Your favourite photo of 2021 (taken by you), and why

lynnb

lynnb

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Here we go again.. let's end the year by sharing which photo is your favourite of all the photos you've taken in 2021 - and why.

Please don't confuse this with 'your best photograph', although it might well be.. I think 'favourite' is the more interesting choice!

A Happy New Year to all!

Lynn

PS I know it can be difficult to choose just one favourite over different genres (like portrait, and landscape), so more than one favourite is permitted - but please, no more than two or three.

Don’t forget to say why it’s your favourite!
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This thread in previous years:
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
 


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This is fresh from two days ago. I was reacquainting with my MM (a favorite camera), and saw this image as I passed my daughter. She'd just finished breakfast at the counter and was lost in thought. Everything was there including the challenge that the sun might overpower. I am pleased with how it came out. It delivers with very few elements and everything in the frame contributes.

Thank you Lynn for the thread, and Happy New Year!

David


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Eastern Water Dragon after trying to be invisible by Richard, on Flickr

This was the culmination of a project over many days and even weeks requiring me to walk down and then up the hill from the river carrying my aluminium tripod and Hasselblad and 150 Sonnar, only on the hottest days of February 2021.

Some weeks earlier my wife had come up the hill with an astonishing photograph of a dragon looking up at her from the path, his tail curving taught on the gravel under the dappled sunlight breaking through the overhanging trees. She'd chased a much larger one into the bush and down to the water. We looked them up and realised that for the whole twenty years living here these remarkably ancient creatures were native to the area. Had never seen one, despite nearly daily walks along the river, partly as I always walk in the early morning or the evening.

I set off to find one for myself. I crept along the paths when mad dogs and Englishman might be the only expected companions. Early on I saw one with his characteristic raised head and shoulders one morning sunning himself on the edge of the pond behind the bars of the riverfront apartments. That same posture caught my eye some days later as I crossed the reserve to the path where I might find them but I was too brisk and he clocked me and fled down to the cool forest at the river edge. Days went by before my next chance.

As I ambled back with camera mounted on tripod, light meter around my neck, exposure already set, I noticed something resting on the grating atop the drainage cistern. Hadn't noticed that piece of fallen foliage on my way past earlier. Soon I resolved clearly the angled head-on presentation of the dragon. I carefully set down the tripod, flipped up the waist level finder and there in the finder was nothing but the iron grating.

I slowly rotated right and there he was. After taking this photograph I followed him down to the river and saw others and now I see them regularly.

The camouflage the dragon turned on here is very clever too.
 
It's oddly been tuff getting out and using my camera's during the time of covid.

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This was my favourite photo taken in 2021. It was such an unexpected sight. In the middle winter during a pandemic, when the only permissible reason to be outdoors was exercise.. I did a double take when I saw this group of young girls standing on their hands at the beach. From the time I saw them to when I took the photo was at least 45 seconds - and they remained that way for a minute longer until a woman who was admonishing them to keep still and straight told them to stand up again. I guess they weren't allowed to do their class indoors, so they came to the beach.

Taken with my Leica CL and Voigtlander Ultron 35mm f/2 Asph. Vintage Line on FP4+ @ISO400 in Ilfotec HC 1+15 7m 18C.

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"Favorite"? It wasn't that kind of year. "Most meaningful"? It's just a quick snap with an iPhone, but maybe this...

Until this year, when I'd go to visit my dad at his assisted-living facility, we'd often sit outside on summer evenings and look up at the sky. He was always especially interested in the jet contrails. I had a phone app that let me look up the plane's flight number and where it was going; he seemed to enjoy knowing that.

This fall, my dad's health had several setbacks, and eventually we had to make the difficult decision to let him go. On my way out to visit him at the hospital, on what turned out to be one of his last evenings of life, I looked up and saw this: a jet contrail, headed west toward sunset. I remembered that for centuries, "going west" had been a euphemism for dying. My dad was going west, and all I could do was hope he had a peaceful journey.


west-800.jpg
 
I was lucky enough to have a couple of favourite pictures this year. This one was taken in the small chapel of St Stanislaw. I keep returning to this chapel and I have plenty of versions of this picture over the years but none of them felt "quite right ".

The light was brilliant that day, very soft. They were playing a pre-recorded mass and there was enough sound coming out from the chapel speakers to hide the shutter sound.

Nikon F4 - AF Nikkor 35f/2
Ilford HP5 + in HC110

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They’re all lovely pictures. I’m particularly fond of filmtwit’s— it’s got such a light, carefree atmosphere, just the right thing to start 2022. I think that for me it’s got something to do with things moving about in the wind, giving it life even though they are rags. It makes me cheerful for some reason.
 
valdas said:
It must be this one. I am not really sure why. I am always in the chase of the decisive moment, but always so far away from catching it. Maybe this time I was a bit closer, at least in my eyes (Contax T, expired Fuji Superia 100):
Click to expand...

I love this photo. I came across it on a photography web site somewhere a few months ago. Can't remember which one.
 
Gonna cheat here and give you two….

This shot was taken not too far from our property in eastern Ontario in Canada. We’d been unable to get up there for about a year and a half due to COVID, so it was a welcome relief when we were finally able to be there again and to visit my family. Nothing particularly special about this shot, but I just happen to like it and reminds me of the feeling of being back in my Canadian homeland.


Silver Lake2 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

This is one of my favourite photos and the first glass plate image that I took with my Ermanox. This is Jack and he is a furniture maker, welder, and just an all-round talented fellow. I think this particular shot made me realize that I could make a go of it with this crazy, highly-impractical camera. I had numerous fits and starts with it this past year, but I think in the long run the effort has been worth it.


Jack 2021 Ermanox by Vince Lupo, on Flickr
 
Hard to choose a favorite. Many of my photos have personal meanings that make them special. I almost went with the shot of the nurse, clowning around with me and making a funny face when I got my first COVID vaccination. It's comical, sorta timely and others could identify with the moment. Another would be one of the photos I took of my dog Christie barking--or rather singing. She looks like singing in the photos anyway. But it's too cute...really.

I picked this one as my favorite. It's certainly not the best in technique or image quality. To me, it's unsettling. It was a drive-by. I saw this little guy walking home at the end of the school day as I was driving home from somewhere and I grabbed the camera and started snapping shots as I passed him. He has that look of not being sure of the situation and he responds with a hesitant friendly wave but has a look of concern on his face.

So let this be my goodbye wave to 2021. Let it be a wary wave hello to 2022. Considering the past, it gives me conflicting feelings.


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My favorite picture is this one. Nothing like the shot of adrenalin you get while being dive-bombed by a female Northern Goshawk.

goshawk.jpg

Jim B.
 
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