Top 10 Photos of 2023
Hello everyone! It’s that time of year again, we’re saying goodbye to 2023, and hello to 2024. For the past few years, I have been making it an exercise for myself to review the shots I’ve captured throughout the year and picking out ten photos that I feel earn a biased award of being my best shots of the year. Some of these shots were selected because of the story behind the capture, others are selected for being published or recognized by others thru sales in the year, and some simply because all the elements came together perfectly in a way that I simply loved.
If you are interested in a print of any of the images in this post, feel free to check out sizes and pricing here, and contact me for a quote or to place an order.
So without further ado, here are my top 10 photos of 2023!!!
The Storms of Spring
April 20, 2023, 7:51 PM
Location: Backyard
Canon EOS R7
RF-S18-150mm F3.5-6.3 IS STM @ 24 mm
13.0 sec at ƒ / 8.0
ISO 200
Whenever a good thunderstorm passes through West Michigan, I always take the opportunity to try and capture a shot of a lightning strike. In this new age of AI in Photoshop, I know I could easily spice up a shot with an AI lightning strike, but you’re probably thinking the same thing as me, that’s cheating. I assure you, if you ever see a lightning shot from me, it will never be AI manipulated to show something that wasn’t there. There is an exhilaration that comes with actually capturing that split second moment in camera, and I wouldn’t trade that feeling for an easy cheat.
Now that my rant is over, on to the actual photo. I was ready for this shot. I knew the storm was coming in, so I planted my tripod at the edge of the yard and watched. As the sky began to flicker, I gauged where I thought the best chance of capturing a strike would be. Once I picked the area of sky, I took notice of the daffodils growing at the edge of the field. Fortunately the winds have not picked up yet, so I decided to get down low and include the flowers in the shot. While it is practically impossible to take a 13 second exposure with the flowers remaining perfectly still and not swaying in the breeze, it was still enough where it didn’t bother me too much. The flowers aren’t perfectly in focus, but they were never meant to be the focus of the shot to begin with.
The decision to include them in the shot was also because I hoped to do something different this time around with my storm photography. Typically with my lightning shots, I tend to be “bland” with my composition, a silhouetted horizon and the sky occupying most of the frame, and of course a lightning bolt. With the storm coming in, the still air, and enough light that the foreground and middle ground trees were not completely darkened by dusk, all the elements were there for me to potentially do something different with my photography.
I started interval shooting in hopes that a strike would plant itself within my frame. At this point, it was a matter of luck, I could have very easily gotten nothing from the sky, but fortune was on my side this night. This shot makes it into my top 10 this year for the composition and forethought that went into this image, but also for the luck I had it even capturing it at all.
Window on the Waterfront-35
May 11, 2023, 6:16 PM
Location: Window on the Waterfront
Canon EOS R7
RF-S18-150mm F3.5-6.3 IS STM @ 111 mm
¹⁄₄₀ sec at ƒ / 6.3
ISO 100
This year one of my Tulip Time shots makes it into my top 10. In 2022, I missed out on the festivities as I was in Alaska at the time, so this year I made sure to get my fill of the tulips. I was also stocking up on portrait oriented shots this year, as I was preparing inventory for the Tulip Time art show, I found I heavily focused on landscape orientation with my photography in the past. I decided to challenge myself this year to get more portrait shots instead. This shot appeals to me in particular for the contrasting colors of the red and green, and also for the gradual softening of the scene as your eye drifts upward into the background.
Rippling Light
June 17, 2023, 5:58 PM
Location: Seul Choix Pointe Lighthouse
Canon EOS R7
RF-S18-150mm F3.5-6.3 IS STM @ 18 mm
¹⁄₁₀₀ sec at ƒ / 11
ISO 100
This shot was taken on my trip up to Mackinac Island this year. While the focus of the trip was the island, we took some time to get into the Upper Peninsula as well (hard to resist).
This shot from Seul Choix Pointe makes it into my top 10 because of the elements within the shot. I love the rocks under the water in this shot and how the rippling light casts the glowing lines under the water. The scene screams of a summer paradise to me, kind of makes me want to kick my shoes off and walk out to the rock in the middle ground and simply take in the sounds of Lake Michigan’s shores.
Robber Fly
July 21, 2023, 9:34 PM
Location: Home Studio
Canon EOS R7
90.0 mm @ 90 mm
6.0 sec at ƒ / 11
ISO 100
Time to get up close and personal with the creepy crawlies. This photo makes it into my top 10 this year mainly as it was selected to by featured in the December issue of Photography MasterClass Magazine. It’s always exciting to get that email that one of my photos has been selected for their Reader’s Gallery.
This Robber Fly is one of the critters that I sometimes encounter in our basement. I don’t typically see these down there, so I’m not sure if he hitched a ride in on my clothes or found his own way in, but either way he earned himself a photo shoot.
I keep a selection of colored paper that I use as a stage for macro photography and a clear box that I catch the bugs in. If they seem calm, I let them out on to the paper and keep them enclosed within the open air space, but for the ones that could fly away on me or easily escape (I know they’re little, but I’m jumpy and easily startled), I keep them in the clear box until they calm down. This robber fly in particular was not very active to begin with, so once I got him in the box, I set the box down so that he was facing me, set up the camera with the macro lens, and captured a quick few shots. He never moved on me, so it was a quick photo shoot and quick release back outside where he belonged. This shot didn’t require much post processing, mainly a little extra sharpening to combat the slight fuzziness caused by the clear box he was in. It certainly deserves to be in my top 10 with the intricate detail that was captured in the eyes of the fly, which was likely what caught the attention of the magazine as well.
Water - Earth
September 7, 2023, 5:08 PM
Location: Au Sable Point
Canon EOS R7
RF-S18-150mm F3.5-6.3 IS STM @ 47 mm
¹⁄₁₂₅ sec at ƒ / 11
ISO 640
This shot was captured during my annual trip to the Upper Peninsula. Taken along the shores of Lake Superior on a windy and rainy day, I watched the waves crashing again the sandstone shores and was reminded of those classic overhead shots of waves washing up on the beach. I wanted to try my hand and my own version of that scene and came up with this. This shot makes it into my top ten for the balance within the scene, half water, half earth, and the contrast between the blues and the oranges in the scene. A relatively simple scene, but the simple scenes are often the better scenes.
Also taken during the same trip as the previous image, this shot is the type of moment I love capturing when going on excursions to the Upper Peninsula. There were a couple nights on this trip where we were running around and capturing images up until the last minute then taking a long drive back to the hotel completely in the dark. This shot taken in Marquette was on one of those nights. The trip was overall very rainy so the sunsets were a bit non-existent, but this night there was just the slightest hint of color in the sky. The overall shoreline by the lighthouse was fun little playground for me with the rocks and puddles created by
Marquette Harbor
September 10, 2023, 6:40 PM
Location: Marquette Harbor Lighthouse
Canon EOS R7
RF-S18-150mm F3.5-6.3 IS STM @ 18 mm
¹⁄₄₀ sec at ƒ / 11
ISO 100
the rain, so I simply had to get as much in the scene as I could. I set up the camera to capture a panoramic of the scene. I didn’t feel the need to get my full 1x3 panorama that I typically go for, just enough to include the lighthouse, the curve of the rocky shores, and the variation of the clouds. Once I stitched the shots together, I cut out the excess of the scene I captured and pulled out the subtle colors of the sky to enhance the sunset that was often obscured during that trip. This shot makes it into my top 10 for the joy of capturing and memory of that adventure.
The DeZwaan Windmill
October 7, 2023, 9:07 AM
Location: Windmill Island
Canon EOS Rebel T8i
EF-S18-55mm f/4-5.6 IS STM @ 18 mm
¹⁄₂₅₀ sec at ƒ / 8.0
ISO 100
This shot is a perfect illustration of why it helps to be in the right place at the right time, and also the importance of being prepared. I was selling my photos at a 2-day art show on Windmill Island this year. While the show was a success (at least for me), the weather wasn’t cooperative at all for me. The first day was incredibly windy, and there was the threat of a downpour overnight, which eventually carried over into the majority of the second day of the show. There was a brief respite in the rain on the morning of day 2, and while we were drying things up from the rain the night before, my Aunt who assists me at my art shows pointed out that the clouds and parted and a rainbow was perfectly displayed by the windmill. I rushed to my car, and my old Canon T8i camera that I keep in the car as an emergency backup proved useful for the second time since upgrading to the R7. I typically don’t take my main camera with me everywhere if the intention isn’t to take photos like when i go to work or visit with family/friends, so having the old camera in the car has certainly paid off when moments like this occur. After a brief moment of running like a madman to frantically capture a few shots without bothering the properly capture GPS coordinates or other typical steps I take before pressing the shutter, I realized the battery in the car camera was dead. Cursing myself for not thinking of that when i pulled the camera out, I rushed back to the car again, fumbled to change the battery to one of the backups I have in a car charger, and run back to the position I first took to take the shot, and the rainbow was gone. Walking back to my tent with slumped shoulders, I took the camera with me in the hopes that the clouds would part again for me and restore the rainbow. I watched anxiously as we continued to dry things off and reset the products for the sale, and eventually the rainbow reappeared along with the arc of a double rainbow. I ran over to the position I wanted one more time, and captured this shot along with a few others, and my little photographer heart was healed from my earlier disappointment. The only thing to do now was to patiently work my way through the sale and get home some I could work on these shots and print a few off for the next art show. This shot makes it into my top 10 for the obvious reasons seen in the shot itself and for the story above. This shot would exist in my portfolio if it were for me being over prepared, despite my slight hiccup with the battery.
Sunset Moon
October 24, 2023, 6:38 PM
Location: Front Yard
Canon EOS R7
TAMRON SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD G2 A022 @ 600 mm
¹⁄₁₂₅ sec at ƒ / 6.3
ISO 100
As I was out for a run one night, the shifting light was casting some interesting color on the moon, so I decided to cut my run short and run back home to grab the camera. With my super telephoto lens, I was hoping to capture shots with the unique color shading the moon along with the clouds that shaded in the same hues, but the clouds would either obscure the moon too much, or be far enough away from the moon where the composition didn’t feel right to me. So I ended up focusing just on the moon itself. This shot makes it into my top 10 for a few reasons, the simplicity of the shot, the color and texture I captured on the moon, and also for the attention this shot got from the Masterclass Magazine. It didn’t make it to the magazine in 2023, but it will feature in the Reader’s Gallery in 2024.
Tangled in Mist
October 29, 2023, 3:07 PM
Location: Dr. Lawless International Dark Sky Park
Canon EOS R7
RF-S18-150mm F3.5-6.3 IS STM @ 45 mm
¹⁄₁₃ sec at ƒ / 11
ISO 100
The first selection in this year taken in Autumn, this shot was taken on my last fall outing of the season before the leaves have fallen and transitioned to that “ugly” time of year before the snow starts falling.
This shot makes it into my top 10 for the scene itself. I loved the twirling trees that weave their way up through the frame, and the hint of mist that was in the air that the time added a hint of mystery to the scene.
On Halloween night, we had a surprisingly early first snowfall of the season. As I returned home from work that day, I decided I’d take a few shots around the neighborhood before the snow melted, capturing a blend of two seasons in one scene. As I was about to call it quits, I spotted these deer grazing in the field with the mixed seasonal backdrop. Typically my wildlife shots focus in close on the animals in question, but I felt the call to make this more of an environment portrait for the scene in which the wildlife is only a small element rather than a overwhelming subject. This shot makes it into my top 1o for the year on the merit of uniqueness in my portfolio.
Winter Foraging
October 31, 2023, 6:17 PM
Location: Backyard
Canon EOS R7
RF-S18-150mm F3.5-6.3 IS STM @ 150 mm
¹⁄₈₀ sec at ƒ / 11
ISO 800
And with that, those are my top 10 photos of 2023!
If you are interested in a print of any of the images in this post, feel free to check out sizes and pricing here, and contact me for a quote or to place an order.