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For the past several years, whenever I’ve sat down to begin selecting my favorite images for this year-end blog, I’ve gotten an overwhelming feeling of worry. I’ve always second-guessed whether I’ve shot enough things throughout the year that stand out enough to be featured together in a best-of collection. Typically, my worries go unfounded, and I’m left struggling to narrow down 50 or more of my favorite images to a palatable selection.

This year, however, was different. As I culled my images (iPhone included) from 2015, I realized that I shot significantly less stills assignments than in previous years, and in the end, I was left with only a handful of images that I felt a personal connection to. This was, of course, discouraging. Nobody wants to realize that one of the things they’re most passionate about slipped away from them a bit, and on the surface, this it exactly how it would appear.

I later realized there was a good reason behind having a lesser amount of images to chose my favorites from. First, my stills work in 2015 shifted towards a different clientele. Three or four years ago, editorial work used to keep me busy with three or four assignments per weekend. I found myself this year shooting more for commercial and corporate clients a handful of times per month. While this may seem like a negative thing at first, the commercial and corporate work has proved to be far, far more lucrative for my business. In short, I’m working less and making more.

Tazia Williams poses in her makeup and costume for the musical “Cats” at the Hammond Academy for Performing Arts in Hammond, Ind., Saturday, March 14, 2015.

Secondly, the lighting design part of my business saw a dramatic increase in work over the past year. I was happy to be retained by R&B singer Anthony Hamilton as his full time designer, traveling across the United States more than 26 times this year to light his performances in a variety of venues. In addition to work with Anthony, I also traveled to Dallas this summer for a week with the lighting crew from Live International to program and tech at pastor T.D. Jakes’ bi-annual Megafest convention. All that lighting design work was in addition to designing shows for my regular clients back home!

With so much travel and time this year devoted to the craft of lighting for the live stage (which was always my first passion), the downturn in stills assignments started to make more sense. As much as I’d like to be some mutant creature with eight arms and four brains, I have to occasionally face the reality that I can only be in one place at one time.

Snow swirls in the front yard of a house at Magoun Ave. and 143rd St. in East Chicago, Ind., during Winter Storm Linus early Monday, February 2, 2015.

Portraits and nature dominate the images I’m most proud of from 2015. From running home to document crazy cloud formations in my neighborhood sky, to staking out lightning in the middle of the night near a 33-foot-tall steel statue (probably not my wisest moment), Mother Nature offered up some great looks for my lenses this year. And, with so much more of my client-based work being commercial, it’s natural that portraits were something I was asked to create fairly regularly too.

Lyft ride-sharing service driver Angelica Griffin in downtown Chicago, Ill., Tuesday, March 24, 2015. Griffin, originally from Georgia, is studying for her law degree at DePaul University.

My favorite portrait is the one above of Angelica Griffin driving her car through the streets of Chicago (shot on assignment for the ride-sharing service Lyft). I suction-cupped a Canon 6D with a 15mm

“Do you ever wonder how many times your life is gonna end? Like how many people you’re

Hip-hop artist Lil Wayne headlines the America’s Most Wanted Festival at First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre in Tinley Park, Ill., Saturday, August 10, 2013.

In honor of hop-hop artist Lil Wayne’s triumphant Chicago-area return tomorrow to the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre, I dug out this set that I shot almost a year ago to the day at the same venue for the Chicago Sun-Times. As with most concerts, I was given the first three songs to get whatever I could of the spectacle before being whisked back to the venue gates by Live Nation reps. Due to a communication breakdown with the aforementioned reps, however, I only got escorted to my shooting position at front of house (the sound and lighting board control area) about 20 seconds before Lil Wayne began his set, leading to me juggling lenses and extenders in the pitch darkness as the audience screamed into the humid air around me.

Front of house at Tinley is about 150 feet from the stage, so most of these were shot with a 400 2.8 lens with a 1.4x extender on a Canon 1D Mark IV (1.3x crop body). Even then, in the uncropped files, I was barely head-to-toe on the artist. So, if you’re ever sent on a concert assignment, bring your longest glass and extenders just in case! I also recommend bringing a small step ladder, as arms-up-stretched smart phone wielding fans in front of you are going to make it very difficult to get a clean frame.

As for Lil Wayne’s performance, he shocked me with his discipline and clarity with regards to his microphone usage. Most rappers cup their hands around the grille of the mic (a huge no-no in the sound world) and scream their otherwise carefully recorded studio tracks in the heat of the live moment. Not Lil Wayne. He obviously has been molded and trained over the years on proper mic etiquette, for I could actually understand every lyric to his most popular tracks.

In the end, I enjoyed my experience documenting one of pop culture’s most iconic (for whatever reasons you may choose to cite) artists.

As a lighting designer in my other dicipline, concert photo assignments mean that wide shots of the entire rig are a must. Artists spend a lot of money and time on the productions they take on the road, so showing this in your take is essential.

Hip-hop artist Lil Wayne headlines the America’s Most Wanted Festival at First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre in Tinley Park, Ill.

Lil Wayne takes a moment to thank his fans for coming out. These between-song chats added to my total shooting time, so I welcomed them!

Pro skateboarders (complete with a quarter pipe) on stage? Check. Backing vocalists? Check. Lil Wayne does a great job of breaking the stereotype of what you’d expect to see at a hip hop show.

Hip-hop artist Lil Wayne headlines the America’s Most Wanted Festival at First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre in Tinley Park, Ill.

Showing the audience (whether massive, as here, or sparse) is also a part of the story that shouldn’t be left out when covering a concert.

With this bow from New Orleans’ own son, my three songs were up and the night was over!