Nature photographs | Reflections on 2010

Posted by Mark on Dec 30, 2010 in nature photography | 35 comments

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Continuing my yearly tradition now since 2007, below are my top 10 favorite images made during 2010.    Looking back at what was explored and experienced helps not only draw a map of where I have been, but gives directions to the roads ahead.   It is a long post, but these end of year ones usually are.   This year I feel particularly “chatty.”  :-)   I hope you enjoy the comments about the images.

Many famous photographers are fond of the saying about how the camera and lens tend to look both ways.   For someone trying to express themselves through the medium of photography, certainly aspects of their own personality and personal vision should come through in their images.   I feel at home in these places versus in a crowded street or a concrete jungle.   For all of the other important things that our lives become entangled in, there are many things overlooked that are important also.  Some things may not be recognized to a particular individual as being significant, but in the grand makeup of nature – these little observations are segments of life cycles going on all around us.

These images not only represent personal growth in vision, but often moments of chance, inspiration, and visualization that have never existed in previous years, and may never again.   Many times I have made some of these photographs, and decided “Hey, I’d like to do more of this.”   Well, more often than not, the same situation just didn’t present itself again.

When you look at the vast number of other photographers creating their own “best of” posts for this year, you recognize that there is a tremendous amount of creativity going on out there.   It is hard at times to not get lost in your own direction, but there is certainly no lack of inspiring photographs.

I am thankful to Jim Goldstein who has also made it a yearly event to collect these yearly favorites from across the globe.   Treat yourself for a few hours in exploring his post highlighting them all after Jan 11.  (Best of 2010 link)

My process of selection is the same as previous years.   I create a collection category in Lightroom for 2010 under my yearly favorites section.   I dragged images into this collection as I filtered every photograph from 2010 that might be candidates.  I ended up with a total of 15, and with further review, pondering, and cursing at my discipline to keep it to 10, I ended up with these.   Before you dig into my favorites of 2010, if you haven’t viewed previous years – you can see them all at the links below.  (each thumbnail is clickable to view a larger version)

Thank you for your visit, your participation here, and following along over all of these years.  I hope you enjoy this year’s favorites.

Previous Years:

Reflections on images of 2009

Looking forward and back (2008)

Reflections on images of 2007

Reflections on 2010:

St. Clair Icescape (Jan 2010)

Images from this location made it into my favorites in 2009 and also in 2007, which is why I keep going back.   As I have written before, you just never know what to expect here.   It is sort of my own little personal Antarctica.  With the way the climate is changing year over year, it seems to bring unpredictability of this unique landscape along with it.

What made it special this year was the “pad” of ice in the middle of the frame here.   This pad actually had frozen waves on it!   Frozen waves!   If that doesn’t communicate the dynamic nature of this place, I don’t know what will.    But the frozen waves alone were too abstract to have them as the sole subject in the image.   So I composed this where you can see several ice layers and even the cold lake below where I am standing.     I actually had to photograph this two days in a row because on the first try, the light just didn’t happen.  The cloud cover was too thick.   On the second day, it came together.   I was quite flattered when the day I posted this image, I received a print order of it from fellow photographer Jack Johnson.

Marsh Marigold (Apr 2010)

Of course every nature photographer starts to drool around springtime in anticipation of what this year’s spring bloom will be like.   I haven’t really photographed Marsh Marigolds very much prior to 2010.   They can be found in a number of wetland areas close to my house.   When post-processing this macro shot, I was adjusting the colors of the raw capture and noticed a lot more purple in the image than I expected.   Since it is a perfect complimentary color to yellow, I emphasized that characteristic of the image.

An interesting tidbit about this shot is that I was photographing within 10 feet of a fence that sectioned off an EPA Superfund site.   This site had so much nasty stuff in it that there is now a large groundwater filtering facility that operates 24/7 that cleans the water for the ponds in the adjoining nature preserve.   These flowers were along a stream running between the two areas.   While not obvious by the photograph alone, it symbolizes to me the resilience of nature and how things can slowly turn around if we clean up our messes.

Red Trillium Trio and bark (Apr 2010)

Red Trillium Trio and bark

This is another area that I have been to several times, specifically to photograph red trillium.  It grows in abundance here along the Pine River near Port Huron, Michigan.   Each year gets more difficult to think up something new that I haven’t done before.   On this particular day, I had actually packed up all of my gear and was headed to my car to go home.   I was leaving with nothing particular special other than a nice morning out photographing.  On the walk back through the woods, I noticed this trio of trillium in very nice condition.

I circled this group several times trying to decide if it was worth unpacking my gear for. (The sign of laziness setting in! )   If it wasn’t for this pine bark lying very close by, I probably would have left.   The pine bark made this image more interesting to me, provided a nice leading element.  With a bonus of the diffused sun being in a great position at the time, I composed this wide angle shot.   The idea and all of these elements just seemed to come together at the last minute.

Ram’s Head Orchids (May 2010)

We are fortunate to have a number of wild orchids in Michigan.   In May 2010 I went to Wilderness State Park in Northern Michigan, a specific spot known to many Michigan nature photographers.   This area has a number of rare species such as Blue Flag Iris and also these Ram’s Head Orchids.  This orchid is quite small, about the size of a fingernail.  Normally you find them as just single blooms.   Finding this pair nearly in the same plane for depth of field benefits was a bonus.   The bright area is the result of the sun shining on some leaves in the background.  Normally I would try to diffuse this out, but in this case I thought it had a bit of a spotlight effect and created a painterly looking background.

Bush Bay Limestone at Dawn (May 2010)

This bay is on the northern shore of Lake Huron.   We are fortunate to have over 3,000 miles of shoreline in Michigan, second only to Alaska in the US.  That means there is plenty to explore.   This photograph was made on a morning where I had no particular destination in mind.   I was driving along the shore and spotted these large limestone boulders scattered in this bay.   This bay is actually right next to a large quarry.

I thought the limestone might make for some interesting foreground elements, and I liked the way they looked like stepping stones across the water.   Light during civil twilight was just magical this morning.   It created a nice warm, soft glow to the entire shoreline that lasted only minutes.

It is another case of just being there at the right time and in the right place with the right light, with a bit of curiosity on using these boulders in the composition.

Parachute Ball (May 2010)

I am glad I was alone when I made this image.   If I was with another photographer, I probably would have never heard the end of it.  Here I am on the northern shore of Lake Michigan, mostly photographing Indian Paintbrush, and all of the sudden I became fixated on this dandelion.  Oops, no – sorry, I mean this rare Taraxacum flower.     But in my defense, it was kind of like when I was in Alaska waiting around for bears and began photographing seagulls.   Something just to keep my mind active and pass the time before moving on to something else.

“What would the world be, once bereft,
of wet and wildness? Let them be left.
O let them be left; wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.”
- Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1844-1889

Blood Mountains of Morrisonite (Apr 2010)

This is just one of many images from my continuing “Inspired by Stone” project that I began a couple of years ago.   Hunting for samples of these stones that might make for interesting abstract photographs can be quite a challenge in itself.    There are A LOT of rocks out there, and not all of them draw me into making photographs of them.   Even for this particularly rare stone, Morrisonite, I have seen many pieces that just do not excite me.   The pattern has to be interesting, and ideally to resemble some type of abstract landscape. In the gray winter months, one cannot help but be intrigued by the drug of color and vibrant patterns to excite the soul.

Perhaps that drug went into overdose in my thinking about this shot, or perhaps by watching too many episodes of Dexter.   I saw a rugged mountain landscape covered in blood.  Evidence of man’s continual exploitation of the natural landscape and our planet.

Great Egret Roost

Great Egret Roost (Oct 2010)

This photograph was made at a pond that is literally a 5 minute walk from my back door.   I have never seen egrets congregate here before like this.    The progression of  how this photograph came to be actually started weeks prior to the exposure.   On morning walks with our dog, I kept seeing egrets flying overhead towards the east.   On the evening walks, I would see them flying in the opposite direction.   The egrets began increasing in numbers to the point of seeing nearly a dozen flying overhead.

Well, it didn’t take long for me to wonder what the heck is going on here.   A bit of exploring on where they were going to or coming from revealed they were roosting overnight in this pond close to my house.   Determined to get a photograph of them, I tucked myself into some bushes on the edge of this pond one evening.  I sat and waited for their daily ritual that intersected with mine.

Leaf raft (Oct 2010)

I have been making images of leaves in these natural pond films for a number of years now.   I find the colorful patterns quite unique.   Then when you learn about the biological processes that are going on to create these films, it makes them even more interesting.   (You can use the search at the top of my blog for “plant oils” or “bacterial film” to learn more. )

This will be the third year I have included one of these images in my yearly favorites.   Since this decay process usually occurs in very cluttered areas of plant matter, it can be a bit difficult to find clean, simple compositions.   For this one, I imagined one leaf saving the other from the decay going on around them.  So I called it “Leaf raft.”

Textured Milkweed (Nov 2010)

I know I am not alone in my attraction to textured photographs.   Perhaps they aren’t for everyone.   I have been trying to pinpoint the allure of them to me during my exploration with this technique on my own images.   This image started a concept that I have in photographing a subject with very shallow depth of field (in this case, with a 24 mm f1.4 lens!), and working in textures to accent the negative space in the image that is typically out of focus.   The image has a certain gritty quality to it.    I hope to explore more possibilities at f1.4 and adding textures in 2011.

Well, that’s it for 2010.    I hope you enjoyed my picks and learning a little more backstory behind the photos.   Thank you for your visit.    I hope you all have a safe, healthy, and prosperous 2011!

Tags: abstract photography, landscape photography, macro, nature photography, nature pictures, rock abstracts, wildflower photos, wildlife photography, yearly favorites