It’s that time again, time to look back over the year and pick out my favorite photos!

Early in the year, I went to the City of Rocks in New Mexico, and this was my first image of that trip. This was my second time making a star trails image, and I just had fun playing with how many files I loaded into StarStaX and what settings I used. I eventually landed on a smaller sample of around 70 shots using comet mode to get the effect you see here.

This photo was taken in Alaska, specifically, it was taken from the cruise ship as we were heading to Juneau. It was early morning and I was trying to show how the light was reflecting off and shining through all the ice that was in the water. The water that we were passing through was calm and still which gave me some great reflections of the mountains in the passage.

This shot was also taken as we sailed toward Juneau. I had switched from my wide-angle lens to my 85mm to punch in on and compress the distance of the faraway mountains and islands that were behind us. I like how I was still able to include the ripples in the water coming from the ship making this image feel like it was shot at a wider focal length than it was.

You’ll probably recognize this photo as being from the beginning of the Utah trip. I love this image because of how awe-inspiring the view from the top of the Moki Dugway was. This was also my first outing with my 14-35mm lens, and when I took this shot I felt like I was getting back into the groove of being a photographer again.

I started this post with a star trails image, and I’m ending it with a star trails image, from Little Egypt, Utah. Can you tell I like astrophotography? The best advice I’ve gotten about shooting astro is to think of it as landscape photography, just at night. I feel like this is my best night image to date, and the strong foreground in this photo is why I like it so much.

Honestly, 2022 was kind of a hard year for me photography-wise, I feel like I didn’t pick up my camera enough. That is something that I am resolved to be better about in 2023. Even with that said, I came away with some great images, and I’m excited to go out and make more. Until next time, bye for now.