2011. I moved from Kansas to Texas last January (remember that Texas?)  for an internship at The Victoria Advocate. There I was, in this place that was 70 degrees with humidity (in January!!) with as many tree roaches as pairs of cowboy boots. I wasn’t really sure what to expect (other than that the roaches would never leave us alone. they didn’t.) In the end, my time in Texas was pretty amazing. I met some people who I know I will have in my life forever and I got to take some great photos.

I was going through my blog posts last night to find some of my favorite photos of the year to share. It was pretty hard to do. I covered so many different things in the past year, from circus camp to the plane crash. I covered armadillo racing, kids swimming with baby alligators, a craftsman bootmaker (one of the last of his kind retiring), an entire church speaking in tongues, three days of soldiers being honored with Warriors Weekend, my four families for my Autism series, Confederate Decoration Day, Rodeos, Stock Shows (still a slightly surreal experience), soldiers coming home from war, a woman needing a new heart (she got it, btw), a nine-year-old who built hot rods with her dad, a guitar pickin police chief, ZOMBIES! lurching through the fog on an abandoned Texas ranch and so much more.

Also, TOUR DE DONUT, our crazy donut eating 5 am race, which wasn’t really work related, but hey, it was a lot of fun. Watching a million bats fly over Austin at Sunset and attending SXSW. And after all that, I got to drive halfway across the country with the dormouse, seeing New Orleans and other random/awesome parts of the US along the way.

Then in September, I got a job here in Utica and moved back to the east coast. I’ve seen people play sports in the snow, train for the paralympics and of course, spent the early morning hours at a structure fire in addition to many other fun experiences. I am looking forward to 2012 being full of unique and enthralling photo opportunities like 2011.

I spent last night with friends playing a game that was not Taboo (but should have been, because really, I haven’t a clue what that apples nonsense was) and drinking a glass of champagne to bring in 2012.

I ended 2011 feeling infinitely lucky that I get to do what I love everyday and that no matter where I’ve moved, whether it be the south, the midwest, or the east coast, I’ve always been able to find welcoming and wonderful people there to be a part of my life.