Favorite Film Photos of 2022

Looking back on this year’s favorite film photos… I’m certainly not expecting an epiphany as big as last year’s reflection. Nonetheless… I always love taking a glance o’er the shoulder of this body of work to see where the road has taken us!

I love the rodeo… and… self-assignments. Throughout my travels, I always see roadside signs for local rodeos and have always wanted to attend. So I reached out to the Bar W Rodeo company and asked if I could come shoot their rodeo in Clayton at the Rabun Arena.

They obliged… and I enjoyed the experience so much… that it got me pondering the thought of pivoting from traveling to shoot musicians to traveling to shoot rodeos.

My contact at the rodeo was tending to the livestock, so we didn’t get to speak beforehand… leaving me feeling a little unsure about my access level. I was quite worried I would wind up somewhere I wasn’t allowed to be. I’m certain that truly knowing those boundaries would make for some incredible images.

Despite that… I walked away with so many photographs that I love… it’s tough to e’en narrow them down!

From real horses to iron ones… this candid snap of Brit and Richard Turner inspecting the details on this wild Iron Maiden themed Harley-Davidson was a sure-fire favorite for the year.

I love this moment with my friend Tony Justice standing atop his 379. We were moments away from shooting for a music video when one of the clearance marker lights decided to go out. To me it captures one of those every-day frustrations in life we can’t avoid no matter how hard we try.

Here we see Tony hitching a trailer to his Peterbilt for another day of shooting. The leading lines make this photo for me.

Speaking of trucks… this shot of a show truck named “Produce Pimpin'” from the Shine in the Pines truck show was an easy favorite. The very expired Fujichrome 64T yielded a look unlike any I’ve experienced shooting film this far!

Continuing the theme… this old Autocar had been sitting in the front yard of this house for years. I loved seeing it exposed in this environment once they began clearing the property.

Months later, I revisited the same scene just before they demolished the log cabin that was on the property. The menacing juxtaposition of the CAT 740 articulated hauler really drove home the fact that the older era doesn’t stand a chance against modern “progress”. This whole property is now a gigantic townhouse community.

That progress in a different sense… certainly brings with it a sense of irony.

And recurring themes in my work.

My love letters to these roadside scenes are seemingly forever and always.

There is something about the solitude to them that seems to scream to me through the silence in which they reside.

You might say… there is something that Bug’s me about them.

All jokes aside… there ain’t much I love more than a good ol’ roadside scene.

This quiet moment in my favorite place on Earth feels as true-to-life as it gets. It just doesn’t get any better than this.

In the family department… I loved this moment with my nephew as he waited to ride his brand new bike.

This portrait of my brother and his family moments before being dumped with water was a stand out moment for sure!

I love this moment with my niece as she plays chess with my father. You can see the ornery concentration in her face as she is absolutely about to move whatever piece wherever she wants to with zero regard for the rules of the game.

Speaking of family… this moment with my best friend, Hooman and his cat Munchkin was an easy favorite. Hooman is my oldest friend… and this photo very much encapsulates him in a single photograph.

Another best friend of mine, Mr. Tyler Clayton of Koruworks obliged me for some double-exposed portraits. I needed a refresher on the train of thought to pull this technique off properly for a big shoot I was preparing to be on. To say I love how this one turned out would be a MASSIVE understatement. It is absolutely perfect in every way!!

Which leads me into why I wanted that refresher. I was part of the stills team on [HOONIGAN]’s Gymkhana 2022… and wanted to bring something unique to the table. I also wanted to try and mirror the seemingly reckless nature of these shoots by doing blind double-exposures… where I shoot the roll, rewind, and shoot the roll again. It’s the highest risk to reward ratio as far as film photography is concerned… and felt perfect for the cowboy nature of this shoot. Travis Pastrana was more than kind to oblige me for some portraits literally moments before he jumped his Subaru over a helicopter flying between two ends of a dilapidated bridge. Absolutely incredible!

The precision driving he performs on these shoots is unreal. This shot of him from 15 floors up just barely missing this moving target stood out to me. The circular lines of the skid marks almost feels painterly!

The man responsible for these shoots… Mr. Brian Scotto himself. This candid portrait as he was calling Travis to action was an easy favorite.

The quiet moments in between the action are always my favorite. This shot of the Subaru team sleeping in the handful of minutes between lunch ending and the next shoot beginning cemented itself as one of those for the year.

As far as color photographs go… this might be my favorite for the year. I am obsessed with trucker chapels… and en-route home I spotted this Grand Marquis sitting nearby one just begging me snap this. It felt like time travel.

That wraps up my favorite film photos from the past year! If you made it this far… thanks for taking this long stroll back with me! I’m already excited to do it all again next year!