Last week, I had the honor of attending the Christmas party for my wife's work. My wife spends a lot of time each year getting these events ready and she is usually pretty stressed during this time of year as we get closer to the parties. But once they are over, there is a sigh of relief and she can relax until the next big event.
During the first couple parties, I was pretty uncomfortable with everyone there at the parties. I kind of felt like an outcast. I am a military veteran and former law enforcement and I didn't feel like I had anything in common with people in construction.
But over the years as I have gotten to know everyone, I realized I have a lot more in common with everyone that I had previously thought. I really think a lot of this growth I have had over the years has been the result of the work I have been putting into myself and figuring out who I am in this world.
When I decided to photograph the parties this year, I was kind of nervous about how that would be received. I wasn't sure if people would be comfortable with me walking around the party snapping photos of everyone. But most of those doubts turned out to be all in my head because people were actually pretty grateful that I was taking the time to capture these memories for everyone.
This is a pretty epic coat and I really liked how the fur looks in my pictures. I am looking at a couple different coats like this to buy. I found a pretty cool one with some Alex Grey artwork inside of it.
My favorite thing about taking these types of photos it capturing genuine emotions on people's faces. It is hard to capture any emotion when you pose people. They get all awkward and forget how to be humans, but when you take pictures in the moment, people are real and show their true emotions.
The food at this first party was pretty good. It wasn't as good as the other party at the super fancy restaurant, but there were parts that I enjoyed more at this one. Like the fact that I can choose which food I wanted to eat from the buffet. I also liked that the pacing was way quicker and I didn't have to wait 30 mins between my salad and my main course.
Another cool thing about these parties is that they do a prize raffle at the end of dinner. They buy a bunch of gifts and the employees put their names in for them and whoever gets drawn, they take the prize home. My wife is always pretty excited to help call the names for the raffle each year and she has a great time helping out with it.
The raffle is always a big hit and people leave with some pretty fun gifts. This guy was super excited for a fancy pizza oven he won. I wonder how many times he has used it since last week.
I hope you enjoyed looking at some of the pictures I took of this first Christmas party. I had such a great time getting out of my comfort zone and taking these pictures. It is always weird to worry about what people think about pictures you take of them. But it is cool to share how I view the world with my wife's company.
