Tuesday, January 03, 2012

My Best Photos of 2011

In 2011, I took at least one photo on every day of the year and uploaded it to Flickr. A lot of users do projects like this, sometimes called a 365 project. I never really announced that I was doing one but just tried to keep it going for as long as I could. Here is a sample of my best images from last year, one from each month.
  1. January: Red Crossbill at Seven Presidents Park 
  2. February Tonight's Sunset (2/10/2011) 
  3. March: Sun Rises Over Cape May Point 
  4. April: Snowy Egret 
  5. May: Bleeding hearts 
  6. June: Oriental Beetle 
  7. July: Red-banded Hairstreak 
  8. August: Gray-hooded Gull is not impressed by your Wonder Wheel 
  9. September: Trichopoda pennipes 
  10. October: Hoverfly 
  11. November: Rose and fallen leaves 
  12. December: Douglas Firs

Eight of those twelve images were shot within a short walking distance of my home.

From among those photos, I feel that my best was this image of a hoverfly I took in October. It was feeding on a chrysanthemum in my backyard. A lot of elements came together in a photo that I did not expect to turn out so well: good lighting, enough depth-of-field to keep most of the insect in focus, and a flower whose rays lead the eye naturally to the insect. I blogged about this image once before.

My best bird photo of the year was probably this photo of a Snowy Egret that I took at the South Cape May Meadows in April.

We are already on our third day of 2012, and I am still reviewing what happened last year. My blogging will turn to things from the new year soon, though.