I was just sitting here at the computer trying to learn the ins and outs of editing raw photos. One expert suggested going through the previous year’s photos and picking your top 10. He stressed it had to be the top 10 photos that you, the photographer, like not your friend, spouse, neighbor and so on.
That was a challenge! I took over 4000 photos last year. Still once I got into it I found that a lot of them were of the snap shot variety. I love having my prints enlarged, called gallery prints so that was the criteria I used to narrow down my selections. It had to be good enough that I would spend the “Big Bucks” to make a super large print.
To my surprise no people or pets made the cut. Here are my Top Ten Pictures of 2015.
The top 3 are from Orlando Florida when I was there with Nancy, her children and my friend Joe. I did have 2 of the egrets enlarged and framed as a set. They hang proudly in my office at work.
The Hot Dog picture is on Nat Geo’s site in the “My Shot” section.
Sticking with the Bird theme I caught a shot of a Great Blue Heron doing something besides standing still. These birds can stand like statues for hours. This was taken in June at the Herring Run in Middleboro, MA. This one also made it to Gallery print and is framed and hanging in my home. Why buy prints when I can use my own photos?
The next photos I chose were from New Orleans in October.
The bridge is in City Park.
The one I call Rain Forest was actually taken in the New Orleans Aquarium where I struggled with lens fog but turns out the effect was really pretty cool.
The last New Orleans pic almost didn’t make the cut. It’s a shot taken of one of the cemeteries in New Orleans. Something about the dark atmosphere kept drawing me back to it. In the end I felt it captured the “spooky” atmosphere New Orleans is known for.
The last 3 photos came from my trip back to Orlando in December. The purpose of that trip was to take photos of the Holiday decorations at Disney World. Although I got great shots they wouldn’t make it to gallery size.
Mr. Lion is a resident of Animal Kingdom. He’d just given us a roar and was settling back down. I wish I’d caught the roar but the safari vehicle hadn’t pulled around the corner far enough.
This shot of Germany at Epcot was a spur of the moment shot. Joe and I were walking around the lake and it just caught my eye. I love the way it came out.
And of course what is a trip to Disney in December without Cinderella’s Castle all covered in Ice? I thought this night shot was a fitting choice for the final picture on my top 10 list.
So what do you think? Maybe I’ll get some pets or people in 2016. The goal is, of course, to improve in 2016.
Of course with our late start we arrived around lunchtime. It was such a beautiful day we decided to eat at Burgers and Beer. Turns out this is a Mario Batali restaurant. I wouldn’t have guessed as I always think of him as an Italian Chef. We managed to get a table with a sun umbrella because we were willing to wait. It was a good thing because it was very hot in the sun. We passed our time watching the Gondolas cruise the exterior canal.
