At the beginning of each year I look back on my previous year’s photographs and select a small number that stand out to me for one reason or another.
The photographic highlight of 2024 was the “Out of Big Sur” photography workshop in March: fourteen world-class instructors, working in pairs, and seven field sessions, each at a different location with a different pair of instructors, over three and a half days. Half of the photographs in this annual collection were made during this workshop.
The other noteworthy element of my photography in 2024 involved learning to use my iPhone to make infrared (IR) images. Although I typically carry an IR-converted camera, there are times when I want to travel lighter yet still want to be able to make IR photographs. I was pleasantly surprised by the results!
Here, then, after a one-year hiatus, are twelve favorite images from 2024 presented in chronological order. Once again in 2024 the majority of my selections (9 of 12) were black and white, and half of them were IR images made either with my converted camera or my iPhone.
Ebb and Flow
We last spent time in the Big Sur area about 50 years go; this was a chance to reconnect and, for the first time, photograph this spectacular location. This and the following 5 images are from that area. We spent one early morning photographing the interaction of waves and rocks using long exposure techniques. This is my favorite image from that location.
2. Point Lobos
This photograph was taken on a late afternoon session in the cypress forest of Point Lobos. I photographed this scene in both visible and IR light -- the color version is just blah, but this IR version really stands out for me.
3. Last Light at Big Sur
This is unquestionably my favorite photograph of 2024. The warm light of the setting sun provided dramatic lighting for the cliffs and rocks and created rainbows in the breaking waves. It made a spectacular large print.
4. Refuge
At low tide, Weston Beach at Point Lobos becomes a magical landscape of sculpted, colorful stone. Wave action throws the small multicolored pebbles around and deposits them in eroded pockets, leaving behind countless abstract compositions when the tide recedes. This is just one of the many I found.
5. Topography
Our workshop instructors at Weston Beach said “just look down — there are abstract compositions everywhere!” This was one of them, an area of convoluted swirls in the eroded stone that reminded me of a topographical map.
6. Curl
I spent part of one morning at an overlook trying to make photographs of the breaking waves. A lot of pixels were wasted but this image was a keeper, using a long exposure to evoke the movement of wave as it breaks.
7. Pygmy Forest
The El Moro Elfin Forest, near Morro Bay, CA, comprises several stands of live oak trees that have grown stunted and twisted due to the poor soil conditions, salt spray, and harsh winds off the Pacific Ocean. This IR image highlights the contrast between the leafy canopy and the gnarled trunks.
8. Tulip Abstract
Now that we live in the far northwest corner of Washington, the commercial daffodil and tulip farms in the Skagit Valley are just a short drive away. The month of April is the prime season for the tulip fields, so we took a drive to see what it was like. I'm not normally much of a flower photographer and my more conventional shots were pretty average, but I managed to have fun with intentional camera movement during a long exposure to create this colorful abstract.
9. Serenity
During a June trip to Portland, OR I visited the Japanese Garden for initial tests of the IR photography capabilities of my iPhone. This image, my favorite from that day, illustrates the potential of the phone as an alternative IR camera.
10. Poulnabrone
I used my iPhone as my IR camera on our August tour to Ireland and it produced my favorite photographs from that trip. Here, the neolithic stone tomb at Poulnabrone is set off by a tremendous cloudscape.
11. Cliffs of Moher
The Cliffs of Moher are an iconic feature of the Irish coast that appear on nearly everyone’s Ireland itinerary. We were there on a dreary, rainy day but this iPhone IR image was able to capture the mood.
12. Aquatic Grass at Picture Lake
In September we drove up the Mt. Baker Highway to Heather Meadows in search of fall color. We didn’t find much color, but these grasses along the shore of Picture Lake drew my eye, and photographing them in IR light made a pleasing high contrast composition.