My Top Ten Images in 2019

My Photography Journey in 2019 Including My Top 10 Images

2019 has proved to be an exciting year and is the first year I have collated my best images created during the previous 12 month’s. In previous years I have edited images as they have been made, or as close to the shooting date as possible depending on the time I have available to edit and process the images. Where I consider images to stand out I have shared them to my Instagram or Facebook page. I don’t really consider myself an active promoter of my work so hopefully 2020 will prove different, more on this in a future post.

The best locations of 2019

This year I decided to focus mainly on local nature and landscape scenes from around the West Midlands. I shot many images no more than a 30 minutes drive from my home which really was a bonus. This allowed me to go out at very short notice and shoot something without really having to plan a route, look at tide times or arrange overnight accommodation etc.. I also made a series of travel images from my 2 week cruising adventures around the Mediterranean in August.

Autumn 2019 also saw me venturing into woodland photography for the first time. Woodland is a very difficult category to get right and is way out of my comfort zone. Practice is the only way to get better, so I hope to capture more woodland images in 2020. Bring on the magical mist and fog!

The below image is one of my woodland photographs captured during Autumn in 2019. I love how the light is cast on the foreground leaves. The shot didn’t quite make it into my final 10 but was a close outsider.

How I catalogue my images

Every year I create a “year” folder in Lightroom in which I create an additional folder for each individual shoot or outing, I also created a collection called “2019 candidates” where I planned to add anything I considered to be my best work in 2019. As the year progressed added and removed images from the collection based on what I liked and how I felt. Sometimes an image will look an absolute cracker, the best shot you have ever taken yet when you look back in a few weeks time you hate it. This formed a body of work I could easily review at any stage of the year without having to look through several hundred different images.

I would love to say I came up with this idea myself however I actually found this tip on the Irish Photography Podcast. I have been an avid listener of this podcast throughout the year and have learnt a lot from the guy’s. If you are into photography and haven’t listened it’s well worth a once over.

If you would like to know more about my cataloguing workflow leave a comment below or drop me a private message.

My photography metrics from 2019

Everyone has ways to self measure success or even just review how progress is being made. In addition to looking back on my my body of work from last year I have decided to list a few metrics which will allow me to compare some numbers at the end of 2020. I need to be careful here, it’s quite easy to get side tracked and shoot a mass of bright, colourful and oversaturated images just because they are a magnet for likes and followers. Don’t get me wrong likes and followers do provide plenty of motivation to share great images however this can be a trap some photographers easily fall into.

Anyway here are the numbers….

• 45 Outings recorded throughout the year and following the initial cull of out of focus and poor compositions a total of 1700 images remained.
• 27 Images made it into the 2019 candidates collection at the end of the year
• 51 Images posted to Instagram (not all from 2019) and I ended the year with 171 Followers
• 2 of my instagram posts re-shared, 1 by the BBC and 1 by Express and Star Newspaper
• I started the year with 32 Facebook followers and ended the year with 72
• 1 Image printed in the Express and Star Newspaper for an article which ran on winter scenes in the Black Country.
• Finally my blog saw a very disappointing 3 posts. (That shouldn’t be too hard to beat in 2020.

As far as the blog goes I already have a series of posts planned including my mid year 2020 progress review and an upcoming post on my aspirations for the coming year. To stay up to date with my blog feel free to subscribe for future updates. There is a little form at the bottom of this post for sign up and the bonus is it doesn’t cost a penny!

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My Top 10 Images

It has been very hard to whittle down the 27 images that made it into the 2019 candidates Lightroom collection down to a top 10. Trying to put them into any order would cause way too much brain ache, stress and would most likely cause my head to self destruct. I have therefore decided to take the easy option and show my top 10 in ascending order by capture date.

Highgate Sunset

I shot the above image during my second outing of the year. The image made the final 10 as I like both the composition and colours in the sky. This blog post details the story behind the shot and how I captured this last minute sunset.

Fire & Ice at Bumble Hole

If you look at other photographers work, read books or magazines, you will find the best light for photography is described around sunrise or sunset. In previous years most of my images have been shot outside these times and often in mid day harsh light. This year I decided to make the effort and try harder to wake up, get out of my stink pit and go out rather than staying in bed wasting the day away. Don’t get me wrong I am still a bit of a fare weather photographer and if it’s raining I will still stay in bed!

The above image was made on a very cold February morning. When I arrived at Bumble Hole it was -3 Celsius and the sun was about to break the horizon. The bench is on top of a small hill at Warrens Hall Nature Reserve. The area is known in the Black Country as Bumble Hole. I have also visited this location several times in the past and even wrote a blog post in earlier in the year where I shot reflections of the cast iron bridges spanning the Dudley No. 2 Canal.

Cascading Water

This little cascade was my first experience of using a neutral density filter. Shot in March at Himley Hall, Dudley. As part of my shot planning I have started to use Instagram to search for images of the local area and found this cascade at Himley Hall. I visited this location with my friend Ian around 16:30 and shot the cascade on the way back to the car around 18:00 after a short walk around the woodland hillside.

Shooting Himley Hall was another first for me. Although I had been here several times before with my wife to walk our dog I had never really explored the grounds. Compositions can be quite varied as there is a woodland, boating lake, fishing pools, water cascades and general parkland to name a few. This location has proved to be very successful in 2019 with four of my top images being shot from around the park grounds.

My cascading water image is featured in this post by BBC Midlands. The Instagram feed is proven to be very popular amongst the local audience.

The Eagle Has Landed

The Eagle has landed is the first of two birds of prey images to make my top 10 of 2019. Both images were shot during a photography experience day where birds were posed in natural settings. I attended a similar shoot in 2018 with my kit lens and managed to get some good images on that shoot but it doesn’t really have the same effect as my Tamron 70-200 f/ 2.8 lens. I purchased this lens with the shoot in mind and only two weeks before the day. This lens produces a lovely bokeh so I am looking forward to using it more in 2020. It is quite a heavy lens but is definitely my favourite lens going into 2020.

Barn owl

This Barn Owl shot is from the same session as the bald eagle shot above. This beautiful Barn Owl is sitting in the window of a barn. Some would say the negative space on the right hand side of the photo adds nothing to the image. I think it adds depth. It would have been easy for me to place the owl on the right hand third however I feel this would then make the image a common choice where I am always looking to break rules and look for something different.

Ponte Vecchio “Old Bridge”

The Ponte Vecchio bridge is located in Florence, Italy and spans across the River Arno. The Ponte Vecchio bridge dates back to Roman times. It is the only bridge in Florence not destroyed during world war 2. The surrounding area is a tourist hotspot and is extremely busy especially in August when this image was made. Finding a composition is difficult with so many tourists fighting to get the best spot for their ultimate selfie. As I was only in Florence for the day I feel extremely lucky to be presented with these conditions. I love the colour and reflections of the bridge in the river. The original photo included a man sitting on the grass who appeared to be reading a book. He offered no signs of moving so I decided he needed to be cloned out in my final image! Sorry buddy you’re not famous this time.

Florence Cityscape from Piazzale Michelangelo

Florence is an amazing place to visit with stunning architecture and the magnificent cathedral (Duomo di Firenze). It is certainly a place I would like to return to in the future. Full of history and culture, there is so much to take in and do. I made this shot handheld during a short coach stop of around 15 minutes. Piazzale Michelangelo gets very busy. Most trips stop here on the way out of Florence as it provides a spectacular view of the city. Just to the left out of shot is the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge. The bridge crosses the river Arno which features in my previous image.

Colours of Autumn

My next image Jumps forward to November and late Autumn. During September my motivation levels considerably dropped and I didn’t go out togging at all. As Autumn arrived and trees started to change colour my motivation returned. I have missed Autumn every year for one reason or another and was determined to get out and shoot in 2019. Unfortunately I ended up in hospital for planned surgery in October. This meant I couldn’t go out for a few weeks. Luckily the tail end of the Autumn was still visible in November and this image was made just before bonfire night at Himley Hall.

For those of you paying attention you will note this is my second image from Himley Hall. I framed this central tree with the surrounding trees on the adjacent hillside by using the gap between trees. With my camera perched securely on my tripod and the 70-200 telephoto mounted to the camera I was able to record this wonderful scene. The gentle breeze combined with a slower shutter speed allowed me to capture movement in the canopy of the trees whilst capturing the colours of Autumn. I have printed this image on a personal calendar and also as a photographic print. I must say the digital image does’t really do the final image justice.

Winter is Coming…

My last two images are also from Himley Hall. I shot the first on 7th December. This Winter sunrise is one of the first of 2019 and has proved to be quite popular with my followers. The image has featured on the Express and Star Instagram Feed and subsequently printed on 28th December (Page 63) in the Dudley & Wyre forest editions of the Express and Star newspaper. The newspaper article focused on winter images from the local area.

Sunrise Over Great Pool – Himley Hall

The final image to make it into my top 10 images in 2019 is this fantastic sunrise at Himley Hall. This image was made on the same day as my “Winter is Coming” image above. I always thought photographers were mad for going out at silly O’clock in cold conditions however those fishermen you can see on the far bank were there well before me and may have even been there all night. Now that’s madness!

This image is one of my most successful images which I posted on my own Instagram feed.

Which Image Is Your Favorite?

So that is my top 10 images of 2019. I hope you like them as much as I do. Let me know your favourite image below in the comments section. Finally if you think one of my other images should have made it into the final 10 let me know. I would love to hear from you!

Thank you to everyone for all your support comments and kindness in 2019. I have a feeling 2020 is going to be an excellent year for my photography. I am looking forward to sharing the journey with you.

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