Almost a year ago Santa came early to the Fiechtner (feekner) house and delivered my obsession in a box. Looking back on this last year I never thought I'd be making a six figure salary selling photos.....ha ha yeah right. Seriously though I've learned a ton about photography in the last year and also a lot about myself. I always thought this would be just a hobby but as I look towards the future I'm wondering if feekner photo could turn into more. What do you guys think? Can I do this? I'm not sure if I've found my style yet but I've tried many different types of photography including landscapes, portraiture, HDR, macro, B&W and minimalistic. I've had a great time trying to learn what works best. I've had so much fun this last year but looking forward to the next one! To celebrate a fun year I have a giveaway at the bottom of this post.

Here are a few recaps of the previous year:
1. Photographed my good friends Craig and Alicia's engagement photos for which I was paid in beer. Check out the blog post here. Working with Craig and Alicia was great and it was my first shoot of this type and they worked with me even though I was super nervous. I think it turned out great!

2. Had one of my photos of Phil Mickelson posted on the Masters website. Check out the blog post here and the actual picture on the website here. I have the best wife who bought me tickets to the Masters golf tournament this year for my 30th birthday. I love you Mandy!! Also, my good friend John Keatley was nice enough to let me borrow his 70-200mm f2.8 IS lens....I think I'll dream about owning this lens when I go to bed tonight. Check out John's latest blog post here. Gotta love funny Christmas photos!

3. Spoke to all of Mandy's high school classes about photography. Check out the recap of that day here. It was fun telling a bunch of students that a CPA like me can actually do something creative.

4. Did my first newborn baby shoot and was paid in poopy diapers. Seriously though I had a blast working with Erin and Bart Wiley and their beautiful baby Holiday Joan. She was adorable and she doesn't know it but being my first newborn shoot she gave me a ton of confidence that I can do this! She was a lot of fun to work with!

5. Finally I was contacted by a large "group" and asked if they could use one of my photos posted on flickr in one of their publications. I don't want to reveal the group or the publication yet cause it's not final that they'll use my image. I'll keep my fingers crossed! If they do use my photo I'll be sure to blog about it as it would be a huge honor. Either way I'm flattered that they contacted me.

It's been a great year and so I thought I'd do a giveaway!

GIVEAWAY!!! WIN an 8x10 of any one of my photos!!

What better way to celebrate this year than to give away one of my photos to one lucky person! All you have to do to enter the giveaway is leave a comment on this post and tell me your favorite thing about the holidays! I'll pick one random person on December 31st and the winner can pick any one of my photos from my flickr site here. I'll mail them an 8x10 of their choice! I'd like to get the word out about my photography and helping people with engagement or newborn baby pics so please share this link to others through Facebook or Twitter so they can enter the giveaway or contact me for a photo shoot! Unfortunately I'm going to have to limit this giveaway to people in the US. Ok I'm probably not going to get anyone out of the country commenting....I'm not that good but I thought I'd better throw that in there just in case. Make sure to leave your name in the comment so I know who to contact when you win! If I don't have your email feel free to leave that as part of your comment. I think there is a way to leave it without everyone seeing it...not sure though.

Thank you to all of the people that have encouraged me during the last year! Your nice comments keep me going and I love to hear them! I hope the next year will even better than this one!
feekner

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