2015 was a significant year in my life. Many major changes lead to a year of fulfillment and happiness which to me is more important than almost every other decision I've made in my life prior. The last time I did one of these recaps was from 2012 on my old website and it was probably my favorite posts.
At the end of January, I left my job to pursue wedding cinematography full time. I immediately celebrated this choice with a trip to the U.A.E. and Australia which my friends and I called "Lost Dingos".
Being able to check two places off the top of my list in one shot was pretty amazing. Dubai and Abu Dhabi are absolutely unreal places and being in Australia in the summer while it was snowing in New York was definitely worth the experience.
You can check out the video of our trip here:
When I got back home I went straight to work on my wedding cinema company Cinema-Roll Films.
I randomly got to have a couple of my photos displayed on a billboard in Times Square thanks to Vincent Laforet. I also got to meet the man himself. You can check this all out HERE.
The reason I haven't done one of these recaps in 3 years was because of the annoying interface of my old website. I was using a Wordpress template which was very cheap but you get what you pay for. It was frustrating to change anything, so I stopped updating it so often and then one day half of my blog entries randomly disappeared. That was the last straw. Since I was concentrating more on my photography and cinematography this year, I decided to spend the money on a Squarespace site and I'm soooo glad I did. I completely redesigned my website and have been keeping it updated with great content more often than I ever have before.
Halfway through the year I said "fuck it" and did something I always wanted to do...hang out of a helicopter over New York City.
After being a huge fan of Vincent Laforet's aerial photography for years and following a few accounts on instagram for some time like FlyNYON and NYOnAir , I had to give it a try for myself. It was everything I expected and more. I learned a lot about aerial photography on my first flight so I have to do it again soon!
After many, MANY years of waiting around, my hometown of Staten Island finally got a decent skatepark.
Since 2015 was the year for me to fine tune the things in my life, I also chose to refine my skating. After almost 15 years, I decided to switch back from anti-rocker to a flat setup.
In August I got to do something I've been meaning to do for years. I made it to the 17th annual Colorado Road Trip. This was the first time I got to experience the whole trip from start to finish and it was probably the 2nd or 3rd time in my life that I've ever been camping. Being a city boy, a trip like this wore me out but the experience was totally worth it and it is something I would 100% do again.
I flew into Phoenix and drove with some friends to and from Colorado for the trip. On the way there and back we got to stop by a couple of National parks that I've been wanting to check out for years. We saw Monument Valley on the way there:
And Arches Park on the way back just in time for sunset:
I got caught sleeping with a bunch of ketchup:
However, 2015 wasn't all good. We lost our big fluffy cat, Inca, after 13 years :(
I went out west again to LA to hang out with some friends and attend the 2015 Blading Cup in Santa Ana which is always a good time.
In my eyes, 2015 was a complete success. I traveled more, got paid for what I love to do, got to work on some personal projects and had a lot more free time which I spent wisely. This year marked the start of how I intend to live the rest of my life.
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