As Seen In:
Rangefinder’s 30 Rising Stars of Wedding Photography // Junebug’s Best Wedding Photos of 2022 // Photobug Community // Huffpost Weddings // Love on Earth Workshop Instructor
Previous Year In Reviews
2021 Year in Review // 2020 Year in Review // 2019 Year in Review
Weee, it’s time! My favorite and (and in many ways most difficult) blog of the year! Favorite because as someone who is nostalgic by nature, I absolutely love looking back over the year and reliving the amazing elopements I was lucky to be a part of. It’s difficult because I have always and forever will struggle to pick favorites of literally anything. I always wind up flagging like… 20 images from each elopement (when my goal is *two*). I just want to share all the images from every elopement because every elopement is magic, special, and rad as hell. I’ve been doing this three years, and I’m *still* like “What is this job? How is this real life?”
I photographed 29 couples this year. I’m grateful to each of them. There were so many adventures, belly laughs, mishaps (I fall down a lot haha), early mornings, late nights, looking up at the stars, and editing into the wee hours of the morning whilst eating spaghetti-o’s. The last two years of my business (2020 and 2021) were such anomaly years, both in the wedding industry and just… in general. I feel like 2022 is the year I found my groove as a business. 2022 also held some surprises and personal changes. Such as!
I moved to Flagstaff! My love for this town is probably pretty gross- but this was a bit of a leap that wound up being a perfect change for us. I love this little mountain town for a billion reasons.
Star Photos! This was my biggest and most exciting surprise. Folks got very into star photos this year (several of which you will see in this post, and one of which was named one of the Wedding Industry’s Best Photos from 2022.) I adore star photos, they are such a fun little puzzle that have incredible epic results, so I was stoked so many couples opted to end (or start!) their day looking up at the stars.
My work was recognized on a professional level I never really dreamed possible. You can read about that here.
It’s been a wonderful year. I really can’t even describe it. I feel grateful, overwhelmed, excited, nostalgic, shocked… so many feelings. I truly can’t wait for what’s ahead. Let’s go, 2023. I can’t wait to meet you.
Onward.
— Ryan + Styhiln