Oh 2020, what hast thou done.
The year, for me, started out with a bang…quite literally. My first photo of the year of fireworks over downtown Utica was taken within 10 minutes of midnight and was my most requested stock photo of the year. It’s quite funny that I never celebrate on New Year’s Eve. You see, I find it troubling we define our lives by good and bad years, and having more than my fair share of bad years, I always feel dread. This was the first time in 20 years that I went out to celebrate. With that winning photo to start me off, I was full of hope and was sure this was going to be a good one. Obviously, I will never do that again. 🙂
Below is a gallery of my favorite personal, work-related (editorial, corporate & product) and fun photos from 2020…and a few just for the memories.
I use my year-end posts not just to show off my top picks, but as sort of a journal to remind me of the events of the year. That said, this gallery has a heavy pandemic presence. Going through the hundred or so pandemic photos, especially from early 2020, brought back a lot of the feelings of fear, isolation and dread that I was feeling at the time. I will never forget the eeriness of driving through the empty, quiet streets of Utica in the middle of a work day. I will also never forget the awkwardness around friends of whether to handshake or not, or whether to wear a mask or not in fear of insulting them. That was quit and adjustment. But I will also never forget in midst of it all there were the people, some putting themselves in harms way, that kept the world moving forward. We are forever grateful for their sacrifices and hard work during those scary times.
I didn’t publish this gallery back at the end of 2020. There was so much going on in my life I really didn’t feel like it. Luckily I had a better 2021 and decided to get this one in the books too.
