It is June and that means that it will be the sixth month I have had this website. The sixth month of having the best of my photos displayed here. This is the sixth month having blogs being written and posted for you to read. I have decided to celebrate a bit by narrowing down my top 10 images for 2015 so far.
#10 Photo of a Cubs player's broken bat
Lets get started with #10 and it happens to be a very recent one! Last week I was at an Iowa Cubs game sitting down low by the action. I was content photographing the batter and the ball, but when I saw this happen I could not have been happier to have had my camera set up almost perfectly. It is a lot of luck involved in capturing a shattered bat, but being ready for it to happen helps too.
#9 BIF - Heron in South Carolina
Next up is going to be my first BIF photo of a heron out in South Carolina. It may not be a great photo and this bird is not known to move very fast. The photo is sharp and close to the bird. Also, it was a huge success for me to see that in my viewfinder and then on the computer when I got back to the hotel room.
#8 Nutty White Squirrel
Number eight goes to the white squirrel we have at ISU. This guy was chilling out on central campus gathering nuts when I walked by to get a quick portrait before he scurried off away. It doesn’t show the entire body because I was close enough to not be able to, but everyone knows what that half of a squirrel looks like and the image was so crisp because of the decision to get so close that it was entirely worth it.
#7 Sunsetting Covered Bridge
The seventh best photo so far must go to the Madison Country Bridge shot I have at sunset. The pale orange sky mixed with the bright red of the barn all over a white snow and brown earth below combined to create a stunning image. It also happened to be one of the last shots I had from that day and really saved me from having no photos that stood up to the quality I really wanted.
#6 Majestic Bald Eagle
This next photo has really snuck its way in because of the subject and the difficulty I had in photographing it. That bald eagle looks more sad and depressing in about 90% of the photos I took that day either because of the way he looked into the camera or because of the clearly visible chicken wire surrounding him as a cage. Somehow I managed to find the right angle, light, and way of mostly avoiding the wiring to make this photo as striking as possible.
#5 Foggy Forest
Top five photos here we go! Drumroll anyone? No? Ok well here we go with number five. The fog seemed like it was going to make my day of photographing waterfalls in Georgia a total bust. As I was walking to the tallest waterfall I have ever seen in my entire life this image somehow happened, and it is the only one I really liked from the day! The fog did clear up as well when I got to the falls, so its not like it can be blamed for it either. The path leading through the forest created a great mood in the photo and the bare trees just add to the awesome creepiness.
#4 Inside the Tunnel
Here is the number four photo and it is another from the Madison County Bridges. You can’t really tell it though. The inside of the bridge stopped me from leaving too soon. After taking the sunset photo from earlier I got this one of the inside of the bridge. The grit of the wood, shadows, and light at the end all put together in this black and white image brought it up in quality and feel. It deserves it place in this top ten for sure.
#3 Through the Foggy Water
These last three are the ones I knew would be up here for sure in this exact order. Starting with another black and white photo of yet another bridge. This bridge is quite a bit newer and more metal than wood. This photo was taken in the fog as well giving it incredible mood and the black and white made for a stunning high contrast black and white that I have since had printed fairly large because I like it so much.
#2 Tulip Time at ISU
The next photo is one of a place many Iowans will recognize and that is the Campanile at the center of Iowa State’s campus. The tulips below in the foreground and the campanile just being as photogenic as ever combined for a fantastic photo that is probably going to stick around in my top ten for the second half of 2015 as well!
#1 The Owl
Now, for my favorite photo so far from 2015. It has to be this one and I just don’t think it will be topped because it is the one animal I have been wanting to photograph. This owl gave me the perfect look and I am so happy to have been there to capture it. It is not technically the most difficult image to capture because it was standing still and the light wasn’t the best. I had wanted to find an owl in the wild though for a long time though or at least one that wouldn’t have a cage that made photographing it a nightmare. This opportunity presented itself at the very end of Spring Break and it was not my main priority on that day or for the trip. I really didn’t know I would get the chance when I did.
If there is anything to learn from all of this it must be that being ready to capture a moment when it happens is crucial. Photo opportunities present themselves all the time. They may not be what we are there for. They may be a kind of photography we aren’t used to or have any experience with. Just point the camera, set up, and capture the moment because those may be the very moments that matter the most! Thanks for reading and let me know you enjoy the blog by hitting the like button below!