eighteen wheeled vehicle began to crunch my li'l Honda.

My car hits 111,111 miles on the odometer during our Thanksgiving Day trip out to Flatwoods, KY.

If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself. -- Tecumseh (maybe)

December

My dad and I pay a visit to my great grandmother. Her hearing is failing her, but she's still sharp and funny and just a super nice lady. Have I ever mentioned how much I won the familial lottery in some really odd ways?

Some nerdy sci-fi movie finally comes out.

The Christmas season takes a while to get rolling, but in the end it's just a lovely time of year. The efforts to discover new music and movies, the gifts given and received, the time spent reminiscing and planning, the chance afterwards to catch your breath. I know a lot of people don't enjoy Christmas, for myriad reasons, and I don't begrudge them that. However, I enjoy it, and hope that the past year was a success, and the next one is even better.

You smell like beef & cheese. You don't smell like Santa -- Buddy the Elf

Recommendations

I don't recommend things lightly. I know my tastes are peculiar, I know I dabble in a lot of different realms, and very few of y'all enjoy half of what I do. When I make a blanket recommendation, you can rest assured that I believe its quality transcends arbitrary compartmentalization. (who talks like that?)

Engineer Guy videos on youtube

Pumpkin Juice at Wizarding World

Hamilton Cast Album (all the streaming places, and Youtubes)

Sa lahat ng taon para sa akin 2015 siguro isa sa mga memorable na taon kahit pa parang ang bilis lang dumaan. Nadagdagan ang mga nagustuhan ko Jadine and Heneral Luna. Mas lalo pa akong naging close sa mga kaklase ko ngayon considering last sem na namin tong magkakasama. Nagkakausap na rin kami ng taong nagustuhan ko ng buong college life ko. :) Nag sisimula ko na makilala ang sarili ko kung ano talaga ang gusto ko at kung pano ko dapat harapin ang hamon ng buhay. 

Sa mga pinakamatalik kong kaibigan na hindi ako iniwanan kahit madaming problema ang dumating kahit di masyadong madalas nagkakausap. Mahal na mahal ko po kayo. Labyu Mamon Family :* @soshi08 @exoticvipsmj @iamhottestangelmelody 

sa HL fandom alam ko isa lang akong silent fan na nag rereblog and nag lilike ng posts niyo sa twitter. Gusto ko kayo makausap kaso nahihiya lang talaga ako. Parang and saya maging part ng fandom na to. Masaya at simple lang tapos naencourage ulit akong mag aral tungkol sa history ng bansa. ^_^ Balik grade school lang ang peg kasi paborito ko talaga history noon. :D

Sana sa darating na taon ay maging mas masaya pa at mas maging productive ang taon ko. Sana maka graduate ako ng walang problema hahaha. ^^ Hello 2016!~

It is summertime again, vacation time. You go to your uncle's house. He takes you on a tour around the city. There are many old buildings, but the oldest of all is on Main Street. The address is 880. He says that it is haunted, but you don't believe him.

Choice: Do you go inside? Or: Do you stay there?

The paperback series “Choose Your Own Adventure” published throughout my childhood, really nailed it. The story provided the reader the option to make decisions throughout the book, in turn directly defining the ending on their own. It had multiple conclusions and multiple paths. Each choice results in another decision that formulates your adventure. I think life can be most compared to “Choose Your Own Adventure,” it’s made up of thousands of small decisions that build to larger decisions that really outline your entire childhood and adulthood.

Reflecting on the past 12 months, I made a lot of decisions; some educated, some risks and a lot of failure. The good decisions were sometimes overshadowed by the poor decisions. Each choice shaped the circumstances of my way of living, both professionally and personally. It was a year that really challenged me, a year that really changed me and a year that really defined who I am and hope to be.

It started out on high; my photography was really starting to evolve, I had just been published in several major national publications and plans were in place. I was busy, very busy, but I never chose a life any different. Personally, I was dating a beautiful woman who had common interests and I really thought to be the one. Similar to any relationship, we had had our low points, but we shared a strong bond. Having been divorced from a short-lived marriage in a “previous life,” I felt as if I had finally met someone who I could really share my life with. But, I made a choice. It wasn’t a bad choice or something malicious, it was unconscious. A choice built into my being; career first.

And, life handed me a serious case of heartbreak. The worst kind of heartbreak. Passionate heartbreak. The kind of heartbreak that didn’t fizzle or fade, a pain that burned stronger the more time that passed. My friends told me to “consume your life with work” and “stay busy.” But, that was already my daily life ingrained. So, I used photography to explore the thresholds of emotion. I used it as an outlet, similar to what I did during my days in music; I bottled emotion and exploded on the stage or on tape. Looking back, it was the worst kind of heartbreak, but also the best kind of heartbreak. It was life-changing.

I felt guilty over the failed relationship in some ways, but in others I felt inspired. Once the initial onslaught of 21-year-old non-stop-party lifestyle ceased, I finally decided to take on the momentous task of reaching out to my old-friend Sol Perry, a nutritionist and trainer who had successful lost over 100 pounds himself. It wasn’t easy finally coming to the realization of how poor I had treated my body over the past 5 years. We set goals, shifted my lifestyle and started on a path of work-life-balance and wellness.

Once the door was closed and I was truly alone, suddenly I was handed opportunities I could have never imagined. It felt like a snowball, one success after another. One opportunity after another. I'm not sure any mystical genie or crystal ball could have predicted the maturity and adventure of the past 365 days. Let’s review…

I photographed Kay Gaines for First For Women Magazine, a magazine with a circulation of over 1.2 million reaching nearly 4 million consumers.

I created the “Clay Cook | Community” which currently has nearly 1500 amazing photographers. It was recently stamped the “Blog Of The Month” by Digital SLR Photography Magazine.

I photographed Kate Finster; a record-breaking, national champion figure skater; who will be going for the gold in the 2018 Winter Olympics.

I had an image published on the Thomson Reuters Time Square Billboard.

I photographed Albert Blaise Cattafi, who has danced for Cirque Du Soleil and Florence And The Machine as well as choreographed Broadway shows such as Spider-Man and Flash Dance.

I produced an article for Digital Photo Magazine on lighting with one strobe and using ambient light to create a well-balanced image.

I was interviewed by Digital SLR Photographgy Magazine and featured across a 6-page article for thier April issue. The publication is distibuted world-wide.

My imagery was featured on photography blogs such as Fstoppers, PetaPixel, SLR Lounge, 500px and Resource Magazine.

Along with Nadus Films, I traveled to Tanzania, Africa to photograph Chris Long of the St. Louis Rams and the Goodwill Ambassador of Tanzania, Doug Pitt (Brad Pitt's Brother) for their non-profit Waterboys Initiative. Our story was featured as a top article on ESPN and the documentary piece produced by the NFL and narrated by Matthew McConaughey made its debut on the NFL Network.

I stepped in front of the camera for a 16-page feature in The Voice Of Louisville on our travels to Africa for the Waterboys Initiative.

I collaborated with 20 photographers, artists and stylists for "Project Metanoia" which earned over $3,000 for the charity Fund For The Arts.

I ran a series of workshops all across the United States and educated over 150 photographers.

I mentored 6 incredible photographers through my internship program.

In partnership with Phase One, I've was named as a "Capture One Ambassador”

In partnership with Profoto, I was named as a “Profoto Ambassador” and featured in a 4-page advertisement, which was published in Rangefinder Magazine.

Along with Nadus Films, I traveled to New Dehli, India to photograph Dr. Ananthi Jebasingh, she is considered the modern day Mother Theresa of India. We also trekked through Agra, Rajasthan and Darjeeling.

I photographed a 20-page fashion editorial in the heart of Havana, Cuba for The Voice Of Louisville and Blue Equity. The first of its kind.

The image "Hold Tight" from my assignment in Tanzania, Africa was selected as an Editor's Choice for National Geographic, resulting in being one of the top photographs of the year.

I hosted over 10 Live Editing seminars and have done several podcasts for brands such as Seamless Photo, TogTools, Business Of Creatives, The Angry Millennial, ConnectingThings, Tether Tools and X-Rite.

I became utterly addicted to Green Tea.

I lost 75 pounds.

There is a lot of “I and I” in that bullet-point review, but I can’t take all the glory. Every project requires a team and I’m confident I have one of the most efficient, hard-working teams on the planet. All of the success is a direct result of that team. My mission is to deliver a fantastic product for my clients, fulfill a craving for creativity and most importantly inspire others. None of it would be possible without the dedication the following people: Chris Miske, Jacob Roberts, Kelsey Page, Zach Erwin, Carly Secrest, Dana Rogers, Dave Meall, Jordan Hartley, Bethany Hood, Anastasia Page, Blake McGrew and Justin Gustavision.

2015 YEAR END REVIEW