Decade in Review | 2009 of 2019

I will be combing through the photo archives from the last ten years to highlight how my decade has gone. Ideally I will be able to select a photo from each month of each year of the past decade. I will try to post a year every couple days. For the most part they will either be related to my growth as a photographer or be related to some significant event in my life (or both). And yes I do realize that starting in January 2009 and going to December 2019 will technically be 11 years, but more is better, right? And there was that 2009 vs 2019 challenge thing that’s been going around the internet so the numbers stuck. Anyhow, I present to you: 2009.

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January 2009

This was when I upgraded to the D300 from a D80 and also seriously considered giving this photography hobby a chance to become something more.

February 2009

This was the first time I shot a decent photograph of the moon.

March 2009

I remember walking through the Japanese Gardens in Portland, OR and seeing the sunlight hit this spot in such an intense way that it almost highlighted this pathway as the one to follow.

April 2009

This photo was taken for an assignment in college about framing. This loggia on UW’s campus provided an interesting yin yang effect acting as a frame unto itself.

May 2009

This photo was an accident. I had severely underexposed the bird because it was a very bright sunny day with direct sunlight. As I went through editing this photo, I noticed that it actually turned out quite nice and I though it was cool that I could see through the beak nostril to the other side.

June 2009

Hiked Hamilton Mountain with a friend and we misread the length of the hike (mistook one way length as round trip length). This caused us to miscalculate the time we would make it back for lunch and the amount of snacks that we packed. But reaching the summit was cool and being able to see the peak of Mt. Hood was a bonus.

July 2009

I was excited to go back to Shanghai this summer because it was going to align with the Total Solar Eclipse. Throughout the week the weather was perfect and the forecast was looking good. And then the morning of the eclipse it was overcast and started to rain. I was super bummed. However, it was kind of a blessing in disguise because at that time I was severely underprepared to take photos of eclipses anyway and would have probably destroyed my camera.

August 2009

When I transferred to Georgia Tech, I didn’t receive my acceptance until after all of the student housing options were filled up. This left me in a bind with finding a place to live. Fortunately, some old church contacts that I had in the area was able to refer me to this house that was very close to campus that had an extra room.

September 2009

This photo was one of my first attempts at selective desaturation. This was also the first large format photo I’ve sold. It was also a fond memory of when GT football used to be good and we’d routinely beat Clemson.

October 2009

Turns out Hanson was still around. They did not play MmmBop.

November 2009

This was a fun photo club outing. One of the photo club members was also part of the paintball club and we were invited to photograph one of their events.

December 2009

First time in Hawaii! Super packed at Hanauama Bay, but it’s definitely pretty. And this was pre-Instagram.

Check back soon for 2010!