In my absence from Hive, I failed to learn about this contest early. I'm glad to have stumbled on the entry of my good friend @stevenson7. And consequently, here I'm making my own entry. 

I know it'll seem cliche to start my entry by saying 2021 has been an amazing year. To be honest, for most part, 2021 has been such a great year for me as a photographer, and the generality of my photography brand. 

This year, I decided and was able to split my photography into two parts. One, a photographer(as a content creator) and two, a photographer(as a businessman). Last year and even the year before, I functioned majorly as a photographer who sought to create photographs for the fun of it. I wasn't pressed about generating income. So I didn't market my services enough, and consequently didn't shoot loads of clients. 

This year, I decided I was going to do photography more as a businessman. That's because even the dynamics for creating had changed. Before I could work photography projects with little to no budget. But I realized it wasn't going to be possible for too long. I realized if I needed to create good stuff, good money had to go into it. 

The decision to focus on doing photography more as a businessman paid off. I've photographed loads of clients this year. Over 100 of them this year; that's amazing yea? The adverse effect though was having little or no time to take on personal projects. But I did a few. Most of them made my favourite photos of the year, but then even the ones I created for clients made the list too. 

Without further ado, and in no particular order, here are my favorite photos of the year; 

#1; The Moss Effect. 
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Photographs from the Moss Effect starts my list of favorite photos of the year. "The Moss Effect" was my first major project for the year. It was executed in March precisely. 

It's one of favorites for so many reasons. First is that it mirrors the style of one of my favorite creators "Moss Onyi". Secondly, I feel I achieved everything I needed the project to achieve. 

Speaking of the photos, I knew they were amazing right from the output I got on camera. The output saw me develop amazing colors that I later converted to Lightroom presets and sold for reasonable amount of money 😁.

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#2; Brov'a!
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This a portrait of my best friend. One that I now actually call my brother. We've been friends for over 20 years now and it's been such amazing years of friendship.
He recently relocated to the same state where I reside and for his birthday, I created that portrait of him. 
Aside from the fact that he's one of my favorite persons on Earth, his photograph makes the list because it's a beautiful portrait. 
I loved the softness of the light, and how calmly it feel fell on his face. Then the tones; perfect. 

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#3; Nnenna's tin-can head. 
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Nnenna's such an amazing client, and photographing her is always fun. But I don't think any of our sessions beats the one we had when we created that portrait. It was such a funny day. 

Nnenna wanted something creative, so she styled her hair with tin cans. However, she was shy about it. She covered it until she got down to the studio. Which was also another adventure, as she had lost her way initially. 

One common comment you'll find about my favorite photos are the colors. And such is the case of this photograph. However, it's also my favorite because of the idea to shoot an unconventional hairstyle. 

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#4; Silent conversations with Aira. 

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The entirety of this project thrilled me. From the spontaneous decision of creating causal portraits to working a set that told a story. The photos from the set tells a story of a distraught woman who had just received a phone call. We believe the phone call was from "her boyfriend". And maybe it was the end of a relationship 😁.

I loved the composition and the lighting of the photos. Then I killed it by editing them with my signature warm brown tones. 
I created good photos out of spontaneity this year. This one with Aira was one of them. 

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#5; Box of chocolate and a smile.

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Honestly, do I need to say much about this photograph? 

I fell in love with Ebiye's skin tone at first sight. 
Having lost my favorite stylist to her quest for greener pastures, I resorted to creating beauty portraits in the studio. A genre of photography that I don't fancy. 
I'm glad Ebiye was the first person I resumed with. Her skin's so good that I had less work to do. 
I couldn't get enough of her, so I told the makeup artist to work another look, and that photograph is number 6 on my list of favorite photos. 

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#6; Melan-Green!

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Just as I said on number 5, I couldn't get enough, so we worked this look. 
For this look, I had to experiment with a gel color I didn't fancy; green. But with the way I set it up, the result was so nice to see. It blended with her skin properly. 

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#7: Fluid! 

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It took serious persuasion for this photograph to exist. Karina said she wasn't feeling fresh after shooting two outfits earlier. I don't think that was the problem though. I think she wasn't feeling the outfit. But she reluctantly agreed to put it on. And in under 10 minutes, I created one of my favorite photos of the year. 

Other photos from the session didn't look good as the one she didn't want to do. Y'all should learn to trust the photographer's instincts 😁.

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#8; Josh!

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Photographing kids is such an extreme sport. One that I wouldn't like to engage in, but I had to compromise for this sweet baby boy. 
Morayo had contacted me to photograph her family, but Josh was to be my major subject for the session. Luckily for me, he was such a chilled young man. You need to see him making faces. He's so cute. 

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#9; Scarlett! 

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Scarlett is a joint project I worked on with a fellow photographer. It's another project that was developed spontaneously. The original idea was to create photos with a convertible car, but the car became unavailable. 
My stylist immediately came up with a different idea, and it worked. Although we had to fork out more funds than the original idea would have cost us. 

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#10; The Guy!!!

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Whilst there are loads of other photos I consider as part of my favorites for the year, it's only right that I end my entry with this one; a photograph of me. 

After I became a photographer, I became camera shy. I shunned every attempt for me to be in a photograph. However, it's like every year, I'll be caught in the moment, and it'll be such a cool photo of me. 

This one though wasn't forced. I actually requested it. It was my first time at a beach. And for unknown reasons, it was one of the happiest days of my life. I felt so free, my mind was light, and you could tell my expressions that day. 

I don't know if it was the wind, or the feeling of cold sand under my feet. Either way, it was one of the best days of my life.  

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There you have it. Some of my favorite photos I created this year. As I said in the beginning, this year has been amazing. I can proudly say I got better at my craft, and it paid off. I'll definitely go harder next year, but until then, enjoy! 

PS: I won't fail to say a big thank you to @derangedvisions for putting this contest tougher. It's been fun sharing. It'll be nice to have it every year. 

Merry Christmas to everyone! Happy holidays!