2025-02-06 | Melody Stevenson | Leave a comment We are one month into 2025 and I’ve just finished editing the final photos I took during last year and spent some time pulling together the best moments. Photography has always been the clearest, most visceral way that I remember my life. This has never been more true than 2024 – a complete whirlwind of a year filled with more stress than we imagined possible. At the end of the year, I always write an NYE journal entry summing up the highlights. But this time around, I picked up my pen and drew a complete blank. Russell and I could scarcely recall what we did during 2024. We accomplished incredible things and realized huge goals, but much of it came with a mental price of stress, anxiety and hard work – with a some great moments sprinkled throughout. It wasn’t until I began looking back through my photos that the milestones came rushing back. Gathering these images helped me emerge from the fog of overwhelm, only holding on to the mountain top moments: the incredible beginnings, poignant endings and the lovely days in between that make life worth living. Here is 2024 summarized in 35 images: January: Russell and I drove our 2nd moving truck up front Houston to the new Tennessee house but a huge 10-15 year record snow storm threw a huge wrench in our logistics. But the house does look great in the snow and it’s crazy to think we now live in a place where a little winter wonderland is possible. February: we drove my SUV from Houston to Las Vegas to pick up the Melodic View travel trailer from storage and bring it home to Tennessee! I took this shot just after sunset in west Texas and it really began to hit me that the first 40 year chapter of my life was ending. February: A quiet moment with Otis in a hotel room somewhere. He continues to be the best travel companion and constant source of peace and joy. February: Somewhere between our 3rd and 4th moving truck up from Houston, the new Tennessee living room really came together after months of work and planning. March: My four closest girlfriends flew to New Mexico to help celebrate the end of my 39th year with a long weekend of laughs, desert adventures and baring our souls. Seeing them once or twice a year is not nearly often enough. March: The ultimate bucket list item – after 10 years of hoping and trying, I finally took a real hot air balloon ride over Albuquerque with my besties by my side! March: Preetha + Achala’s garba the night before their wedding. Our families met in 1995 and became fast friends. Seeing my mom reunited with Preetha’s mom and brothers all these years later was a really special time for everyone. March: Our outfits for the garba. It was held on my actual 40th birthday and our videographer from our wedding in Alaska flew down to document Preetha + Achala’s as well. She was kind enough to grab my camera and take a couple sunset shots of me & Russ. March: After nearly two decades together, the two best people tied the knot. March: The last day I stepped foot inside my childhood home. Seeing it empty was so surreal. We sold it on April 22nd and it was the end of a era for sure and a good step towards closure and healing. April: The move was finally complete and we did our last drive from Houston to Crossville – this time with the RV. At long last, we are able to park our ‘home’ on our own land and everything we owned was in the same state for the first time in years! April: On a whim, we drove to Vincennes, Indiana and were rewarded with 4 minutes of total darkness during the solar eclipse! SUCH an incredible day. April: This was the best year so far on the Outer Banks! We had several friends come stay with us and shared tons of fun adventures. April: Watching the Full Pink Moon rise over the ocean in OBX, North Carolina! May: I’ve never seen more rainbows than I did during May & June right in our front yard. June: We spent a weekend in Nashville celebrating our 1st wedding anniversary. We took a cooking class, a candle making class and enjoyed fancy afternoon tea at The Hermitage Hotel. Of course, when the pianist played our song, “Unchained Melody” we danced right by our table. June: The huge bathroom remodel is finally complete! It was a long journey but it came out amazingly thanks to our great contractors who brought my vision to life. June: I got to photograph the most beautiful flower creation of the year on a work trip to Colorado. This stunning cake flower meadow is the stuff of dreams. June: My favorite flower macro shot of the year – Celmatis July: a quiet moment with Russell and Otis during a very crowded and stressful 4th of July on Cape Cod August: Easily one of the best weekends of the year spent visiting Preetha + Achala and exploring NYC – including The Cloisters which has been on my list since 2011 September: We relocated the RV to Colorado for wedding season. Documented some lovely couples getting married amid stunning florals October: Full Hunter’s Moon rising over the tree line in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. Captured with my new 400mm lens! October: A big bucket list spot for both me and Russell was checked off while we spent a few days in Bluff, UT exploring Monument Valley October: We also got to explore Coral Sand Dunes State Park near Kanab, UT with my adventure monkey October: Great week in Kanab, UT culminating in the Belly of the Dragon hike through a cave on Halloween! November: A non-stop month. We arrived in Vegas with the RV, did a car trip up through California + Oregon to see friends, I went to Texas while Russ helped his brother move from Colorado to Tennessee, we met back up in Houston, decided to buy a second house in TN, hosted friends in Vegas and somehow managed to have a few quiet Thanksgiving days together while I began furnishing the new Airbnb remotely via Black Friday online sales. December: We spent 3 weeks back in Crossville and bought our 2nd house in Tennessee, 364 days after the first one. We managed to furnished it all and turn it into an Airbnb in just 2 weeks December: Not a drone photo! I rounded out December with a ‘bucket list’ ride in a bucket truck thanks to a tree service company who came out to clear out some of our problematic trees. December: All I wanted for Christmas was some peace amid the chaos and we managed to carve out 3 hours hiking in the local state park and going through the photos from the last couple years and starting a big project that’s been a long time coming. I’m so grateful for my photography that ensures these incredible moments weren’t lost amid the whirlwind. Here’s hoping that 2025 is still full of wonder but accompanied by much less stress and fewer crazy logistics. Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Related