I don't like to brag, but we probably deserve an award: 14 blog posts in 15 days (well, weekdays). You're welcome earth!

Earlier this week we made the trek up to NYC to shoot for Ray and Theresa. Ray works for a great company that has several avenues to raise money for HIV/Aids patients and we got to shoot for a while in their bookstore. Then we took the short cab ride to the Brooklyn Bridge and watched Theresa tough it out with her heels on a huge bridge. We had great weather and great light. When all was said and done, we had some great burgers too. Enjoy!...

One of our favorite things to do when we shoot is wander. We like finding a place and going in without a plan. Mel and Tim wanted to head down to Old City with only a very rough outline of what their shoot would look like, which was quite perfect for us. It took us about 20 seconds for us to realize that this shoot would be a piece of cake. Mel has a beautiful smile, Tim has an infectious laugh. Sometimes it's a pretty easy job. Here's a few of our favorites from Monday...

On our last day in the sunshine state, we stayed in San Diego for Lori and Eric's engagement session. These guys are straight up cool. There's nothing better for us than shooting for people who know and love our work. Seriously. It's so great to be able to show up and just have fun and do whatever we want. Within 10 minutes of starting we were already making poor Lori climb, straddle and lay inside trees. Just a great shoot to end a great trip. Here's a few of our favorites...

After a fun weekend in L.A., we headed down the 5 (that's California lingo for driving on a highway) to San Diego for a few days. On Monday, we met up with Cat & Steve in Ocean Beach. Great place. Lots of character. It's so funny for us to be able to drive to a gorgeous place, pull practically right up to the sand, park for free, and not pay for beach tags... Oh, not to mention that the beaches look like this...

On Tuesday we headed down to Virginia to shoot for Lauren & Phil, who are getting married later this year. I dare you to look through these and not smile. I don't think we've ever shot for two people as goofy or as good at making each other laugh. I guess inappropriate jokes about George Washington will do that... and there were plenty of them. Here's a few of our favorite photos from Mount Vernon...

When we meet with our clients, we almost always tell them that we want them to choose where to have their engagement session. It's much more fun for everyone that way. We like doing new and different things and we really like when things are personal for the people we're shooting for... which is why we've been excited to shoot for Lauren and Matt for a really long time. When we first met (well over a year ago) they mentioned that their plan was to buy a house and wanted to shoot in the house while it was still empty. Such a cool idea. And it turned out to be a ton of fun, mostly because we didn't really have to go outside in the cold at all! Here's a few of our favorites...

It's hard to believe 2011 is over. As I was writing the title of this blog, I had to double-check to make sure it was actually 2011 that we were commemorating. It's been an absolute whirlwind of a year. We did some things we had never imagined, met some people we wish we had met years ago, and ate much more food than any human actually should. But now with all of our shoots wrapped up, it's officially time to share our annual slideshow of our favorite photos from 2011. But before we do...

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!