31

It was inevitable, really.  Everyone's doing it.  The Year in Review, the Top 10 of 2010, the Best of This and the Best of That.  So why not jump on the bandwagon, I thought, and briefly look back at the year that was my own?

2010 was probably the most challenging year I've ever had as a professional photographer.  Ironically, in hindsight, it was also probably my most rewarding.

Slow business at the onset of 2010 encouraged me to take stock of my marketing communications strategy, which resulted in the launch of a completely redesigned website and this brand new blog, two of the best decisions I made all year.  I was also humbled by some amazing accolades, such as Luerzer Archive's nomination as one of "200 Best Advertising Photographers Worldwide" (2010/11).  And having my photography grace the virtual pages of Adobe's Photoshop.com website and the glossy pages of the Chinese edition of National Geographic Magazine count among my greatest personal achievements of the past year.

But there were many more smaller successes and exciting adventures that I was fortunate enough to experience during 2010 for which I am extremely grateful...

January - I was the best man in one of my closest friends' wedding in London, which gave me the added pleasure of visiting with other dear friends who called the UK home and shooting a personal body of work as part of my ongoing Diana Experiment.

February - I photographed the cover fashion feature for Solitaire, a Singapore luxury jewelry magazine, at the very stylish and inspirational Klapsons Hotel.  My father also came to visit me from Canada and we embarked on an amazing 5-day, 1,700km motorcycle journey throughout Malaysia together.  It was an epic adventure and a wonderful father-son experience.

March - I photographed the cover fashion feature for Inspire, a Singapore luxury travel and lifestyle magazine, aboard a beautiful yacht at the ONE°15 marina club.

April - An assignment for SilkAir's Silkwinds magazine took me to Cambodia for a week-long commission to shoot charitable organizations that specialize in helping homeless street children in the capital of Phnom Penh.  I also had the added fortune of visiting Siem Reap and the magnificent temples of Angkor while I was in Cambodia.  It was my third time touring the ancient city complex, but it only seems to grow more and more impressive to me.

May - My dear friends and frequent creative collaborators, Mike Rogers and Meghan Shea, returned to Singapore for a few months.  It is always a joy to partner with them, both personally and professionally. During their time in Singapore we worked on a personal project about the city-state's bird singing community, an esoteric and fading tradition in Singapore's heartlands.

June - This was my busiest travel month of the entire year.  I visited Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Canada and Timor-Leste in the course of 30 days, but the highlight was undoubtedly my time spent in Dili mid-month with Mike and the rest of The Chain Reaction Project.

July - My trip to Canada stretched from late-June into early-July.  It is always a pleasure to return home to my family in Ontario, and among the best moments of those visits are the times I get to spend playing with my young nieces, Paige and Brooke.

August - My close friend Peter owns a ridiculously beautiful Aston Martin DB9 in Australia.  And when he invited me to join him in Australia for a road trip from Sydney to Melbourne and then along the legendary Great Ocean Road and back to Sydney again, saying no was not an option.  Yet another great motoring adventure in 2010.

September - Way back in January I was fortunate enough to spend a couple of hours meeting and making portraits of Hollywood icon Oliver Stone.  Directing and photographing Mr. Stone was the most nervous and intimidated I've ever been during an assignment. Ironically, I shouldn't have felt either nervous or intimidated: he was among the most gracious and patient subjects with whom I've ever had the pleasure to work.  I had to keep the photos under wraps for nine long months until the commissioning magazine, The Rake, published them in September to coincide with the release of Stone's film, Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps.

October - In October my commercial work started to grow, and I shot campaigns for GlaxoSmithKline and Meritus Mandarin Hotels, as well as went into pre-production for a Unilever campaign.  In late October we took a much-deserved long weekend to the UNESCO World Heritage city of Penang, Malaysia where we wined and dined at some of the city's most popular hawker stalls and best restaurants.

November - American Express Centurion Magazine published "A Tale of Two Cities", a feature I shot in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, Vietnam a couple of months earlier. Having lived in Saigon in 1998/99, it was so

enjoyable to return and see old friends and how much the city had grown and developed in the past dozen years.

December - I write this retrospective from a lounge chair by the pool at the beautiful Rachamankha boutique hotel in Chiang Mai, Thailand where we have come to celebrate New Year's Eve and enjoy a short holiday at the end of a long year.

Happy New Year, everyone, wherever you are on this last day of 2010.