Top Ten (favourite) Images of 2020

This will be the sixth consecutive annual review of my images from the past year and it’s also a good opportunity to look back at those previous posts and see how my photography has progressed. There certainly have been a lot of changes in my life during that time and with the crazy year we just had, it will be interesting to see how my photography changes going forward. Without further adieu, here are ten of my favourite images from this past year.

I enjoyed exploring a small but interesting area in Mill Bay where this stone bridge can be found.

There were a few things I liked about this image. Night photography is always fun to me and I have always loved airplanes (and in this case the aircraft registration C-FLAP is great). The city lights across the water and their glow on the clouds add interest as well, but what tops it off is the crane that stood still, almost totally hidden in the low light (beneath the “Saltspring Air” logo).

I went to explore the shipwrecks that are part of this breakwater and couldn’t get as close to them as I’d have liked, but as a result had to work around other angles and found this one, which features the mountains and the town of Comox in the background.

Who doesn’t love a raptor? It was fun doing something a little different and spending some time photographing birds.

After a morning in spent in some of the last old growth forest on Vancouver Island, I explored the backroads and came across this small creek and waterfall.

I loved the character in this old tree, which I felt was accentuated by processing it in black and white. It’s an area I want to return to in different weather conditions to see if I can isolate the tree and make some more interesting images.

Having spent 25 years in the Canadian Armed Forces, this WWI soldier on top of the memorial at the BC Legislature has always been special. That he is highlighted, standing guard for eternity, underneath the waving Canadian flag makes the image special to me.

Probably one of the most photographed single trees on Vancouver Island, this tree on Fairy Lake can look so different depending on the time of year and weather conditions. Usually I select a tighter crop to make the tree more prominent, but in this case I thought the wider view with the reflections and little bit of fog really gave it a better context and added to the feeling of being there.

I’ve been to Mary Vine Falls on many occasions, but typically photograph from near the top third of this image, so as to really feature the main part of the falls. I liked this location because it shows the falls in better context, as the waters flow through the forest.

The view across the harbour to the BC Legislature buildings, with it’s colourful holiday lighting and light adorned tree our front, is the typical shot I’ve taken here in past years. This year I went further back, so I could capture the Canada sign (which was put there several years back as “Canada 150”, for 150 years since Confederation and since has had the “150” removed) and reflections on a rainy day.