My Favourite Photos of 2021

For me, 2021 will be seen as the year where I lost the will to leave my house to take photos. Indeed, I rarely picked up my Nikon D750 and when I used my D7200, it was mostly in my backyard, photographing birds at the feeder or flowers blossoming in spring.

More times than not, the only camera on me was the one on my smartphone. But as the saying goes, the best camera for the job is the one you have with you.

For most of the year, I also revisited old photos, ones that I had shot decades ago with my Minolta X-700. I looked at old slide photos and tried to bring new life to them, using the photo-editing software that I received at the end of 2020.

So, while I have lots of photos to share for my annual, year-end post, there are the odd images, retooled and given a new life in 2021. As always, I hope you enjoy them.

Januarys are always tough for me. I really hate the cold and the first month of the year typically brings us some of the deepest freezes. But the beginning of January, this year, actually saw unseasonably milder temperatures and it was easier to get out. DW and I also bought snowshoes, so we were doubly motivated to enjoy the outdoors while we could. The preceding photo was shot on the first weekend of the month, along the trails around the Fletcher Wildlife Gardens. It was also the first photo that I manipulated with one of my new software tools, Luminar AI. 

Though we were nearing sunset, on our snowshoeing adventure, we were still almost an hour away, so I added the orangy-yellow sky and applied a sunset filter to give the barn a dull warmth. It wasn't bad for a first try.

On one of the coldest days of the year, DW decided that she wanted to skate along the Rideau Canal, from Dow's Lake to the NAC. Because it was so cold, she wanted it to be a one-way journey, so she convinced me to get up early and drive her to her drop-off point and pick her up, downtown. 

I drove to Ottawa's Golden Triangle neighbourhood and parked on Cooper Street, a short walk to the canal. While I waited for her, I carefully walked on the ice and snapped some misty-morning shots. This one is my favourite of the bunch.

DW and I also spent some weekends, visiting our friend in Plantagenet, where I captured a wintery scene of his maple-sugar shack.

Walking a nature train in Mississippi Mills, I captured this dramatic sky with my smartphone.

As I said, I stayed in a lot over the winter months, pulling out old slide images, digitally scanning them, and enhancing them with Luminar AI. Of all the shots I experimented with, this one has to be my favourite.

My smartphone is always on me. And with it, I can stop at any time to capture an image. One day, in the spring, I was driving home from Manotick when I could see a storm coming in from the north, across a barren farmer's field. Because of the dramatic contrast with the clouds and the ground, I couldn't resist pulling over and snapping some images before the raindrops fell.

May in Ottawa means it's time for the Tulip Festival. I decided to use the blossoming flowers to practice Bokeh photography.

While photographing the tulips near Dow's Lake, I also took the opportunity to cross the road to capture the pavilion on the lake. At that time of day, the sky was getting dark and it looked like rain. If I held my camera at a certain angle, the darkness of the reflected sky on the water made for interesting negative space.

It seems that my smartphone is very good at capturing dramatic skies. Back in Plantagenet, I captured this sunset sky.

One of my favourite places to capture sunset is at Andrew Haydon Park, along the Ottawa River. And while I captured a lot of images, one evening, with my D-SLR, this one, shot with my smartphone and with white balancing applied, was my favourite of the shoot.

My energy levels were very low, this year, and I found it almost impossible to get up early. Yet, on the morning of the solar eclipse, I got up early and headed to the Portage Bridge, over the Ottawa River, just west of Parliament Hill. And while the eclipse was great to see, photographing the sky before sunrise was even better.

With the pandemic still ongoing, gatherings with my Ottawa Photography Meetup group was a challenge, and the organizers limited events to outdoors only. In a group of five photographers and one model at a remote farm, past Winchester, the risk was at a minimum, as everybody was vaccinated and we kept our distance, out in the farm fields. Furthest from us all was our model, Kate Snig. My favourite photo of the shoot was of Kate, under a pumpkin patch. In post production, I added a stormy sunset sky, complete with lightning. I called the shot Gimme Shelter.

I've only been downtown a couple of times in 2021. On one trip, I wanted to capture sunset from behind the Centre Block on Parliament Hill. My visit didn't disappoint.

And when I did get downtown, I found it hard to pass up an opportunity to photograph one of my favourite statues in the city, Maman (sorry, BC). DW and I went to the National Gallery to capture the fireworks for the Sound of Light show, and I thought the giant spider and the gallery's Great Hall to be a perfect foreground.

For this year's Thanksgiving weekend, DW, my parents, and I decided to go to Toronto to visit our kids, who are studying in the GTA, and my younger sister, who also lives in the big city. It was a beautiful weekend, full of memories that will last a lifetime, and there were also some great photo opportunities, during the day and at night.

A couple of years ago, I purchased a glass orb to take some optical-effect photos, but I don't use it that often because it's just under the size of a baseball and weighs a lot. But I did dust it off and take it with me to Vimy Memorial Bridge on the eve of Remembrance Day to capture some sunset images of the bridge. Here is one of my faves (the image is upside-down so that the bridge appears right-side up through the orb).

I even carried the orb to Cuba, and though I only used it once, it was worth lugging the ball in my jacket pocket. I'm not going to share that image in this post: though it's a nice shot, it's not one of my better images this year.

But I did use the orb once again, on Christmas Eve, while I strolled around the Christmas displays at Lansdowne Park. Though I took this photo after I had originally written this post, I've added it as a late entry. I like the image of the candy canes in the orb (again, the photo has been turned upside-down) with the bokeh effect of their lights, due to a wide f-stop (f/2.8). I really need to rig a stand for the ball, as I find it hard to hold it with a steady hand, hold my D-SLR with the other hand, and attempt to maintain focus inside the orb.

And speaking of Cuba, here is my favourite shot of that vacation. DW and I spend so much time on this beach: swimming, snorkelling, sailing, and lounging. This beach will always give me a sense of calm. (More on Cuba, next week.)

Finally, I have found that through this pandemic, you don't need to go far to find a photo opportunity. Without leaving my home, I found lots of action at the bird feeder in my backyard, and I didn't even have to step outside to capture the finches in a feeding frenzy. I just needed a clean window and my telephoto lens. You saw these photos on Wednesday, but this one's my favourite of the bunch.

I didn't go on as many photo outings this year as I typically do, but I'm glad for the opportunities I took. I'm hopeful that 2022 will open more chances to get out there and pursue the hobby that I love so much.

Thanks for following and have a Happy New Year!