Like many photographers (I suspect), I often keep a camera with a wide angle lens near me while in the car. These images I take rarely serve as more than an instinctual record of scenes that catch my eye as people and places hurtle past. In rare cases, I'm surprised by the visual successes of one of these photos.

The photos here come from my trip earlier this month to Kerala and were all taken from the backseat of an SUV. The purpose of the trip was to visit family there and subsequently we were traveling quite a bit most days. I'm still sorting through the images and waiting on my film to be developed and hope to share a few more images.

It's difficult to measure progress as a photographer. The whole idea of becoming "better" once one masters the technical aspect is a murky path with many dead-ends and no end point. I don't think it happens in the actual act of photography, when one raises the camera. By then, decisions have already been made about where you're standing and where you're going to point the camera. It's the accumulated knowledge, life experience, aesthetic judgements and maybe what you had for breakfast that day that brought you to that spot and it's this awareness (minus the breakfast part) that is going to guide the photo that you take.

With that thought, I've been looking through my assignments and personal projects from this year and thinking about where I've made steps forward, and where there has perhaps been a wrong turn made, or simple a bit of idling in place. I'm not sure the details of the conclusions I reached are that important, but I do hope the larger realizations might be helpful.

First, it took much too long for me to realize this personally, but the most damaging idea for a photographer is following a preconceived notions of the kind of photographer one is "supposed to be". This trap that imposes limits and a rigid framework on your work. Truth is, on a basic level we all get to choose what kind of photographs to make, it's completely our choice and our responsibility to figure out what we want to say. While external influences exist, those best, most important photos are the ones that reflect upon the photographer himself in an intimate, thoughtful way. Also, I get to shoot for myself, even on assignment, and the satisfaction of a job well done needs to come from within, not from others. As for looking at my own progress, I see it most infused in the assignments where I let go of some of my own faulty framework of what a photograph should be and use the time to try to discover something new I hadn't seen before.

Included here are 15 photographs that I'm happy about from 2010. I'm deeply thankful for the editors at publications like The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Markets, Washingtonian, Guardian Weekend, Smithsonian and Forbes who have entrusted me with work and encouraged finding creative, new approaches to stories and portraits.

I'm also thankful for the individuals who let me into their homes, or just gave me a few minutes of undivided attention for conversation and photos. It feels just plain lucky that I got to meet people like Chris Hitchens, Elizabeth Warren, Ken Feinberg and Anas Aremeyaw Anas in the course of my work.

I'm also thankful to have my work recognized in American Photography 26, FotoWeek DC, Mamiya and American Photo magazine for recognizing my work. And to Mike Davis, for fine-tuned guidance and softly spoken profound thoughts about photography.

Here's to a productive new year, moving ever forward down this path.

Ted Sorensen, 1928-2010

I had the good fortune to hear Ted Sorensen speak about the Cuban Missile Crisis during a conference a couple of years ago. Even better, he agreed to sit for a quick portrait in a studio I had set up back stage. His eyesight wasn't great and I directed him with a gentle hand on his immaculate dark suit to have him face the camera.

As we talked, an organizer from the conference came over and greeted him. Mr. Sorensen turned to her, gave her a bright smile, and I made this picture.

I spent a few hours on the Mall this past Saturday, covering Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor rally and meeting a lot of nice people from all over the country who are genuinely concerned about the direction this country was headed. Beck has shown himself to be a master at tapping into that concern, fear and anti-government sentiment. He also has a relationship with truth and facts that might charitably be described as unhindered.

Here are a few of my favorites from the day, the full set can be seen on my Photoshelter Gallery

Luke getting ready to go swimming

We've just been through the hottest July on record here in DC and I'm already pining for the cool nights of Fall. In the meantime, I've been embarking on some personal projects here in the city that I hope will get me more in touch with a city that most people see through the spectrum of politics and power.

I'd also like to thank the good folks at Mamiya for featuring my on their blog, and now that I have their attention, I'd like to humbly request they get started ASAP on a digital Mamiya 6.