2011 was a fantastic year… and I’m not just saying that to be pollyannic. The year started off with my project from French Guiana being published in Harper’s Magazine and ending with an assignment for ESPN the Magazine, a magazine I have been eager to work with for some time. In September I got married… and again in October! That alone made 2011 a great year.  I also had some really fun assignments for Rolling Stone Magazine and  New York Times Travel, like the story about Wisconsin Supper Clubs. Definitely my best marketing decision was joining Wonderful Machine, which lead some new editorial clients my way, including AARP and Family Circle. I can only hope that 2012 will be as successful and fulfilling as 2011.

Here are some of my favorite photos from this past year.

This was an assignment to photograph three CEOs from three cool companies in Madison, all doing some pretty interesting things, from early cancer detection to developing alternative fuels. And it was a chance to use my new lights!

This assignment was for The New York Times Travel section. I was so excited to shoot this story about supper clubs, I even did my I-just-got-a-super-cool-assignment dance. Most of the supper clubs I was to shoot were in the north of Wisconsin, the Northwoods. I had never been that far north in Wisconsin so it was a chance to see a part of Wisconsin that I had never seen. I was struck by all the aspen and tamarack trees… the Northwoods area is a beautiful part of the country. The other exciting part of this assignment was, of course, the supper slubs! I had only heard about supper clubs, which I had only heard of when I moved to Wisconsin… and there is a beer called supper club… they just sounded so quintessentially Wisconsin. I had also never had an old fashioned until I ordered one at the Al-Gen Supper Club in Rheinlander, I needed it to photograph… but of course, I couldn’t let it go to waste!

I’m a big Frank Lloyd Wright fan so when The New York Times called with a travel assignment to photograph several Frank Lloyd Wright buildings around Wisconsin, I jumped at the chance. Shooting architecture and interior design for a travel story was a little tough but I had a blast visiting these places and discovering some new things about his work, which is still visionary 80 years later. The places I photographed were the Monona Terrace, the SC Johnson Company Headquarters and Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright’s once personal residence.

It’s primary season! I went to Iowa for The New York Times to get my political photography on. Times were had, some fun.

I got a call to go to Rochester, Minnesota to photograph a story about aging. So I went to the Mayo Clinic and I saw old people doing exercises and mice running on a treadmill. It was a fun assignment and the researcher that was featured is as big a cycling fan as I am. I also made a little video, title Run Mousie Run, which is just for fun and not produced for The Wall Street Journal.

AARP did a little story about how the University of Wisconsin allows senior citizens to audit classes for free. Pretty cool, huh? This guy, Steve, takes advantage of that. I hope they still offer that when I’m a senior citizen!

I got an assignment to photograph a wildlife pathologist Carol Meteyer at the US Geological Survey Wildlife Health Center. Knowing there are some stuffed, taxidermied birds there, I brought some fishing line to suspend a bird as though it were flying. Then I saw the pathologist do an autopsy on a black-tailed prairie dog. Dr. Meteyer noted it had “unremarkable testes.” Poor thing. Warning, there is a photo of a black-tailed prairie dog with unremarkable testes that shows blood and guts.

This was a commercial project for RestoreHealth Pharmacy, a compounding pharmacy in Madison that makes bio-identical hormones, mainly for menopause patients. This was primarily a motion project. I interviewed nearly all of the employees and crafted the narrative from that. They were pretty happy… so much so they used my ideas in their print materials as well, which they also had me shoot.

I’ve done many assignments for New York Times but this was my first one for their Travel section. I was pretty excited… I did my little I-just-got-a-fun-assignment dance when those 10 1′s came up on my phone. The assignment was to go to New Glarus, Wisconsin, a nice little town I had ridden my bike through a couple of times but never really stopped in. New Glarus was settled by Swiss immigrants and the town is still pretty Swiss. New Glarus is famous for it’s beer… but there is also plenty of other good things there… like cheese, sausages and cheese.