This year has been quite the roller coaster ride!  At the beginning of the year my wife and I felt like a change was in order, after a lot of thought we decided we were going to be crazy, sell the house, have a few garage sales, and head to Mesa, AZ!

A few weeks before we left, we got a little surprise and found out we were expecting our 3rd child!  Needless to say this made things a bit more complicated, but we went ahead with our plans, turned into Minivan owners and headed for the desert.

We had an amazing time.  Moving to Arizona enabled me to strengthen a relationship with a brother who is 13 years older than me, and to me that alone made the move worth it.  But, after some time, and with the impending arrival of our daughter Audrey, we slowly came to the realization that maybe the desert wasn’t for us.  We were then left with yet another big decision…

Do we stick it out? or do we head back to Texas after the baby gets here?

Well…  If you follow my blog at all, you probably know by now that we decided for the benefit of our families long term goals, Texas would soon become home once again.

So with what seemed like de-ja-vu, we had a few more garage sales, downsized with the help of craigslist, rented another U-haul, packed up, and are now back in the great state of Texas!

I will always have very fond memories of Mesa.  I was able to grow closer to family that probably would never have happened otherwise.  I met some amazing people and had some great photographic experiences.  Jobs took us to some fun places too.  We had the opportunity to shoot in the oldest hotel in Arizona, south Mesa, some beautiful homes in Salt Lake City Utah, shot an amazing wedding in Okoboji Iowa, and ironically back in Fort Worth, TX.

SOOO, I am very excited for 2013 and what’s already in store.  I have a few goals in mind I would like to share with you.

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1.  Shoot more personal work. (look for my personal faves from 2012 in a few days)

2.  Average at least 1-2 weddings a month.

3.  Be more concise with my brand and really allow my vision to evolve.

4.  Get published on one or more of the following wedding publications: Once Wed, Ruffled, Snippet & Ink, Wedding Chicks, 100 Layer Cake, Southern Weddings, Brides of North Texas.

5.  Continue building up Branches New (it’s a new brand my wife and I have begun to develop that focuses on maternity/newborn photography all shot on film, and we hope to eventually include a retail boutique focused on nursery products, wall art, and furniture… but for now it’s a photo studio) **check out the last few images and short film**

So take a look at some of my favorite images from various shoots I had this year, can’t wait to make some more memories in 2013!