My turn (a little late) for the photographer's conventional look back at 2015. These ten images are not necessarily my "best" (whatever that means) or "most popular," just the ten that resonate the most with me.
1. The (Un)Red Rose
This image was taken on a cold January night during an indoor macro shoot. I was experimenting with off-camera flash to illuminate the rose from different angles. I particularly liked this shot, but it was just too red! Conversion to B&W shifts attention to light, shadows and texture rather than in-your-face color.
2. Eagle Cliff Falls
Torrential spring rains created heavy flow in all of the waterfalls in the Finger Lakes. This was my first visit to Eagle Cliff Falls in Havana Glen (not far from the much more famous Watkins Glen). Despite the rain and the sediment in the water I came away with this rare shot of the falls in full roar.
3. Seneca Sunset
This was taken at Seneca Yacht Club on a warm summer evening. I was experimenting with using a new reverse graduated ND filter to balance exposures in shots where the sun is just above the horizon. I think it worked!
4. Boston Skyline Abstract
I was on the Boston Greenway in August shooting a large outdoor fiber art installation, but my eye was grabbed by the abstract reflection of the Boston skyline in the glass wall of the Intercontinental Hotel.
5. Fist Bump
This is another shot from Boston. We encountered this street drummer while walking through Quincy Market. I was happy just to listen until a little boy approached and wanted to join in the fun. The drummer gave him one of his sticks and then matched his beat to what the boy was doing. I scrambled to dig my camera out of my bag, but by the time I was ready to shoot the boy was done, except for the congratulatory "fist bump" from the drummer. Again, I chose a grainy B&W treatment to remove the distractions of color and focus attention on the drummer's face.
6. Warp Speed at the Beach
This image and the next two were taken during a workshop on Cape Cod led by Tony Sweet. Here, a two-minute exposure (using a 10-stop ND filter) at Race Point Beach captures the streaming movement of the clouds against a static foreground.
7. Come Back Next Year
These vacation cottages line the beach along Cape Cod Bay in Truro, MA. When we visited they were quiet, boarded up for the winter. The high contrast of the early afternoon light made this an obvious choice for a B&W treatment.
8. Colors of Dawn
On the way to catch the sunrise from the Fort Hill overlook at Cape Cod National Seashore, I said "Try to remember to try some swipes." This image, the result of a 6-sec horizontal swipe (hand-held), turned the pre-sunrise landscape into an abstract with layers of color.
9. The Grain Wharf
Before dawn at the historic wharf in Coupeville WA -- one of my very favorite images for 2015.
10. Sol Duc Falls
This image is my favorite from an October visit to Olympic National Park. I actually photographed this location twice, two days apart. This shot is from the second day, which followed a day of steady rain. Here I was finally able to break away from conventional compositions from this location. I isolated the top of the falls, allowing me to use the lines of the flowing water to lead the eye back to the rich fall colors.