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Wow – another year gone by, and I am once again summarizing my year with my favorite photos. This year’s schedule was “crimped” a bit by my move at the end of December 2013 to my new home near Richmond, and now as I look around this new space I am amazed that I actually moved all the “contents” myself and only the furniture was moved by a moving company. I already need a bigger place! I spent a lot of time landscaping and painting and installing new floors… – transforming the space into a reflection of my taste. With time and finances crimped, I adventured only 5 times to areas outside of Virginia this year, and four of those were to areas I had been to before! I plan to change that in 2015, traveling more and exploring new places for photography. Another good chunk of my time in 2014 was expended printing images, cutting mats and framing my work to exhibit with a team of fellow photographers from Charlottesville. The work (and costs) are just beginning to pay off with several sales at Christmas, and I thank everyone who supported me. I have once again neglected my blog, but I hope to remedy that in the new year – we’ll see how that goes!

There are stories to be told with every photograph, so here goes my favorite twelve with the stories that inspired me to take the photo. Hope you enjoy my selection of “bests”, arranged in order of my taste.

‘Sunrise Botany Bay’, Edisto Island, South Carolina: To capture the sun strategically placed between the bare limbs of a skeleton tree just after sunrise along the coast of Edisto Island, Botany Bay, South Carolina, I stepped from a small sand ledge marking the edge of erosion by high tide into the ocean and waded through thigh-high wave-slapping water in the dark of the night, scrambling over and around 10 to 20 downed trees with limbs and branches blocking transit. To get the placement of the sun I picked my way through branches of a downed tree to get to a clear view and was balanced on one leg in the water steadying my tripod – not an easy shot to make but the effort and the ocean drench was worth it to capture this moment in time. This is the photo I had envisioned when traveling to Charleston, SC in late March, to an area I had missed exploring on my first visit in 2012. Technical data: Canon 5D MkII with Canon EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens at focal length 105mm, 1/80 second at f/8, ISO 200, on Manfrotto tripod.

‘Misty River’ , Mill Creek, West Virginia: This image of Mill Creek (a New River Tributary) in Ansted, West Virginia, was taken early morning on a rainy dreary day at the peak of Autumn color. My trip to southern West Virginia and the New River Gorge area was my one “virgin” area to explore, and it rained every day. Whereas capturing sunrises and sunsets and bright blue skies that enhance brilliant foliage is not possible in the rain, waterfalls can be more beautiful because of the thoroughly wet rocks and the soft misty look. Not only does this image have brilliant fall color and lovely water cascades from two directions, but the rain and mist have added a yellow “glow” to the background. Technical data: Canon 5D MkII with Canon EF 17-40 f/4L at focal length of 32mm, 2.5 seconds at f/18, ISO 100, on Manfrotto tripod.

‘A River Runs Through It’, Campbell Falls, West Virginia: This is another photo from my rainy photo tour in southern West Virginia. I scooted along a narrow rock ledge to get to this location, looking back at the rushing river water about to tumble down Campbell Falls in Camp Creek State Park and make its way to the New River. From this perspective the motion in the water shows its power, some of it gained from the several days of rain, brilliantly framed with Autumn color. Technical data: Canon 5D MkII with Canon EF17-40 f/4L at focal length of 17mm, 8 seconds at f/11, ISO 100, on Manfrotto tripod.

‘Magnificent Oak’, Charleston, South Carolina: The sweeping “arms” of these staggered old Live Oak trees with trailing Spanish moss seemed to compose themselves as a panorama, but I had difficulty in post processing with the color. Even in the soft early morning light the scene appeared as a tangle of greens and browns which tended to blend into each other. This conversion to black and white rendered the photo like a line drawing or sketch. It all came together to represent for me the southern charm of Charleston. Technical data: Canon 5D MkII with Canon EF24-105mm f/4L lens at focal length of 67mm, 0.3 seconds at f/16, ISO 100, 5 vertical images stitched to form one panorama, Manfrotto tripod.

‘Night Lights’, Bodie Lighthouse with Star Trails, Outer Banks, North Carolina: This image was created on a cold night in March at Bodie Lighthouse in Nags Head, an area along the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Star trails take time to capture the rotation of the earth, and for this image I managed to get Polaris, otherwise known as the North Pole Star, smack-dab centered behind the Fresnel lens of the lighthouse in order to create this circular effect. It was a cold (below-freezing) night, making the time it took to take 16 images of 4 minutes each that were needed to stack together to form the star trail feel like forever – quite an exercise in patience, and in the end the cold won out! This image won the Charlottesville Camera Club 2014 ‘Best Projection in the Assigned Category’ end of year award in December. Technical data: Canon 5D MkII with Canon EF17-40 f/4L at focal length of 17mm, 16 images of 4 minutes each stacked, f/4, ISO 200, Manfrotto tripod.

‘Steely Morn’, Boneyard Beach, Edisto Island, South Carolina: It is always amazing how the light can change in a matter of an hour! This lone tree, like its brother in the top image, is located along Edisto Island just south of Charleston in an area called “the boneyard”. The area is so named because of the numerous dead trees either still standing (like this one) or uprooted and scattered all along the beach. When I first arrived before dawn the beach was submerged by high tide, but the tide had been steadily rolling out and would soon leave this tree on a dry beach. But the most startling change is in color – all of the orange, red and yellow light of sunrise has been masked by a bank of clouds, leaving this image with a totally different, cold like steel, mood. What makes this photo “art” is the long exposure, rendering the moving water into smooth ribbons of gray and white, and composed for the patterns the moving water created. Technical data: Canon 5D MkII with Canon EF24-105mm f/4L lens at focal length of 50mm, 1.6 seconds at f/22, ISO 160, Manfrotto tripod.

‘Solemn Sunrise’, Dolly Sods Wilderness, West Virginia: Dolly Sods Wilderness in northern West Virginia has always been one of my favorite places to shoot, and I jumped on the opportunity to return for the third time this past October. Getting there for sunrise is quite an ordeal – the nearest lodging is in Canaan Valley, and 9 of the 16 miles is along a windy dirt and gravel road that takes a minimum of 48 minutes to navigate – in the dark! Then comes a rock scramble in the near dark, navigating around and over large boulders, jumping deep crevasses, choosing each step carefully to get to a good vantage point for the sunrise with an interesting foreground. The sunrise this morning did not disappoint, although the day that followed quickly turned to rain. Technical data: Canon 5D MkII with Canon EF24-105mm f/4L lens at focal length of 28mm, 0.3 seconds at f/18, ISO 100, Manfrotto tripod.

‘Gold and Blue’ Dolly Sods Wilderness, West Virginia: Another day and another sunrise in Dolly Sods Wilderness in the Allegheny Mountains of northern West Virginia. Dolly Sods is a rocky, high-altitude plateau with sweeping vistas and lifeforms classified as subarctic tundra – similar to northern areas of Canada. When my alarm went off in the wee dark hours I could see only cloud cover, but decided since this was my last day in the area that I would head to Dolly Sods anyway. It wasn’t until I was on the ridge looking out onto the Allegheny Mountains that the clouds parted just enough to let this golden light through to the rocks that just moments before been bathed in the blue tones of shade. Technical data: Canon 5D MkII with Canon EF24-105mm f/4L lens at focal length of 28mm, 0.3 seconds at f/18, ISO 100, Manfrotto tripod.

‘End of a Summer’s Day’, Swift Creek Reservior, Midlothian, VA: Finally an image close to home has become a favorite! I had previously scouted this private lake and had taken photos here before, but none had the color display of this evening. In fact, the location is about 30 minutes south of my home, and when I checked the sky 30 minutes before sunset I didn’t think the cloud cover had potential. But within 10 minutes the light had changed and I decided to go for it. I arrived at the park just as the sun had set, but the color had yet to fade as I composed and took this shot. This photo was voted as a favorite for the month of May and will be included in the 2015 RPMG calendar for that month. Technical data: Canon 5D MkII with Canon EF24-105mm f/4L at focal length of 24mm, 1.3 seconds at f/14, ISO 100, Manfrotto tripod.

‘Sunburst at Raven’s Roost’, Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia: I had seen photos of this lone tree at an overlook along the Blue Ridge Parkway, and wanted to see what I could do with it. August in Virginia is notoriously hot and humid, but we were blessed with a few days of nice temps so I headed out on the 1 and 1/2 hour drive about 2 and 1/2 hours before sunset on a mostly cloudy day. My thinking was that the cloud cover would create a magical dance of color for the sunset and start of twilight. But as I drove west I could see the clouds thinning out and then dissipating – a clear uninteresting sky marks the worst conditions for a landscape photographer! Luckily a few clouds remained, so on site I tried several compositions, finally deciding on this one with the setting sun strategically placed between limbs to create a bit of a star burst pattern, and the golden backlight embracing the Appalachian Mountains. Technical data: Canon 5D MkII with EF24-105mm f/4L lens at focal length of 24mm, 1/80th second at f/16, ISO 100, Manfrotto tripod.

‘Good Morning Atlantic Ocean’, Jennettes Pier, Nags Head, North Carolina: It was hard to select this last landscape photo for my 2014 best list. I have to eliminate so many photos with this choice, and these last few all seem to elicit the same level of emotional response from me. I went with this image because of the single figure facing the immensity of the ocean, welcoming the new day. This morning was totally overcast, but since it was my last overnight just a block from the beach, I thought I’d see what I could get. The cloud cover did not break until the sun was about 3 degrees above the horizon, creating the golden glow just out of the frame. But the golden light of sunrise is reflected in the sand ridges of the beach and the side of the huge pier. Technical data: Canon 5D MkII with Canon EF24-105mm f/4L lens at focal length of 24mm, 1/200th second at f/11, ISO 200, on Manfrotto tripod.

Rose Composite: I like to include a “created” image in my best image list and this would be my favorite in 2014. It was definitely labor intensive to create, although I suspect in hindsight that I could have found a quicker way to do it! The rose is one Knock-Out rose from that new garden of mine, photographed on a light table in 7 different “poses”, and each pose photographed 5 times at different shutter speeds, starting at extremely over exposed to almost correctly exposed. The 5 photos at different shutter speeds were opened as layers in photoshop, with the most underexposed on the top. Using masks I painted in portions of each petal from each of the underlying layers to obtain a “transparent” look to the flower. Each flower photo was saved, and then composited in photoshop to an arrangement I liked. The photo looked a little bare so I thought I should add a contrasting color. Luckily my bellflower was in bloom, and I cut several stocks, arranged each on the light table, and repeated the process of color stacking and painting. Then I added those to the composition, tucking in and masking as needed. Technical data: Canon 5D MkII with Canon EF100mm f/2.8L macro lens at focal length of 100mm, various shutter speeds at f/8, ISO 100, Manfrotto tripod.

I also received the ‘Rothman Photographer of the Year’ award from the Charlottesville Camera Club. That is quite an honor considering the high caliber of photographers in that group! I will end with a composite of some favorites from this past year that didn’t quite make the final cut. And remember, all my photographs are copyrighted and cannot be used without my permission. Thanks for reading and viewing, and happy photographing in the new year!