Looking back, this year was incredibly rewarding for me. Of my 21 years, this was certainly one of the best. Here’s to another.

Read on for my favorite images of the year, in chronological order.

Working for the Ohio athletic department has pushed me to find new perspectives to cover the same events day after day. I made this image standing on the inner ring of the catwalks at the Convocation Center, with my camera strapped to the railing. My hands still sweat every time I remember making it.

I always go out of my way to try and document the relationships our athletes have with one another. Here, Symone Lyles encourages her teammates before their January 15th game.

Some of my favorite images have been made by mistake. When taking this picture of coach John Groce, one of my strobes failed to fire, giving him a dramatic backlight.

Other times, a lot of things go right. When working with remote cameras, a long chain of connections has to work perfectly.

Capturing the perfect moment of celebration is one the hardest skills in photography. I’m still trying.

At the end of swimming season, the pool was transformed for the MAC tournament. Normally a quiet venue, the roar was deafening as Ohio’s swimmers won race after race, taking home the championship.

In search of a new angle, I found peaceful moments from a window into the pool in the aquatic center basement.

One of my favorite assignments of the year was the Arnold Classic. The miniature Olympics (of sorts) opened my eyes to several sports I had never photographed before.

As part of my project on music in Athens, I photographed the Ohio wind symphony at Memorial Auditorium.

Perhaps by accident, Bob Wren Stadium was built so that pitchers have to throw straight into the sun during games early in the year. Either way, it makes us photographers happy.

Over spring break, I traveled with my parents to Texas for my sister Leah’s wedding.

I am always looking for moments, even when shooting portraits. This image of my parents is one of my favorites.

Some of my best images never make it to publication. This was one of them.

Continuing my music documentary project, I covered a couple country concerts at the Aud.

For another part of the project, I followed the 110 drum line as they toured the uptown bars on a spring weekend.

Back at the baseball diamond, a menacing wave of storm clouds inspired me to shoot from the ground with a wide-angle. The game didn’t even make it past the first inning.

After making this frame of Ohio’s loss in the MAC championship game, I knew it wasn’t what the athletic department wanted. However, the Post ran it six columns.

Finishing up my music project, I documented the first concert in the Convocation Center in over a decade.

A call from The Seattle Times had me headed west for the summer. I made this frame (as a passenger) on the final turn before crossing the Columbia River Gorge.

Working for The Times opened my eyes to ideas I had never experienced before. My adventure into the Rainbow Family gathering demonstrated to me how rich human culture can be.

My new experiences in Seattle also included a few new sports. In this case, WNBA.

Covering Major League Baseball was one of my favorite parts of the summer. The access was excellent, especially for the pros.

In a city known for its cloudy and rainy days, I was always on the hunt for beautiful light. I found some of my favorite light at the Capitol Hill Block Party.

I found similar light a week later at the Torchlight parade, in front of the Experience Music Project.

One of my projects for the summer was a story on detective Kizzier. I worked on the story with editor Fred Nelson, who guided me the whole way through.

A new travel section in the paper meant that I got to go on an adventure to Leavenworth, Cashmere, and Wenatchee to shoot a handful assignments on various destinations in the area.

Even when shooting features, I often take an approach similar to shooting sports.  Especially when it’s peak action in a match of bicycle pie jousting.

My last assignment was a fun feature hunt at a local pool where dogs were allowed to swim before the water was drained for maintenance.

On my way drive back to Ohio, I was stopped in traffic behind a car accident when a brush fire broke out along the highway.  This was the first time I was ever in the right place for spot news.

Just a day after arriving back in Ohio, I flew out to New Mexico to cover the first football game of the season against New Mexico State.

Flying back home after football games, I have seen the sun rise above the clouds dozens of times. On the way back from New Mexico I captured one of the best.

Back in Athens, I went to work covering the Marching 110. Here, I played with a slow shutter speed to blur the snare line’s sticks.

Later that same day, I made this detail shot in the last moments of sunset before the drummers led the band onto the field.

One of my favorite parts of working with the 110 is my relationship with the members. I was able to make this image because one of the drummers told me exactly when the whole band was going to leap into the air.

The week before the Marshall game, I received a cryptic message to have my studio lights ready to go when I was done with class. When I showed up at the visitor’s locker room at Peden Stadium, I had just a few minutes to photograph our new black jerseys, which were unveiled later that week.

Wrapping up my shooting classes at OU, I shot this feature at the Hocking Co. Fair as part of a one-day assignment for class.

At the Marshall game, fallen team mate Marcellis Williamson was commemorated. As his family walked onto the field to be recognized, the entire team took a knee in his honor.

After an overwhelming 44-7 victory, the ‘Cats had reason to celebrate.

My second project for my shooting class took me to the family-owned Meadowview Tree Farm outside Nelsonville, Ohio.

Steve Stone is the last of his siblings to work on the farm. His grandparents first settled on the land over 100 years ago.

In the middle of the busiest quarter of my college career, I took a week off to head to Jeffersonville, NY for the Eddie Adams Workshop. The four-day experience was nothing short of life-changing.

My favorite image from the workshop came at bonfire after a long day of speakers.

A week later, I drove up to Cleveland to shoot a wedding and cover my first NFL game.

The image above ran 6-columns as the sports lead in The Seattle Times the next day.

My last shooting project for class took me to a graveyard outside Nelsonville.

Taking a break from my usual routine of shooting with long glass, I went out to a high school football game with just a 35mm around my neck.

Of all the things I will miss about working for the Marching 110, I will miss the access the most. This frame from practice is a perfect example.

For the second time in the season, the ‘Cats wore their black jerseys for the Temple game, this time with matching black helmets as well.

My favorite event of the year with the 110 was their performance at the beautiful Ohio Theatre in Columbus, Ohio.

My final adventure of the year was the football team’s trip to Boise, Idaho for the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.

All in all, I couldn’t ask for a better way to end my time covering the football team for the athletic department. With ten wins in the season and a first-ever bowl win, this year’s team made its mark on Bobcat history.

As I head toward graduation this spring, I can only hope that 2012 will take me on new, exciting adventures. It’s time to keep chasing the light.

Sunrise, PHL

For the past two weeks or so, I’ve covered about 6000 miles from Athens to Boise, Denver, Philadelphia, Syracuse, Kent, Cincinnati, and back. Here are a few memories.

Leaving Athens

Landing at BOI

Fun in Boise

Downtown Sightseeing

110, Oregon Trail

Urban Hunter, Boise

Landing in Denver

Leaving Philadelphia

Syracuse, NY

Cody & Grandma, Eagle Bay, NY

Old Forge, NY

Lowville, NY

Thendara, NY

First Snow, Eagle Bay, NY

Riverside, Cincinnati

Mt. Adams, Cincinnati

Birthdays, Cincinnati

Home, Athens

For the first time in far too long, I headed out to shoot for myself tonight. Not even a week after covering my first NFL game, I headed down to Pomeroy to shoot the first high school football game I have been to in three or four years. I left the my long glass in the car, and instead walked around with a 35mm. It was a nice break from the usual craziness of covering college ball.

It’s been a week since I returned from the Eddie Adams Workshop, but I’m just now starting to understand what I experienced during my journey to the Catskills.

For the past 24 years, the family of Eddie Adams has opened their home to a group of 50 students and 50 professionals from all around the world. Editors and photographers from across the industry serve as faculty for the four-day workshop, known as “Barnstorm,” for the barn on the Adams’ property where the event is based.

The workshop is about building a community and being inspired. For me, the inspiration was overwhelming. My team (orange) was lead by Al Bello of Getty Images, freelancer Suzy Allman (Above), New York Times sports photo editor Brad Smith, and Melissa Maltby from the Washington Post.

The workshop also serves as a memorial to those that have lost their lives working in photojournalism. On the third day, a ceremony was held honoring the lives of Eddie and others, including Chris Hondros and Tim Hetherington who passed away this year in Libya. Everyone was handed a flute of champagne and a yellow balloon before the ceremony, for a toast and a beautiful release of color into the sky.

My assignment for the workshop was shooting the largest zip-line in North America, located at Hunter Mountain. Since our team’s theme was adventure sports, I got to participate in the experience as I made my images.

It was a real challenge finding unique angles when I had to be tied down most of the time, but the staff at Zipline Adventure Tours was incredibly accommodating and helpful.

The next day, our producer Suzy sent me out to find fly fisherman to photograph in the morning light. Unfortunately, none were on the river. I tried to make the best of the situation, and shot some landscapes as the sun rose through the morning fog.

The last day of the workshop was all about celebration, and the perfect weather made that easy. We converged at the hotel, staying up until sunrise.

After four days of maybe eight hours of sleep total, I realized what EAW was all about: finding yourself as a photographer. Learning from a faculty of the best in the business, I knew I had to step up my game for the big time. This has been in the back of my mind since I made the decision to go to Ohio University and study photojournalism, now over three years ago.

The photo industry is small, and the workshop made this more obvious than ever. We really are a family, and support one another as brothers and sisters, parents and elders. The Eddie Adams Workshop was just the beginning for me. With the advice I received and the connections I made, I found the direction I want to take my career once I leave the bubble of academia.

Thanks to Alyssa Adams, for opening her home for the workshop. It means the world to us all.

People often ask me how I cover the events I am assigned to shoot. Very often, photographers will be secretive about their methods and approach to their work. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to document the way I shoot an event as hectic as this past weekend’s homecoming parade and football game. After researching and testing various solutions, I figured out a way to have a GoPro camera document my work on Saturday.

Starting at 9:30am, the camera took one frame every 5 seconds. When I was editing at my computer, I had a script take screenshots at the same interval. I assembled the footage at various frame rates in Quicktime, then combined the clips in iMovie. I mixed in music, courtesy of the Marching 110. Enjoy.