New Year, New Challenges

Here we go. 2014. Let's do this.

If I'm honest, this is always one of my least favorite times of the year. I know it's not an ideal welcome back message as I get everything up and running again, but it's true. The weather sucks, the decorations are gone, the holidays are over, and despite all of the energy that went into wrapping everything up at the end of the year, now I have to find the energy to build up the momentum again. 

I'm the kind of guy who holds myself accountable to my time. I like it to mean something, I like to accomplish goals, and I like to have concrete achievements to point to as proof of that. As you might expect, this mentality can just cause added stress because it makes it more difficult to take a break without feeling guilty about it. Don't get me wrong, I'm very optimistic about 2014, but this is my roundabout way of saying that some things are going to change this year. 


For starters, this blog will remain the centrepiece of my social networking, but I can't promise that I'll be posting as frequently in 2014. My Medicine Hat photo series has also been a big deal for me, but I'm going to wind that down this year to feature more variety - like I did with my Pacific Northwest series. And finally, I'm going to be more selective about the extra work I take on in 2014. I love what I do for living, but having more free time seems like a necessity right now.

This is going to be another hugely productive year. I can already see some of the opportunities forming on the horizon. Thanks for sticking with me, showing me your support, and for keeping me in check. I've grown a lot over the course of this project I call, Editing Luke. I truly believe the best is still yet to come.  

Editing Luke in 2013

I've said it before and I'll say it again, 2013 was without question the busiest year of my professional life to date. I never expected so much to take off, pan out, and so many doors to open along the way. This was a year of big rewards, a year where the contacts I made through my work became business associates, and a year where the potential I had been discussing for a long time started to become a reality. It was a thrill ride from start to finish.

That's not to say that 2013 wasn't without its challenges. Work drained me, I lost my aunt to cancer, and my Jaguar went to the scrapyard. Even when things were going extremely well, there were plenty of times when I felt I was fighting an uphill battle just to keep everything under control. Moving forward I think finding a better balance between my work life and social life will be essential.

Here are some of the things that made my 2013 memorable:


January 2013 - I kick-started my year by launching my first series of original postcards from my Around the Hat photo series. This was also when I made it official that I was selling prints of all my original images. I had no real plan at the time, but this ended up becoming a huge feature of my site over the year.

February 2, 2013 - Around the Hat got a featured article in the Medicine Hat Newspaper, which resulted in me getting access to a number of downtown locations to photograph the interiors.

February 22, 2013 - After the transmission went on my Jaguar I had to make the difficult decision to retire the vehicle. I initially wrote about my upset here. The car had been a passion project of mine for over 2 years, and it was tough to finally admit that my time with the car had finished. In the end I opted for a more practical daily driver, however I've been keeping my eye out for another Jaguar for a purely recreational vehicle.

March 15, 2013 - I posted a promo video for my Around the Hat series that went on to surpass 40,000 views.

April 12, 2013 - My aunt lost her battle with cancer and I wrote this post about some of my memories of her, including the letter that I read at her funeral. This was a big loss for our family, and took us by surprise when everything took a turn for the worse so quickly. I miss her.

April 17, 2013 - I was hired to do photography for the Sunshine Skillet Food Fair.

May 4, 2013 - My good friends Andrea and Travis were married at the Esplanade.

May 17, 2013 - I did a really cool photo shoot with my cousin, Rupali.

May 24, 2013 - Throughout May I was busy capturing the experiments and creations with the ceramic 3D printer at Medalta Potteries. I was hired to create a video and shot a handful of images in the process. It was an amazing experience and opened the doors for lots of exciting work with Medalta for the rest of the year.

May 31, 2013 - Editing Luke celebrated 6 years.

June 8, 2013 - I took a road trip back to Regina, Saskatchewan to catch up with friends. I also spent lots of quality time with Darwin and got him a pretty sweet ride too.

June 11, 2013 - My Regina phone book cover was released.

June 27, 2013 - I did tons of photography of the flood that hit Medicine Hat (and much of Alberta) at the end of June. I posted numerous photo sets, and following the disaster I put together this reel of some of my best shots over the course of the disaster.



July 15, 2013 - I sold some images to I-XL for their corporate stationery, and did the photography for Medalta Potteries' gift shop. All of my work around the historic clay district leading up to the summer encouraged me to put together this photography reel.

August 20, 2013 - One of my most epic adventures of the year was the road trip through the Pacific Northwest that I took with my friend Mike. It resulted in me shooting thousands of images throughout Alberta, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, the creation of my Pacific Northwest photo series page, and numerous shares and highlights on facebook from the pages of the places that I photographed. 

It was an amazing chance to showcase a lot of variety and styles on my blog for the remainder of the year, and the response was incredible. From the top of the Space Needle to the coast highway of Oregon, the trip was a visual paradise. My promo video for the photo series alone has already received over 36,000 views.



August 21, 2013 - It was also a year of crossing things off my bucket list. I bought tickets for the Paul McCartney concert in Regina the day the went on sale, and my friend Wendy and I shared an incredible experience. I was buzzing the entire day and had chills as we belted out Hey Jude with 40,000 other excited fans.

September 19, 2013 - During the fall I was busy shooting the Southeast by Southeast residency for Medalta. This was a feature on five artists from Southeast Asia and their cross-cultural experiences with the artists in Southeastern Alberta. Once again I shot a handful of images of the experience, and the video was finally released in November.

September 27, 2013 - I was hired to do a promotional video of Medicine Hat culture for Medalta, Travel Alberta, the Esplanade, and Stay in Medicine Hat for release during Alberta Culture Days.

October 1, 2013 - Following the Culture Days weekend, I shared the highlights from the downtown exhibition that I was part of (Thinking Hat - a collaboration with SPECTACLE) where I showcased some of my images from my Around the Hat series. Over the weekend we had 500 people in attendance, including many local politicians, and received numerous mentions in the media.

October 26, 2013 - I made good on a promise and did a really nice photo shoot featuring my parents.

November 6, 2013 - I was hired to do the photography for Medalta's biggest fundraiser of the year, the Black and White Gala, and shared a few of the highlights.

November 18, 2013 - I took a moment to recount just how insane my year had been. This post probably best captured how over scheduled I'd become throughout the fall.

November 28, 2013 - The City of Medicine Hat contacted me about doing an art wall for the new airport terminal expansion. After a few whirlwind discussions they approved my proposal and commissioned me to create a permanent art installation. This was the first part of the story I posted.

December 2, 2013 - I was hired to do a photo shoot of Aaron Nelson's Connectivity exhibit at the Esplanade.

December 7, 2013 - A local realtor contacted me about doing a sponsored calendar using my Around the Hat images. The release has been a huge success, and at this rate I'll now be completely sold out in a matter days.

December 9, 2013 - There were a number of projects going on with Weddingstar in 2013 (who I do the in-house media for full-time). This Christmas shoot was one of my favorites.

December 24, 2013 - Throughout the year I was also busy digitizing the VHS home videos our family had from 1989-1995. This first tape from Christmas Day in 1989 was the first video I shared, and marks the start of some of the content I'm looking forward to sharing in the new year.

I want to thank all of you for sharing your time with me this year. Your support, your messages, your patronage, etc. have made this experience incredible. Over 100,000 people visited Editing Luke in 2013 and it's been amazing to see my work spread and shared and promoted in so many ways. This year has been the most successful in my site's history, and I can't wait to see how the trend continues in 2014.

Here's to continued adventures in the new year!

Christmas Snapshots 2013

Our family had an amazing Christmas this year. There were lots of get-togethers, endless amounts of food, and some entertaining gifts. Here are a few of my snapshots from this year's festivities.