Now that 2018 has come to an end — Happy New Year! — it’s time to look back over my last year and see how I did as an artist and post my favorite photos of 2018. Looking back at my 2017 favorite photos and update seems interesting to me this year. I accomplished much of what I wanted but in a slightly different way than I thought I would.

In 2018, I had hoped to dial things back again. I ended up teaching about 20 or so workshops when counting the ones that I taught for photography clubs. I was on the road for about 100 days. I shot fewer portraits than in 2017 and had to turn people away because my schedule wouldn’t allow it. I continued writing my photography magazine column for Ocean Paddler Magazine, but it was much harder to get everything in on time. Work on much of the basement remodel stalled out, although we now have a cement instead of dirt floor in the garage and I redid the storage in the garage. I also organized my office and made it easier to work efficiently. And, I made a change to my online store to make it easier for me to get images into it in a timely manner (The images on the old store are still online, but marked “Out of Stock.” To purchase them you’ll need to look at the new online print store. I also tackled the feeling of helplessness that had dominated 2016 and 2017 due to my values being undermined at the national level. I joined a political party and became a the party chair for the local unit and then I fought hard to elect people who I knew would represent the values I believe are important and we won big in most of the positions that I fought for. Although it was a significant amount of work, it actually freed my artistic side up again and I feel like my art progressed in style.

The progression in style was something that felt stagnant in the past couple of years, but I was able to find locations that offered the landscape for where I want to move my photography style. I’ve also started to study the evolutionary reasons behind why we are attracted to some photos and not others. I feel like I’m going into 2019 with a bit of momentum behind my stylistic progression.

My goals for 2019 are get more organized and reclaim a work/life balance that was missing in 2018. As August rolled around and moved into the fall, I lost a lot of my balance between the work I was doing and trying to live my life and that continues until now. I feel like I’m getting a grip on it again, but it was a wild ride through the fall. I’m also doing a print-a-day project in 2019. I’m going to try and print a new image each day of the year, except for when I’m on the road. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with these images, yet. But, they are for sale if you make it to Grand Marais.

Here are 2018’s stats.

• 18077: Total number of shots from 2018 that are still on my hard drives. I delete a ton of shots, so it’s likely I took 2x to 3x this many. I still need to delete a bunch of images that aren’t going to make the final cut, so I imagine it will end up with around 11,000 saved images.
• 556: Total number of images that I rated 3 stars or above this year.
• 537: Total number of images I saved from November. This is my lowest monthly photos shot count of the year.
• 83: Number of 3 star and above images in October. This was my most productive month.
• 65: Total number of my favorite images from the year.
• 26: Number of 3 star and above images in August. This was my least productive months as far as star ratings.

Here are my favorites and a few thoughts about them.

January

Taken on the first sunrise of 2018 at one of my favorite places to photograph on Artist’s Point. I had shot this specific area dozens of times on dozens of mornings, but on this morning I noticed a new composition that I hadn’t seen before. The sea smoke, subtle colors and the long exposure blur of the water made this shot a perfect one to ring in the new year.

February

I was teaching a night photography workshop on this night. We arrived on location just before the moon was going to rise and found the perfect foreground for the shot. I let a few of my students get the shot or a similar one before I took my version of the image. To me, this captures the feeling of winter at night.

March

In March, a friend and I flew out to Death Valley to check out the park. I had never been there before and had never photographed sand dunes before. Now all I want to do is return to the sand dunes and photograph more dunes. This is my favorite shot from the month of March and from Death Valley. The lighting, the shape of the dunes, the color of sunset and the last light of the day casting on the mountain peaks made for a perfect moment and I was thankful I was there to make this photo.

April

I’ve shot this shot a few times, but this morning was perfect. I had never seen this exact coloring on the scene. Just before the sun was rising, alpenglow scattered across the horizon and over the Sawtooth Mountains, the lighthouse and the breakwater. It was a perfect moment of being and being there felt perfect.

May

May’s favorite image comes from Theodore Roosevelt National Park and Buck Hill. Buck Hill is my favorite location in the park for sunrise and on this morning it was one of the best sunrises that I had witnessed in the park. I was teaching a workshop, so I was able to share it with 10 others.

June

Another image taken on a photography workshop. This one is from Wind Cave National Park. This was the last day of the workshop and everyone was tired and didn’t want to drive a long distance from the hotel. I had two options for the group and said, “We can go to an okay spot nearby and probably get an okay photo or we can drive about 45 minutes to a perfect sunset spot.” The group wondered if I was trying to lead them to the better spot. They went for it and then this happened.

July

For my favorite shot from July, I was back on Artist’s Point and at the spot that I usually shoot sunrises from in July. The dark mood of the shot feels more like fall than summer and I was surprised that I hadn’t shot this puddle before. It was sort of a throwaway shot when I was taking it, but once I got it on the computer I fell in love with it. This one will likely make my wall.

August

In August, I shot the Perseid Meteor Shower. To get this shot, I set up my camera and had it take continuous shots for several hours. Once I got those images into the computer, I found all the images that had meteors in them. Then I aligned the stars in those images and masked the meteors into my base image to arrive at an image with a bunch of meteors in it. It was painstaking Photoshop work, but I like the final composite.

September

Usually after you finish a trip, you end up with one photo that you come back to — a favorite photo. This is my favorite photo from my trip to Glacier. The stark contrast between the light and the dark, the balance between the foreground tree and the background mountain and the clouds building in layers all seem to work for the feel the park was giving me.

October

When the clouds cover the mountains, it can feel like a bummer. But, when those clouds start to break, it is magic. This is my favorite shot from October and it is an example of what I was working for with my style this year. I wanted the layering feel in my images and I think this captures the feel I was working towards.

November

A frozen mountain ash leaf encased in clear ice. I didn’t shoot a lot in November, but I’ve always wanted to make a photo of mountain ash encased in ice. I finally got it in November.

December

My favorite shot from December comes from Lake Superior. I’ve shot this rock many times, but the waves and sunrise aligned perfectly on this morning to make it a favorite. The waves had enough power to coat the rocks with a thin layer of water which made them look soft. Because the rock doesn’t have water on it, it looks tack sharp. The contrast between the sharp rock and soft bedrock makes the rock just pop off the picture. The print of this is amazing and I honestly can say that it looks better than what I see on my screen.