2021 Year in Review
The year has been full of challenges for many. I am filled with gratitude that I had the opportunity to take refuge in nature. I am also grateful for quality time spent with my family. In this blog, I want to share with you some of my favorite images from the year and highlight how my photography has evolved. Unlike 2020, this year has been creatively rewarding as I embraced a new approach to my photography.
First, let’s start with a family trip to visit some national parks in Utah. I am the vacation planner in our family. I have always wanted to explore Utah and after some research, I found that the best way to do that is to rent a fully loaded camper van. So I loaded up our two mini dachshunds (they love traveling) and family from our home in Denver in for Spring Break in March 2021. We timed it just right as we escaped a huge late season winter storm. The camper van allowed us to take our time at the locations we visited without worrying about changing lodging.
This image of my little family at Zion is one of my favorites this year. I actually have a print of it hanging in our home. The colorful mountainsides at Zion were beautiful. It was surreal being there since the only times I have seen Zion was from watching Ben Horne’s trip vlogs on his YouTube channel. I definitely want to return for a solo trip to explore the canyons.
On a whim, I drove to this overlook which I had never heard of before. Imagine my surprise when I first saw this the winding river in this massive canyon. It was an incredible sight to see for the first time. The clouds and light were not ideal for a typical wide angle shot so I used my long lens to focus in on this composition.
This state park near Canyon Lands is equally impressive and less busy. The grand vistas of deep canyons were amazing. Since I was traveling with my family, I did not have much time to setup my shots so I had to rely on instinct and careful camera technique for my compositions. Notice the tourists on the upper right for scale.
In April after a long winter, we had one final snow storm. I remember how eager I was to venture out my local state park. Photographing in snowy conditions still excited me because I lived most of life in Texas where it snowed maybe 2 or 3 times in 20 years. The air was calm and it seemed like I had the whole park to myself. These bare trees dusted in snow I felt would make for a good subject. I always look for shapes in my compositions and these trees had these repeating “V” shapes in their split branches. I loved the gentle sweeping branch on the right.
From late April to August there was minimal photography. The reasons why are many, including an increase in COVID cases globally, lack of time since my 8 year old son was out of school for the summer, and lack of inspiration. It was during this time that I took a long break from Instagram and most social media but found a thriving photography community on Twitter and that helped a bit. Still, I could not shake the lack of motivation and feeling lost creatively.
I looked back at my photography and felt disappointed in the results. There was this feeling of “ok I am taking images of pretty scenes but what is the story I am trying to tell? What is the experience that I am trying to convey? Then it hit me after more research and after studying the work of TJ Thorne, Sarah Marino, Alex Noriega, Jennifer Renwick, Tara Workman, Alister Benn, James Lane, and many others both on Twitter and discord discussions. What I discovered was that my photography up to that point was “results driven”, meaning if conditions for sunrise after a long hike did not manifest in “epic light”, I felt disappointed. This is when I started to learn about “expressive photography” and an “explore” photography approach. As my son returned to school in late August, I put my new creative mindset into practice in a beautiful location in Colorado. I let go of expectations. I slowed way down and for the first time in a long time I truly observed the landscape. The results were personally rewarding and my love for the creative side of photography returned.
I will share three images from that trip that I created with this new explore mindset. The first is from a tranquil scene of a roaring cascade. I took my time studying the scene without camera and tripod. I watched as the light washed over the rocks and water. It was truly meditative.
The second image from that trip is this minimalist long exposure shot of a waterfall surrounded by textured rock. The side light was just perfect. Instead of trying to photograph the entire waterfall as I would have done using my old “results” driven approach, I chose to focus on this composition highlighting the form and shape of water against rock.
As I was hiking back to the start of the trailhead, I noticed these ferns along the trail in partial shade. I looked closer and noticed these two flowers framed by the ferns. Wind was against me that day and as you may know, it does not take much for ferns to sway. This created a challenge in the digital darkroom to combine my focus stacked shots. I learned so much from that trip about the potential hidden beauty in nature. There are images to be made even after the light turns harsh.
As the air gets crisper and the leaves start turning, many landscape photographers here in Colorado wake from their summer slumber to photograph the beautiful fall color. This year was the first fall season where I truly had a chance to explore. I usually stayed within a 2 to 3 hour region from my home in Denver but it goes to show that you don’t have to venture far in Colorado to find some hidden gems.
I use AllTrails to do some virtual scouting. I found this location a few hours from me. The winding stream along an expansive meadow with aspen trees in fall color along the mountain sides was idyllic.
I have an engineering background so the first thing that came to mind when I photographed this cluster of aspen trees was an exponentional curve. That’s the nerd in me speaking. I often shoot with my Sony 100-400 GM to isolate scenes like this. I feel like this image has so many stories to tell and that is why it ranks high as a favorite of mine.
It is amazing to me that aspen trees can grow so high up in elevation along rocky cliff sides. Here the aspens are interspersed with tall pines and rock, making for a fascinating juxtaposition of elements.
After the frenzy of chasing fall color, it was time for a return trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. I try to visit at least once a year. Hopefully in 2022 I will get an opportunity to visit more often. This is the quiet period after fall color and before the full force of winter. It was still a cold and slippery hike in the dark to reach this alpine lake location but I will never forget the feeling of being there alone under the stars.
After shooting sunrise I turned my attention to shooting the ice patterns on the frozen alpine lake. My love for abstracts and small scenes has grown so much this year especially after embracing the explore and expressive photography mindset. I was super excited to find this scene in particular because the perspective and scale really plays a trick on your mind. It is one of my absolute favorite images ever.
In the latter parts of the year I still had opportunities to photograph and used every opportunity to explore local areas to see what I could find. This is a scene with natural oils that I had been seeking for a while. I only stumbled upon it by being curious without any expectation of what I would find. The simple act of being out in nature was reward enough. Still, I was quite excited to have photographed this simple scene and that is why it is included in my favorite images of 2021.
I continued to push my creativity by experimenting with Intentional Camera Movement (ICM). The key when shooting ICM is to take many shots in the field while varying your camera movement and speed. The results can be quite expressive as shown in this image of bare birch trees reflecting in water. I titled this one “Mirage”.
This is my absolute favorite water abstract image to date. I once asked TJ Thorne for any advice on finding intriguing water abstracts. He responded by stating “the key is not to look for them”. I did not know what exactly he meant until this scene revealed itself to me during a hike in early December.
If you made it this far, I thank you for your time and patience. We get to the final image. I have been fascinated with ice patterns for several months now. The lakes, rivers, and ponds are starting to freeze despite the warmer than usual temperatures in Colorado. I could spend hours exploring these ice patterns. There are so many compositional options waiting to be photographed as is the case with this favorite ice image.
2021 was a creatively rewarding year for me. I feel like I pushed past some creative obstacles as I refined my photography approach and artistic vision. To summarize, I now realize the goal of my photography is to convey to you the experience of discovery of the common and uncommon. By common, I mean those scenes we pass by without a second thought. And by uncommon, I am referring to those moments where the light is just special or elements in a scene come together in a rare juxtaposition.
Thank you again for visiting this first blog of mine. I wish you a wonderful upcoming year.