This 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!
(But I still would like to dive Antarctica someday!) Freshwater life is also much more sparse, which equals a lot of time spent coming home empty handed. I do think that freshwater underwater photography is really an area that deserves to be documented more, so perhaps that aspect alone deserves some more effort. So maybe the new year will bring back some of my cold water nerve again.
And of course, they looked strange as usual. But then I thought – OK – looks strange to me – but what about to someone else? Who am I to say this looks wrong? It looks strange according to my own preconceived notions of reality. What about to a fish? And that of course started the downward spiral into this post. But the basic idea is still there – sometimes we need to step back and take another look at our perceptions and definitions of the way things are. And no – I have not been drinking. 
I recently read a news release from 
