It’s 16 degrees and white outside my door. The last day of the year. It seems that Spring, Summer and Fall never happened. 2010 whipped by me like a Ferrari Testarossa.

Lucky for me I’ve got evidence of the year. Photographic evidence. I try my best to keep my Rolleiflex FX loaded with film. I try to take interesting photographs that I can enjoy and write humourous observation with. It takes work and time but I love it. It’s my passion, it has been since I was in high school.

One lesson I’ve learned in photographing my family is to photograph. Saying to yourself that I’ll shoot it next time doesn’t work because there is no next time. Each event in life is so unique that to miss a good one is to say goodbye to it forever. I don’t shoot everything, but I shoot as much as I can.

The most important event in our family this year was Kimi Lynn Ball’s birth. The post announcing Kimis birth was the most popular post of the year. You can see it here. She’s an angel in our home. It’s hard to describe unless you’ve been there.

I just did her 6 month portrait:

Another big event in my life was that my youngest brother, Zach and I started two businesses this year. Seize the Job and Way Beyond Newsletters. He’s my younger brother by 12 years. I don’t feel the age difference until one or more of my five kids shows up in the office asking for money, help or they’re just plain bored. We work together very well. His steady personality keeps me from going too crazy.

Some photos of Zach and I working for promotion:

Jack is 9. It’s the precious age where playing is his life. He’s not encumbered with girls, work, cell phones or anything else. He just plays. It’s been a great year for him. He’s got a special place in my heart being my only son. I try my best to keep a connection with him.

We did an adventure in the Owyhee canyonlands. I wrote three posts about it here, here and here. It was awesome fun.

Jack got a gun for his 9th birthday. We live in Idaho.

I wrote a post about this fishing trip titled “The Skeptical Fish at Bruneau Sand Dunes”.

Bailey turned 12. She had her first “boyfriend” and is a couple inches taller than Sam now. She’s the most elusive photographic subject in the house. I have to sneak photos of her.

The head fell off this snowman within one week of its creation. I just like this photo.

The year was busy. I started a couple of businesses, had a baby, moved into a new house and built a new portrait studio. In the mix of it all my brother, Jake, the campain manager for a US senator hired me to drive all over Idaho distributing campain signs. I drove 7000 miles and squeezed in a couple of landscape photography moments. This was one of them. Redfish lake, it just started to rain. I don’t know if i’ll ever shake my desire to photograph landscapes. I’ve never done anything with any of them. They sit in boxes and on hard drives collecting dust.

This envelope prompted an irrevrent post titled “The most insincere apology ever”