Amy and I owe you guys a huge debt of gratitude and thanks. This year, we hit the 5-year mark with our business. Back when I started the business, my father-in-law shared a book with me that had two stats I’ve always remembered since: 80% of businesses fail within the first year. 80% of those that survive fail before the 5th year. For those scoring at home, that means that we’re officially part of the other 4% now… and it feels great. But it really has very little to do with us.

From the beginning of the business until now, there are a few things that have stayed the same. While we’ve grown, expanded and improved, we still have never had to pay a dime to advertise anywhere. And we owe all of that to YOU. If we’re being honest, we owe this whole business to YOU. From the get go, we learned just how amazing our clients are. The fact that you guys take your time to look at our work, share it with other people and recommend us to friends still blows our minds. We have some people (other than our parents) who have been looking at our blog for almost 5 years now… and that was an UGLY iWeb site back then. We honestly cannot thank you enough times for what you mean to our lives. YOU have given us a career that we love, and made us so happy to do it for you. From the bottom of our hearts, we say thank you.

2011 really was a remarkable year for us. We had 148 shoots (that’s one more than last year if you’re scoring at home), delivered around 50,000 finished images and met hundreds (maybe thousands?) of new people. We shot everywhere from our own living room to Munich, Germany, for newborns and in hospice facilities. made our way across the country a few times and even out of it… and next year promises to take us even further away!

So without further ado, here’s some of our favorite shots from the year. We’re sorry in advance if we didn’t include some people/favorites. We had to at least attempt to keep this to a reasonable length… I recommend you watch on full screen in HD mode :)

If you’re curious, the music was (in order): Mat Kearny, Count on Me • Breanne Duren, Gold Mine • Brooke Fraser, Something in the Water • Josh Garrels, A Far-Off Hope

From the bottom of our hearts, we thank each one of you for the very important role you play in our lives. God has blessed us tremendously by having you support our work and we can’t thank you enough for that. We hope everyone had a great 2011, and we can’t wait to see you all in 2012!

PT is a foundry that makes metal parts. If you’ve ever seen the show How It’s Made, you understand how cool this can actually be. People pouring metal in the middle of the night, Rows and rows of metal, lots of sparks (some of which ended up in my hair). We had a lot of fun shooting these and getting to learn. Of course it always helps when you have great creative directors and we were lucky to work with Matt at Wyndetryst on the project. Thanks to everyone and to all the employees who got their model on for us!

Our goal was to get some shots that they could use for promo materials, but also to get some ‘lifestyle’ work just to show some members and real-world photos. Enjoy!

Last week we went to Philly to shoot for Dan, who runs Love City DJs. He needed some work for a new website, promo materials, ect. We wanted to get something that felt urban and dark, but that showed that Dan is fun and normal (unlike most DJ photos)

First is our friend Steph, who I’ve known for a long time now. You might recognize her from HERE or HERE. In the one post, I describe Steph as the most giving person I know. Well it stands to reason that she donates her time working for Hand&Cloth to sell these blankets. The blankets are handmade by women in India and Bangladesh from Saris and the process of making (and of course selling) these blankets can keep many of them and their daughters free from sex trafficking. The blankets are beautiful and if you’re interested, you can see the entire collection and buy one HERE. Here’s a few of the photos we grabbed for their promo materials…

The second business we shot for (same outdoor location, pretty cool, huh?) is Phanadelphia. My friend Ben (you might recognize him from HERE, HERE, or HERE) started Phanadelphia because he’s one of those slightly insane people that we refer to as Philly fans. Some cool and unique shirts for the Phils and the Birds. Check em out, makes a great Easter gift! Big thanks to Shoshana, Carly, Dan, Lindsay and Owen for volunteering to model for us!

This is what happens when an exercise class fails to show up for their photos…