Favourite Images from 2020

A New Year! A fresh start! – Well, I feel it’ll take a bit longer but we can all hope for an improvement in our circumstances as 2021 progresses. I wish you all peace, prosperity and good health for the coming year. While the last year has been hard, I’m very clear that others have had a truly dreadful time and I feel I’ve been very lucky.

Tina has asked us to show our favourite photographs from that last year – a period when my photographic activities had been greatly reduced due to lockdowns and inability to travel. So I’ve been posting many images from my back catalogue, which is fine, but I try to show here some favourite images actually taken during the year. I’ve been able to pick out a few that have been particular memories

These first two were taken down at the coast nearby on a day when three of us went to photograph the exploits of the kite surfers at Troon. Probably the only sports images I have been able to shoot all year with so many events being cancelled. That day the sun, wind and waves combined to give good chance of some great action. The one below seemed just unreal.

Thanks to all the kite surfers for welcoming us among them.

Then being quite confined to the house, I set up a mini-studio to take macro images of some of the aquilegias, that my wife grows in our small garden. These flowers come in an amazing variety. I managed about 12 different flower types using focus stacking. (for those unfamiliar with the term – it means taking several images each focussed at a slightly different focal plane, and then combining the sharpest bits of each image into one with software). The latest cameras can do this automatically but I did it the old fashioned way – it was a bit of a labour of love.

I couldn’t not have some nature images included here. Like sport, my nature photography was much reduced, but I found some golden plover down at the coast nearby. It’s a favourite image for me simply because I hadn’t even identified these birds on our coast before – even though they are not that uncommon – but the first chance I had to make their acquaintance.

The only other real nature trip to a local wildlife reserve merely many produced images dragonflies. Now, you know these super shots of birds of prey, standing with one claw holding down their prey while they take their fill. My favourite image here was of a dragonfly in the process of devouring a fly, yet I don’t think it’ll get me any prizes. For all you animal lovers or of a squeamish disposition I refrain from posting it here…..but here is one image of those Common Darter dragonflies

To end, I’ll post a couple from a series of monochrome images I took around the house and garden during our first severe lockdown. There were about 10-12 in the series. This first recalls the practice of us putting a soft toy in the window so children could see them on their one daily permitted walk with their parents. Most folk had a teddy bear – we only had a Tigger.

The final image from the same series is just about the consolation from those normal simple things that we have around us and so often take for granted. This image comes with words at no extra charge.

Toast

I dreamt I was awake all night,
a tumbling waterfall of thoughts,
Strange environments, late for meetings.
Where did I leave the car?
Why am I shouting at this person?
I dreamt all night I was awake.

And now,
I’m in the kitchen
opening the blinds
to the warmth
and love of sunshine
….and toast

Thanks to Tina for setting the Lens-Artists Challenge #129 – Favorite Images of 2020