Top 10 of 2013

It's that time of the year again... time for some reflection and to pick my top 10 shots of the previous 12 months.

Picking this year was tough... REALLY tough... mostly for 2 reasons:
1. You are your own worst critic, and if you are constantly improving, you find it hard not to over-critique previous work
2. Some shots had a story to them that made them special, even if they weren't as technically good as others.

Well, after much deliberation, and some peer consultation (yeh... I cheated a little and asked a few friends!), here are (in no particular order) my top 10 of 2013... enjoy!

I love this shot because I had tried to lure a hummingbird to my garden for 2 years, with no success.
This success was a result of a Moose Peterson tutorial on Kelby Training, and a new hummingbird feeder!

Picking this particular one, from a group of this session's shots, was tough - I loved a few of them!
Captured just off the beach at Porteau Cove, I stalked this guy for about 30 minutes,
gradually (& very patiently) getting closer...

My favourite shot from the 2013 Wedding Season. :-)

When a Wedding becomes my Birthday...

I had the great pleasure of being invited to second-shoot a wedding with Lori, of Lori Johnson Photography, in August.... and I must say that this gig kind-of became a bit of a birthday for me. Why? Because I was given the rare chance to shoot with lenses that I usually just drool over in my catalogues.

Shooting with Lori is always a pleasure anyway, and she is fantastic about giving constructive feedback in a way that doesn't crush my soul(!)... but on this occasion, since the results needed to be as tack sharp as possible for printing purposes, she allowed me to shoot with whatever lenses she wasn't using at the time. My inner voice was singing and whooping with every single lens change! (My outer shell remained calm and professional, of course!)

The 3 new lenses I shot with were the 105mm, 24-70mm f2.8 and the much coveted 70-200mm f2.8 (all Nikkor). My favourite? Well, I loved them all, and I am now definitely saving harder for that 24-70, but the clear winner had to be the 70-200. If this glass was a dessert, it would be a triple-chocolate & fudge death-by-chocolate layer cake, drizzled with chocolate & caramel sauce made with real Belgian chocolate. Mmmmm...

Here are a few of my favourite shots from that day...