You knew I was going to start in Costa Rica, didn't you?
Even as 2024 was just in its infancy, I knew that I'd take no better pictures during January than I would at the end of the month, when DW and I travelled to the Central American country. And my best shot of the first month is coming up.
If you're new to my year-end blog posts, welcome. If you've been visiting before, welcome back. On the last weekday of every year, I share a collection of what I feel are the best photos that I've taken over the course of the year. Sometimes, I share a lot of photos; other years, I share only a few.
I've tried in some years to share only a dozen: one photo for every month. I haven't always succeeded.
But this year, from the very start of 2024, I promised myself that at the end of each month, I would choose my one favourite photo: no more; no less. And I found it was pretty easy.
Some months, when I had plans where I knew I'd be bringing my camera with me, I knew that one of those upcoming shots would be my pick for the month. Other times, I just happened to take a snapshot without planning, and it would become a favourite.
So, here are the 12 photos that I shot over the year that I think were my favourites of the past year. And like I said, we start in Costa Rica on the last day of January.
DW and I had been travelling for a couple of days on our vacation and I had already captured many great photos of waterfalls and a volcano, plus jungles and wildlife. But on the last day of the month, after a very active day, DW and I climbed one more hill to watch the sun set over the Monteverde region.
With misty clouds blowing over us, threatening to block out the sun, the diffused light warmed the whole landscape.
Because we were still in Costa Rica in February, I knew that I'd be taking more photos of the region. As we set out for another hiking trek to yet another waterfall, I had an idea for a particular type of shot, so I loaded up my tripod in my backpack and set it up at the base of the Nauyaca Falls. I slowed down my shutter speed and closed down the aperture by nearly a full stop below what was required for the light. I wanted to create a mood for the shot, which I brought out even more in post production.
Here's the result:
I've been a member of the Ottawa Photography Meetup group for more than 12 years, yet I only meet with other members about four times a year; sometimes, fewer. This year, I was above par with get-togethers: three times, in a studio; and twice, outdoors.
My first two times in the studio were in March, when I attended an artful nude photo shoot, and the second, when I attended a painting with light workshop. In the latter meetup, we worked in the dark and illuminated the model with coloured lights. We would be in total darkness while the model posed, would fire a single flash, and then move various lights around the model while she stood still.
It was a great experience and made me want to work with different lights even more. But here's my favourite photo from the March shoot.
As April opened, there was only one thing on most people's mind: the total solar eclipse. DW and I watched the weather in the days leading up to the event, and on the day before, we made the decision to head east, past Montreal, to Granby, Quebec.
I had practiced shooting the sun in the weeks leading up to April 8 but nothing really prepares you for the brief minutes of totality. My favourite shot was during the diamond phase, when just a dot of sunlight appeared on the edge of the moon. Here's my best shot.
From about mid-April and almost every weekend until October, DW and I met up with friends to go kayaking. In May, we explored the Clyde River in Lanark County, and I was equipped with one of my D-SLRs and my smartphone.
While I did capture some pictures of wildlife with my Nikon, the best shot came at the end of our paddle, when we were heading through the town of Lanark. There were various buildings that were close to the river's edge, but an old barn was right against the river and reflecting on the gentle-moving water. I used my smartphone to capture this image and it was the best shot of the month.
I participated in two photo walks in June. The first one was held by Henry's camera store, downtown; the other was led by me. Henry's held a street photography walk, whereas mine was a river walk to the Chaudière Falls.
While I captured good images on both walks, my best photo of the walks, and my best photo of June, was a candid shot of a woman holding an umbrella and walking past a set of doors for the Bank of Canada. I was actually down the street a bit and saw the woman walking, and had to run up the other side of Wellington Street to get in position for when she passed the doors, all while avoiding attention to myself.
I think it worked out.
July saw still more kayaking, as we paddled on the Ottawa River to visit the Rideau Falls. Because I knew the river would be turbulent, with lots of boats moving up and down, and we had a significant amount of wind, I left my D-SLR at home.
Armed only with my smartphone, I zoomed in on the falls and shot a few photos. But because the water near the falls was so rough and I was zoomed in to a 10-times magnification, the image wasn't tack-sharp. So, in post-processing, I applied a paintbrush-stroke effect to the image and it turned out much better.
So much so, that it was my favourite shot of July.
In August, I attended another photo meetup. This time, we were photographing a couple's
date night at a county fair. While I took lots of photos of our two models, I hung around after the shoot to capture some of the lights of the fair.
The Ferris wheel was the eye-catching ride, and with a candy stand in the foreground, I took probably the best non-model shot of the night.
I felt very lazy in September and didn't get out very much, apart from taking photos from my kayak, a trip to Westport, and a walk downtown with DW and one of her work colleagues, who was new to Canada.
But one night, after meeting some friends for dinner and a few drinks, I was heading home when I saw that we were in store for a nice sunset. With little time to spare, I deemed that I'd be able to get to Andrew Haydon Park just in time for sunset. I made my way to the windmill and took this shot, which ended up being my favourite for that month.
There was so much going on in October that it was hard to settle on the best photo of the month. We had paddled in Barron Canyon and I had captured lots of great photos. There was Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, which I was lucky enough to zoom in on, twice. There was an early-morning visit to Hog's Back Falls.
And there was the Aurora Borealis, which outshone them all.
While I took many impressive photos of the light show, I like this one best because there's a mix of red, yellow, and green, but I also illuminated the secluded road with the tail lights of my car, adding more red to the image, where red was the dominant colour in the sky.
It's hard to believe that I had my D-SLR and a tripod in the trunk but chose to shoot with my smartphone. While the image isn't razor-sharp, I still think it's the colours that make the image.
I attended a couple more photo meetups, in November, and was finally able to try something that I've wanted to do for years. I've seen lots of photos of people who have attached a piece of steel wool to a string, set it on fire, and started swinging the string around. Sparks would fly in all directions and if you capture the image with a long exposure, the results can be quite striking.
I met with my photo group under the George Dunbar Bridge, at the House of PainT, to capture these images. During one long exposure, I slowly zoomed out my lens, creating almost a tunnel effect with the circle of sparkling light. Here's my favourite picture from the set.
Now, at the start of this post (and at the start of the year), I said I'd choose one photo from each month of the year. But I shot the spinning sparks on November 1st and then joined a photo workshop a couple of weeks later, where I took some interesting photos at a projection workshop.
You might remember that I joined my first projection workshop, last year, and included a photo from that shoot in last year's favourite photos. This year, I attended another one and it was a lot of fun, and my favourite photo from that shoot was when our model, Jay Ban, cast a shadow on some geometric, black-and-white lines on the projection screen. This shot is different from last year's photo, when the light shone on the model and I captured an angle that omitted the projection screen.
December seemed to fly by and I found myself uninspired. Even on our vacation in Mexico, I barely took any photos or video. My D-SLRs sat, unused until the last weekend of the month. DW and I were running errands, and I threw a camera in the car as a last-minute decision.
Sunday was a dramatically foggy day, and as we were driving home from our final errand, I decided to take a detour through the Experimental Farm. One of the smaller roads is closed to vehicles during the winter months, and the bare trees line both sides of the road. With the fog, there seemed to be a stark contrast between the trees, the snow, and the fog, and in post-processing, I played on that contrast.
They say that the best camera is the one you have with you, and this year proved that for me. Almost half of my favourite photos of 2024 were captured with a D-SLR while the other half were shot with a smartphone.
Could you tell the difference?
Thanks for supporting my blog over the years. It really means a lot to me. I hope that 2025 brings you joy and that you continue to be awesome.
Happy New Year!
