Looking Back, My favorite Image of the year.

 We have made another trip around the sun on this big blue marble we call home. It’s not uncommon to reflect on the last 365 days, remember the places one has been and the work created. As I sit here and scroll through the thousands of images I took over the previous year, it is a friendly reminder of all the beautiful places I was fortunate enough to visit. There are so many memories on these hard drives of mine. Memories of home, places, people I have met, and experiences I have had. I am lucky to go through these images and relive them again. 

            Because of these memories, it is sometimes hard to pick a single “favorite” image from the last year. Each one has some special place for me, whether it is a memory of the trip itself, the emotion I experience while at a location, or just feeling good about overcoming the technical challenges and achieving the image. This year, I think my favorite image is a simple one. And this is not a big surprise really, most of my images are pretty simple. I like the more minor, more intricate details that one can find in nature. 

This image is no exception, but one thing that makes it more interesting, to me anyway, is that I made it in an iconic location, but I could have taken this image in any number of places. This image was photographed in the beautiful Arches National Park, in Moab Utah, and is of a Twin Flower Agave. The fact that I could have made this photo almost any place other than Arches National Park is one of the reasons I like it so much. It’s a small detail, but it shows that you can make an original image in an iconic place. 

Another reason this is a favorite for me is that it represents a change in my attitude. I did not have a good trip this day. I was disappointed with the park itself. I wanted to be able to hike around far more than I was able to. The crowds were too large, and there was no way to escape them. I prefer to be more isolated when I go out to enjoy nature. So my attitude was less than sunny. I was grumpily hiking back to my car, ready just to give up and go back home. But then there it was, this tiny desert plant, and it turned my whole day around. The wild, crazy white threads peeling off the leaves were what I wanted as the interest in this photo. I stood over this plant for nearly 40 minutes, composing what I thought was the perfect frame and waiting for the sun to come back out from behind the clouds to shine some light on my new little friend. It was such a little thing and a simple photo, but it completely changed my attitude for the better for the rest of that day. It was a friendly reminder of the power photography can have. It can indeed be an escape for some, and it was for me on this day.

And there it is, my favorite image of the year. Of course, I realize that these reasons are personal and not reflected in the image itself, but this image serves as a reminder that there is always something good to be found. I look forward to the coming year and finding new and exciting photos and the memories and stories they will inevitably bring.

I hope that the coming year will bring you many good memories and even more great images.