Your favourite photo of 2016 (taken by you), and why

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This was taken with some deliberation on a beautiful evening in March. I chose f11, uncommon choice in that light and I focused on the tree. I was stuck by the harmony of textures of the wall and the tree trunk and the grass and I wanted everything in focus. I was also struck by the graphic shadows on the trunk and limbs and the remarkable volume of it that seemed more animal than vegetable. And then I forgot about it and took more shots of the fine building behind that wall. Much later my wife noticed this photo in a search for something to put in our hall. Only once I printed it did I see all of this properly, the finger like shadows tying the wall to the tree, the sihouetted twig and the other drak foliage against the bright pavement and the bright wall. It hangs on the wall at home and months later neither of us is sick of it. One visitor commented: the word limb seems particularly apt for this tree.
 
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In the far background my father, in the mid background my sister (legs & feet only).
But in the foreground her cat Marty who, like my dogs, I kind of envy for their ability to live in the moment and more or less wherever they like.
In this case, on the top of the sofa.
 
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I missed this image the first few times I reviewed the images taken at this little street carnival. The guy in the middle seems out of place. I also like the layering in the image.
 
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This portrait of my son and my wife/his mother, from one of her last casual outings before ovarian cancer confined her to home hospice, conveys the spirit of grieving together that characterizes our family's 2016 in retrospect. We all knew what was coming, and this image conveys how the foreknowledge of mourning to come affected each of us. It is as though he is hooded in grief and shadow, while she is luminous and ghostly as she thinks about what it means to leave her grown children too soon--a regret she often shared.

I have posted no images on RFF since she died in late September, and although I am taking my time to live reflectively through the strange and immensely silent desolation of life on my own after 38 years with her, this thread provided an opportunity to share something I have been reluctant to announce or discuss for its own sake on RFF. With this year drawing to a close in minutes in Oregon, I hope you all will be blessed and grateful in the time to come, and cherish the subjects you are given, especially when in more ways than one they are very much your own.
 
Robert thank you for sharing your grief. I hope this shall help you.
Good you are back, my best wishes!

the question as to show my best photo of 2016 really had put me at the spot, now decided for a photo of personal significance.
my mother at her home last summer, at the age of 87.


mom by andreas, on Flickr Vivitar f2/24mm, Sony A7
 
rhl-oregon said:
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This portrait of my son and my wife/his mother, from one of her last casual outings before ovarian cancer confined her to home hospice, conveys the spirit of grieving together that characterizes our family's 2016 in retrospect. We all knew what was coming, and this image conveys how the foreknowledge of mourning to come affected each of us. It is as though he is hooded in grief and shadow, while she is luminous and ghostly as she thinks about what it means to leave her grown children too soon--a regret she often shared.

I have posted no images on RFF since she died in late September, and although I am taking my time to live reflectively through the strange and immensely silent desolation of life on my own after 38 years with her, this thread provided an opportunity to share something I have been reluctant to announce or discuss for its own sake on RFF. With this year drawing to a close in minutes in Oregon, I hope you all will be blessed and grateful in the time to come, and cherish the subjects you are given, especially when in more ways than one they are very much your own.
Click to expand...

Robert,

you are not alone. I wish you and your loved ones a good 2017!
 
Very best wishes for 2017 Robert, to you and your family. We knew your wife had this illness. It is generous of you to share this picture and your recent sad news as many of us will have been thinking of you.
 
What a good idea for a thread – always interesting to see photographs that mean something to people as opposed to photographs that might have been judged the "best" in some way. Robert's photograph (and story) is particularly powerful but, to the extent that each image reveals something about the poster, each photograph is moving in some way or another.

I didn't take all that many photographs last year as photography has been increasingly tangential to other wider interests. Most of the photographs I did take are what you might call landscapes but my favourite is most probably this grab shot of my daughter.

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Such a hard choice.. out of the hundreds.. Taken with my Fuji X-E2. Ernst Leitz Wetzlar Summitar 5cm F2. Likely one of my fav this year with this lens.

 
I have been very much into "Impossible" photography, working on a wabi-sabi project.
This photo was shot on "Duo-Tone" film with my SX-70

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I like this photo because of the silhouettes and also because was shot during a day trip to Venice with my wife and our friends to visit an art exhibition. It was a nice interesting day!
 
I think I would go for this one. I love reflections and shadows. This one just "worked". It has the look on the subject's face and the position of her hands plus the way their faces are framed by the shadow of the lady outside the window. I often take shots like this - not all of them turn out as well.

Cafe Study 15 by Life in Shadows, on Flickr
 
this is very moving

this is very moving

I wish you strength, Robert. Such a loss is painful.
Take care.

Raid

rhl-oregon said:
med_U45148I1471552530.SEQ.3.jpg



This portrait of my son and my wife/his mother, from one of her last casual outings before ovarian cancer confined her to home hospice, conveys the spirit of grieving together that characterizes our family's 2016 in retrospect. We all knew what was coming, and this image conveys how the foreknowledge of mourning to come affected each of us. It is as though he is hooded in grief and shadow, while she is luminous and ghostly as she thinks about what it means to leave her grown children too soon--a regret she often shared.

I have posted no images on RFF since she died in late September, and although I am taking my time to live reflectively through the strange and immensely silent desolation of life on my own after 38 years with her, this thread provided an opportunity to share something I have been reluctant to announce or discuss for its own sake on RFF. With this year drawing to a close in minutes in Oregon, I hope you all will be blessed and grateful in the time to come, and cherish the subjects you are given, especially when in more ways than one they are very much your own.
Click to expand...
 
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