Picture Story
A look behind the curtain at my image making
January, 2023
My favorite images of 2022
Arizona photos lead the field of faves
Picking my favorite images of of 2023 was no easy task, at least not as easy as when I came up with the idea. But now, after days of rumination, I can tell you it was near impossible, almost like deciding on your entree at the fanciest of fancy restaurants: they all look delicious, but you can only have one.
Lucky for me, in this exercise I can have a half dozen!
My first stop seemed obvious, I reviewed my entire landscape portfolio, where I file my personal favorites as the year unwinds.
That narrowed the field from god-knows-how-many images made during the entire year, down to a mesley 25. Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, that ended up to be heavily weighted to images made from June through late October in the deserts and mountains of Arizona, 21 in Arizona, only 4 in the midwest.
That, as it turned out was the easiest part.
From there, I reviewed each of the 25 images with an eye towards picking the six that
1)Still, after weeks from when they were created, they still evoke a strong feeling of what I had experienced that day and what I was trying to communicate at the time.
And
2)Best reflect how I see the natural world: as a place of drama, color, texture, shape and contradiction that can leave one breathless.
That said, here, in no particular order, are my favorites images of 2022:
“The Sentinel”: A towering Saguaro stands guard over a parched and desolate desert as storm clouds gather in the distance.
“Jones Island Sunrise” :I can still feel the crunch of snow underfoot as the morning sun paints a warm glow on sunrise, quite the contradiction to the icy temperatures that morning.
“The Gathering”: A desert trail on a hot Arizona day led to a surprisingly gorgeous canyon landscape brushed with color and dotted with texture.
“A Storm Gathers”: Golden light –a contradiction as scary clouds gather-- is fleeting, especially at sunset along the Linda Visa Trail near Tucson.
“The Approach”: I still feel that sense of foreboding as storm clouds spawn rain over the Catalina Mountains
“Mountain Magic” : I love this image because it reminds of how sunrise in Arizona can change the lump-of-coal-black of night into a jewel of the morning.