It is that time of year again to look back, ponder, reminisce about photographs created in 2011. I have continued this tradition since 2007 now, and you can view my past picks under the surprising tag of Yearly Favorites. It is a post I enjoy spending a bit of time on each year because I go into detail about the picks and why. This year involved some hard choices, some easy ones, but I was determined to get it down to 10. It is a good thing photographs don’t have feelings of their own, however, you do argue with yourself a lot.
I suppose one has to wonder what the criteria is to make it into this Top 10, and I wish I could eloquently describe it. Some represent unique moments, some with personal feelings behind them, some with some adventure in getting the shot, some in experiments that had pleasing results, some I just had to sleep on. You can see I still enjoy a variety of subjects to photograph, from macro to landscape, from above land to underwater.
One thing I noted unique about this year from the previous years is that 7 of the 10 images here were taken away from home. Although this year may have had a little more increase in travel over previous years, it didn’t seem significant to me. If I had to note for myself if there is any common thread in these, I would have to say most of the landscapes have an ethereal, tranquil appeal to me. This is most likely because at the time they were made, I felt quite calm and relaxed – and that seemed to come through in the photographs. I can only hope they give others the same impression. It is a pretty fascinating planet we live on, it deserves our respect, appreciation, and protection.
Here are my top photographs for 2011 (listed in no particular order, but I admit some of my most favorite, easiest choices are first 
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Coral Cliffs, Northern Coast of Bonaire, Netherland Antilles, Southern Caribbean Sea #SL9401
Bonaire is a small island in the southern Caribbean off the coast of Venezuela. Our fourth trip took place in late February through early March 2011, primarily for scuba diving. Because of the protections in place here, it remains on one of the healthiest reef systems in the Caribbean. Despite those protections however, impacts on corals from warming trends in the climate and the oceans were quite noticeable.
Since most of our days were packed with diving, or recovering and napping from diving, I only had one day dedicated for focusing on some land photography. Given we had driven around most of the island for diving spots, I had gained a familiarity with the island all during the week and from previous trips here. The island is flat desert on its southern end, and has a very different, rocky appearance to the north. Several times we stopped for diving along the north end and found the entrances quite limited because of the steep cliffs. Many dive sites along here are only accessible by boat.
I wanted to capture the rugged, coral cliffs of the north coast and found this spot just off the road. I nervously kept inching my tripod closer and closer to the cliff edge because I really wanted some separation between the cliff edge and the two small coral sea stacks in the middle ground. I thought they really added to the depth of the composition. I also used several neutral density filters and a polarizer to blur the water motion and add to that peaceful feel to the scene.
Read MoreContinuing 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.
2010 Collection
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.
Read MoreJust as I did for 2007 and 2008, I suppose it is only fitting for me to take on looking back at the year of images I made in 2009. Most of them can be considered as favorites, but mostly they represent some significant direction I took with my photography or hold some special significance. Sometimes it is quite hard narrowing the list down to a manageable number or picking between two images of a particular trip or outing. Looking back on these images helps me solidify where I may want to go with future projects, and also it may give you (and me! ) some insight on where I am headed with my photography.
Lightroom categories
With my images now scattered across multiple hard drives, it is quite convenient to have them all available in a central catalog in Lightroom. I am pretty certain that database management of images will become more commonplace (if not already) as people outgrow their storage volumes and have images scattered across all of these digital shoeboxes. It is much easier to group similar images and to look for patterns for special projects or arrangements. The process of selecting them was next, so I created a special collection for 2009 just as I did for 2007 and 2008.
My unprocessed images are RAW files stored by date, so they are quite easy to find everything for 2009. However, once I process and file them, they become organized by subject independent of dates. So I needed to use a metadata filter for 2009 to pick up all of the unprocessed and processed images that were made in that year. I then sorted that by images that were already flagged as “picks” to narrow the hunt down further and dragged candidates into the collection set for 2009. Then I weeded through those until I had 10 remaining.
Over time as I accumulate these lists, I suppose it will be interesting in how they compare. I am hard pressed to see any major shifts in what I like over the past 3 years. If I would have assembled a list say 15 years ago and compared, I am sure there would be a lot of differences. Over a greater period of time, picking “favorite top 10s” is kind of like asking someone their top 10 favorite songs when they are 16 years old, and then when they are 40. Chances are those lists are nothing alike. So enough of this process gibberish – let me move on to sharing my favorites of 2009. They are presented in the order in which they were exposed during the year.
Read MoreSo, what about 2008? I wrote previously about some of my favorite images of 2007 here if you want to check that out. The fact is, 2008 was actually a pretty slow image production year for me, yet I embarked on quite a few new pursuits of subject matter. Still, even though quanitity isn’t that much of an issue for me, time in the field photographing, and thinking about compositions and ideas is always time well spent. On the business end, I was much more busy, did a lot of behind the scenes website work, sold more prints than ever, did OK at Alamy, and established a pretty good ranking in search engines for some of my target keywords, others not so much. I think if you ask anyone about the business side of photogaphy, the two are sometimes naturally polar opposites. More business stuff (paperwork, marketing, filling orders, submissions, etc) = less shooting time. That is not really meant to be a complaint, or any tooting of any horns, just a simple fact of trying to balance the time of all this with everything else in life.
Last year held a number of changes for me in the gear end of things – a switch to Mac (wow, what a rush!), a full frame DSLR (incredible low light performance), and some new lenses to play around with. I became increasingly unsatisfied with literal interpretations of some subjects, leading to more play with my Lensbabies, expanding vision in post capture such as texturing, monochrome wildlife, and was inspired by stone. And of course, play = fun = creative growth – no matter how it turns out. Sometimes you embrace failures. So probably no suprise on where the time has gone. So as I did for 2007, I’ll replay a few of my favorites from 2008 – if I can even come up with 10 images or so. (just kidding! I did shoot more than 10 images. ) In no particular order…
Inspired by Stone
Inspired by stone, exploring these macro landscapes and bizarre abstracts in features that are millions of years old. This was one of my first, and still one of my favorites – later reshot with a D700 and reprocessed in Lightroom from the original. All are shot wet to bring out the colors, and used cross-polarized lighting to eliminate glare and reflections.
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Mono Pecker
Going monochrome with birds – especially with those that already have strong tonal patterns that compliment the processing can yield some nice results. I am cheating a little because this photograph wasn’t captured in 2008, but was post processed in 2008. I have really come to love the develop presets in Lightroom. Although similar results can be obtained in Photoshop or other programs and plugins, not many match the simplicity of mousing over a list of Develop Preset previews in Lightroom just to spark an idea. It offers the ability to explore post processing options as a launch pad for you to continue on with the idea. Woodpeckers are some of my favorite birds, and well suited to going monochrome – although I left a tinge of red on the head. I particularly liked this composition because of the dynamic angles and you can almost sense action of the woodpecker to the hole with the way they are lined up.
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Framed by Leaves
Bloodroot from Spring 2008 – it can be difficult to come up with something new after you have photographed the same flower year after year. So this one framed in a leaf pocket had a particular appeal to me. The leaves simplified the messy forest floor clutter, and created a nice frame around the petals. It is a composition I will try to work with again this year.
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Ideas to Images
I started a series of posts about “ideas to images” that never made it past the initial one – go figure. Guess I’ll have to work on that eh? Someone please use a Jedi mind trick on me to tell me to focus! Anyway, as mentioned in the post, I always wanted to photograph horsetails, and previsualized this being the type of image I wanted to create. Very strong graphically. Again, a bit more playing around with the controls in Lightroom put this image in its final state before ever reaching Photoshop.
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Lensbaby & trees
This image was shot with a Lensbaby Composer – probably the best version of the Lensbaby to date. Much easier to use, with all the flexibility of the previous generations. I think the hard thing to accomplish with the Lensbaby is separating the creative uses of it from being too gimmicky. Since this is my photograph, I will refrain from calling it gimmicky looking. Call me biased. I still like it anyway.
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Sahara desert rocks
Sahara Jasper – another from my “stone windows” series, and one rock in particular I became fascinated with. It is mined from some secret location in the Sahara desert and only sold by a few dealers that I am aware of. Some pieces much more interesting than others. I got the story from the rockhounds that found this stuff – quite interesting. An old buried creek bed 25 miles from the nearest road, found by accident – and these folks are digging anywhere from 5 feet to 15 feet down by hand in up to 140 deg F temps with the help of Sudanese laborers. Pretty wild stuff! On the outside it looks like – well – a rock. But crack them open and you are quite surprised at what they look like on the inside. I particularly like the ones that have dendrites formed like little trees. And since this stone is believed to be formed from an ancient oasis, I found it particularly symbolic. Anyway, I have gained some insight into the world of rockhounds, some geology lessons, and some pretty interesting new images.
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Simplifiers
Shot New Years Day 2008 – this image made me think about how weather and light can greatly contribute to the simplification of normally very messy environments. That simplification can lead to better photographic opportunities – stronger graphical compositions. In this case, the fresh blanket of white snow eliminated a lot of the other distractions that are normally cluttering the woods around my house. It is similar to how morning or evening light can eliminate the harshness or visual complexity of any scene.
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Whenever I am out, I still enjoy shaking the trees – part of just trying to let go of preconceptions and judgements of how I am
Shaking the trees
“supposed to do things.” Call it a anti-vibration-reduction-gizmo movement. I will admit, most of the time I get junk. However, every once in awhile a particular image catches your attention and captivates you. This is one I liked from Fall 2008. Certainly they won’t appeal to everyone – but when is that supposed to stop you?
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Pictured Rocks
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore from August 2008… What I remember most about this image is the foreground rock on the right side that I spotted from our boat. I thought – “what a cool rock!” I knew I wanted that as part of an image. Beaching the pontoon boat along this rocky shore was a little tricky, but all went OK. I had to wade a bit into Lake Superior to get the angle I wanted. Sheesh, what some people do for a picture of a rock.
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Swamp Oil
A leaf in swamp oil – plant oils – bacterial film – whatever you want to call it – it can make for some interesting patterns and colors. I wrote about this stuff in some previous posts. It helps to have a long focal length macro lens (150-200 mm) for this stuff because you have to get to the very edge of ponds that have some of these natural oils. Step into the pond, and you disrupt the film – so that doesn’t work.
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So there you have it, my 10 selections for 2008. I hope you enjoyed the look back. It is reflection on images of our past that can help guide what we see in the future. Certainly all of these shots have had some influence on me as I approach new images, new subjects, and new ideas. If I missed something in particular that you enjoyed from last year, please point it out. (archives in sidebar) Best wishes in all your creative adventures in 2009. Thank you for visiting.
Read MoreThis time of year is filled with stories of the ‘best of 2007′ everywhere, so I suppose it is only natural for a photographer to think back on the images created over the last year and if any hold particular significance above the rest. So I offer up to you my “Top 10″ images (in no particular ranking order) that I made during 2007 and a few thoughts about each one of them. I hope you enjoy them as well.
Plant oils in ice – perhaps one of my most favorite finds, and almost literally like a buried treasure. I am always looking for the patterns formed by natural plant oils (bacteria) caused by decaying vegetation and minerals in soils. However, I never expected to find them during the winter, suspended within ice on the side of a creek. And they were only visible through the use of a polarizer – to the naked eye they looked like white/gray ice patterns.
As much as I like to gripe about the cold in Michigan, the cold weather does provide some unique photographic opportunities. On this particular day, the conditions where just right to be cold enough to freeze water, but not steadily cold for it to be snow. The result? Frozen raindrops! My only regret is that I didn’t spend the entire day searching these out because the conditions have never been the same since to create these tiny crystal gems. I have come to appreciate just how rare of a day this was, and keep hoping for the opportunity again.
Finally the fox – this particular animal has eluded me more times than I care to admit – and became a great frustration because I would continually see shots published and hear stories of other’s encounters with them that were relatively easy. So a day that ended as a rather unsuccessful bird photography trip ended up providing me with a great consolation prize.
I wrote about this particular image previously upon reflecting on visual balance. I photographed this Eastern Meadowlark over a period of several attempts, and I think this shot ended up being my favorite of the bunch. It was also my first time photographing this particular species. I loved the balance the evergreen provided, and I fortunate enough to capture the bird in a great pose and position. It quickly became one of my favorites among all of my bird photographs.
Sandscapes – this was my first use of my Singh-Ray VariND polarizer on a trip to Michigan’s Upper Penninsula where the low Lake Superior waters created quite a large number of sand bars. Although we often think of photographs capturing a very brief moment of time, a fraction of a second – the images I made with the help of this filter seemed to capture the feeling of an elapsing moment before me. The ethereal look to this image is from a long shutter speed, polarization, and the movement of waves in and out of the sand bar during the warmth of early morning light.
Howard Grill and I have written about photographing Trilliums and trying to portray them in some unique way – the Trillium Challenge of 2007. This was the result of some of my efforts. I think the inner glow created by sunlight directly down the ‘throat’ of the flower gave this a unique radiance quality. Next year is going to be tougher to continue that challenge. Wildflower photography in particular can be challenging to try to come up with new approaches because it seems at times they have been done to death. I know flowers can be admired for their natural beauty as they are – but I think showing an aspect of them that is often overlooked can be just as rewarding, if not more.
Funny how some of your favorite shots can come from just ‘goofing around.’ This was from a time when I was really coming up empty for ideas in this pine grove. So I began shooting, just to shoot – not really intending on keeping much at all. It is supposed to be a technique to overcome some creative blocks – to just start doing something, anything to ‘get the gears working.’ Laying on the ground, and playing around with some zoom blurs resulted in some images that I ended up being quite proud of.
I keep coming back to this particular place on Lake St. Clair in Southeast Michigan. I have shot many of my winter landscapes here because it seems to change all the time, providing for some interesting elements to play with. The light, however, can be like rolling the dice. More often than not, you get drab, gray sunrises common throughout winter months or clear skies that simply don’t amount to much at all. So when the sky explodes with color like on this particular time, you can’t help but be thankful you chose to be there on that particular morning.
Owl encounters are rare enough for the Suburban Detroit area, let alone the chance to be within good photographing distance from one. This barred owl was hanging out over a period of close to a month in the same general area of a local park. I visited this spot a few times, hoping to find the owl in a good location. He flew to this branch, leaving seconds later to a higher spot in a thick pine grove. There is some saying about luck, being prepared, and opportunity. I think I got really lucky. Maybe the upward angle is too much for some, maybe not the most perfect background, but I like it – and probably more because it is a decent shot from a rare opportunity.
This image is part of an ongoing theme that I keep my eye out for – symbiotic elements within an image that create some type of circular reference. I wrote about it previously here. This leaf had some holes in it that were shaped like leaves, which I thought was quite interesting. It was also a result of my playing around with dual flashes and some colored gels to being some life to an otherwise drab colored, decaying leaf. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find many situations of this type of circular relationship – but remains in my mind as something to look for while out in the field.
So that’s it – thank you for enduring such a lengthy post, but I hope you have enjoyed some of the thoughts behind my favorites of 2007. Here is to a happy, healthy, creative 2008! (wine glass raised). Happy New Year everyone!
Read More This particular image I blended...
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