It’s a year in review, the best of 2023. For this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, we were asked to show no more than 12 of our favorite images from the past year. Wow, that’s a hard choice.
It wouldn’t be a Rambling Ranger Best of post without at least one wildflower! Easter Sunday in the Cathedral Hills, Grants Pass, Oregon
I couldn’t do it. Too many favorites. So I tried to narrow it down from the 112 I’d picked out of my files to just the ones I had never published. I still had far too many.
My favorite B&W image of 2023.
That’s probably because I’m STILL processing 2023 images and I find new favorites every day. I finally narrowed it down to 15. Culling those last 3 was especially painful, but those were the rules this week. So finally, here it is, my best 12. Unpublished, that is.
Sunwapta Falls, Jasper National Park, Canada
The feature image was obviously taken in Grand Teton National Park, under the most amazing lighting. The first big winter storm of the season was due to hit in less than 8 hours. You could see the front coming in. I had to keep moving so I wouldn’t be caught by it, but I got some amazing shots as I was passing through.
The day before, though, the light was horrible in Yellowstone. Yet that harsh, in-your-face glare made this photograph possible. I never would have seen it if I’d had good lighting on the bigger landscape.
A small piece of a grand landscape in Yellowstone National Park.
I took the Icefields Parkway through Jasper and Banff on my way south from Alaska this year. I’ve included an image from each park. I wish I could have included more. These were the hardest images to narrow down.
Bow Lake, Banff National Park, Canada
My best photo session of the year, though, was Bandon, Oregon. Scenic views, tidal pools… A third of the images in this post are from Bandon, not to mention the photos included in the last two posts. It was a magic couple of days.
This is my favorite image from my time in Bandon.
The next two images seem like a matched set to me, even though one was from Bandon and the other from Cape Perpetua. I just see them hanging on a wall together.
This one is from Bandon.
I was just SO happy to finally visit tide pools and see sea stars!
This one is from Cape Perpetua.
The landscape at Bandon is so varied, so many views. This next image looked like an alien planet to me, with the grey lighting and minimalist composition. Hard to believe it’s the same beach, and the same day, as the other landscape.
Alien landscape
Another great photography day was winter solstice. I’ve included a couple of images from that day. From the base of the Sandia Mountains, I could see the ice blown onto one side of the trees lining the cliff, so I was excited for, and anticipating, this shot all the way up on the tram. I was not disappointed.
Frosty Day
This last shot illustrates just how rugged and wild Albuquerque’s backyard wilderness really is.
Albuquerque’s back door wilderness
What will 2024 bring? Ten days in and I’ve already got zen cranes and raptors hunting. I’m so excited to see what’s next! How about you?
I’m a nature photographer. It’s what I do. I go wild for my photography.
I go wild for photography!
John of Journeys With Johnbo chose this week’s Lens-Artists Photography Challenge, “The Road Most Traveled”. He asks us to showcase whatever style of photography is our go-to, our favorite, our road most traveled.
Fall colors on the Denali Highway
I don’t think I can define a particular style as my go-to, but I can definitely define a genre. I do nature photography – to the almost total exclusion of any other kind of photography.
Nature photography is my genre.
I guess that makes me a bit of a one-dimensional character. Especially since being wild is almost a prerequisite for a photo of mine. Domestic flowers don’t really interest me. I have plenty of opportunities to do pet photography, being a petsitter and all, but I seldom make pictures of my charges. I also have the opportunity to stay in some lovely homes while petsitting. But I rarely take photos of these houses. There are very few farm or country landscapes in my files, and never a cityscape. Like I said, pretty one-dimensional.
Point Lobos, California
It’s not that I don’t appreciate other types of photography. Most folks have broader interests than mine. Architecture, travel, food, portraits, street photography – I admire what other people are doing in those genres. I enjoy seeing these things through their eyes. I just don’t feel inspired to go there myself.
If it’s wild, my interest is limitless.
But if it’s wild – then my interest is limitless. Desert, mountains, seashore, I love them all. Grand vistas to teeny tiny details. Animals, plants, water, rock – I can’t get enough of them. Macro to wide-angle to zooming in, black and white, color and monochrome – all tools and techniques that help me to express my greatest love, the natural world.
Plants, animals, waters, mountains – I love them all.
There is one genre of photography that I rather regret not doing my whole life, and that’s people photography, taking pictures of friends and loved ones. I’ve photographed a few friends’ weddings, and taken pictures at 4th of July parades and a few musical events, but that’s it. I have very few photos of friends and family just enjoying life.
I love it when viewers can visually or mentally “walk into” one of my images.
I do understand why I don’t have many people pictures. I only take people pictures at events where my role is one of an observer more than a participant. When I’m with friends and family, I want to be totally present. Those moments are precious to me. I want to be a participant, not an observer. For me, taking pictures at that time would remove me from living in the joy of the present moment. I would be concentrating on taking a good picture instead. Weird, I know.
Have you ever seen a big moose hide behind a skinny little tree? I caught this one in the act – in my front yard!
I’m certainly glad others don’t feel that way. I am eternally grateful to the friends and family who do document those moments. You know who you are, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. The older I get the more precious those people pictures are.
Nature photography is my way of telling these beings, “I see you. I honor you. Thank you for being.”
As I ponder the role photography plays in my life, I realize it’s a tool to further what seems to be my mission in life, my vocation and my avocation. In my photography, my writing, and my work as a ranger, I seem to be pursuing the same goals – turning people on to what makes a place or a subject special and unique, and encouraging others to be kind to our Mother the Earth. It’s what I do.
Nature photography is one way I turn people on to what makes a place special and unique.
I attempt to capture a scene or a subject in such a way that a viewer can visually and mentally walk into that place themselves, to feel like they could be there even if they’ve never seen it in person. When I know I’ve done that, I feel successful as a photographer.
Practicing the Art of Seeing
Nature photography is a meditation for me. It’s how I give praise to Creation. I acknowledge the other beings I share this planet with, both animate and inanimate, by practicing the art of seeing. Focusing my total concentration on a subject or a scene is a way of saying to those beings, “I see you. I honor you. Thank you for being.” I try to capture just a little of the essence of my subject. What makes that being or that landscape essential.
Trying to capture the essence of my subject – rain forest sparkle party!
If others can discover just a little of that essence through my nature photography, then hopefully they too will acknowledge that that thing or that place is unique and essential. Perhaps they will feel inspired to care for it and keep it safe.
Hopefully my images bring a smile to your face!
If my images occasionally fill my viewers with awe for the wonders of the natural world, that makes me proud of a job well done. Or maybe my nature photography will just bring a smile to their faces or a warm feeling in their hearts. That’s a worthy goal, too.
I do love making wildflower images!
I hope you’ve enjoyed my musings on the art of nature photography. But I hope you enjoy my images of Nature even more.
Emulating Ansel Adams – Headwaters of the Susitna River, with Mounts Deborah and Hayes
I’m pushing my boundaries, leaving my comfort zone, by going soft and dreamy for this week’s post. Reducing clarity to create softness is a photographic technique I seldom (almost never) use. I’m one who is always going for more sharpness instead.
Soft and dreamy is a good way to go for some flower images.
It’s a technique, though, that I should probably use more often. Reducing clarity to make an image soft and dreamy is especially effective with some flower images.
I really like what reducing clarity did for this Joshua Tree blossom image.
Reducing clarity and using a mask to sharpen part of the image is great for changing depth of field, too.
Reducing clarity with a sharpening mask over the main subject can create a shallow depth of field.
Foggy conditions naturally reduce clarity without any additional processing.
Fog naturally softens images.
Trees
As I played around with reducing clarity, I discovered that I really love what this technique did to a few of my tree images.
Soft and dreamy maple tree
I was able to make some of my tree images soft and dreamy, giving them a painterly effect.
I love the painterly effect losing clarity had on this image.
The following image was always one of my favorites, but I could never get it as sharp as I needed to. It was always a little too busy, too. But reducing clarity gives it the look of an impressionist painting. I love it!
I love soft and dreamy on this image!
Waterfalls
One place where reducing clarity is especially impressive is in waterfall images.
I love what reducing clarity does for running water.
It makes the water silkier and fuller. You can see this effect in the following 2 images.
Reducing clarity can make running water silkier and fuller.
Perhaps you don’t want the whole image soft, though. In the following photo, I used a mask to soften the water but left the rest sharp.
Rustic Falls on Orcas Island
If you want to obscure a busy background by making the image soft and dreamy but also want to preserve some detail in the foreground, you can use a few different tricks to make that happen. I used a couple of techniques in the following series.
The first image is full clarity. The second is a soft mist filter. With the third, I painted the log with clarity and added a vignette.
Waves
Waves are also fun to make soft and dreamy. Here’s another series.
The 1st is original, 2nd is Soft Mist filter, 3rd is reducing clarity.
By reducing clarity, texture, and dehaze, I transformed this ocean sunset into an almost abstract watercolor.
Way soft and dreamy
Landscapes
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago in Monochromes, I usually try to stay realistic with my photos. But this winter is all about getting out of my comfort zone, both physically and creatively. And actually, reducing clarity works particularly well with the Orcas Island landscape.
Reducing clarity works well with the Orcas Island landscape
Reducing clarity and going monochrome turned this flat, boring photo taken in terrible midday light into an image I can be proud of.
Quite a different mood from midday flat light.
Thank you to Bren of Brashley Photography for this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, Bringing Softness. You’ve helped me to stretch and learn a new technique!
Thanks, Patti, for this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. Nature – now that’s a topic that’s near and dear to my heart! What a broad category! Where do I begin?
Patti may be a city girl, but I’m a wilderness woman, and my whole life revolves around nature. From the mountains
Denali
to the grasslands,
Steamboat Rock State Park, WA
to the ocean,
Watching the waves in Monterey Bay
from the forests
Mendocino National Forest
to the desert.
Tucson Mountain Park
Immersing yourself in nature means taking the time to observe the little details
Leaf. Lichen and Wood
as well as the big picture.
Death Valley National Park
Water is such an integral part of nature.
Water is life.
Nature is life – from the tallest trees
Redwoods
to the tiniest flower.
Very tall belly flower! Bigelow Mimulus
Nature is animals, from the very big
Bull Elephant Seal
to the very small
The bug is more beautful than the flower!
and all shapes and sizes in between,
Pronghorn Antelope
from the multitudes
Willits feeding on the tidal flats.
to each unique individual.
Snowy Egret at San Simeon
Nature- It will save your soul and make you whole.
