My Top 10 Images from 2020
2020 was, paradoxically, my worst and best year as a photographer. The “worst” side is easy to explain: there’s a pandemic! It’s awful! After March, I couldn’t safely travel, cutting me off from the types of photo-ops I usually rely on throughout the year. Consequently, all of my images from this year are from only two places: Washington state, where I spent a few days back in February, and Connecticut, where I live.
Somewhat surprisingly, however, I’ve never been happier with a year’s crop of images, despite their limited scope. But maybe that’s not surprising--if I weren’t improving every year, that would be a problem!
I’ve collected my ten favorite pictures from 2020 here, arranged so that my favorite is at the end, second-favorite before that, etc. I’ve also added commentary after each one that explains where I took the shot, how I decided on a composition, what settings I used, and what edits I made in Lightroom and Photoshop. To the right of each image, I’ve also provided the raw, unedited version of each image, simply because it’s fun to see how much a picture can come to life after edits.
#10: Winter Evening
Stevens Pass, Skykomish, Washington
One of my goals for the year was to find simple compositions, and this picture, taken just after sunset from a parking lot along Route 2 in the Washington Cascades, was one of the resulting images. The simplicity extended beyond the composition itself: I took it using just my phone, not my DSLR, meaning I had no settings to think about and tinker with prior to pressing the shutter button.
The straight-from-camera file. In keeping with the theme of simplicity, my edits consisted of a simple crop and increase in exposure.
Google Pixel 3a, 4.4 mm, 1/40”, f/1.8, ISO 62
#9: Misty Morning
Lion’s Head, Salisbury, Connecticut
At #9, we have another simple, almost abstract image of trees poking out through some early-morning fog. Heavy fog like this can occur in valleys after clear nights (especially in the fall and winter), creating what’s called a cloud inversion. To get this shot, I had to hike to an overlook on the Appalachian Trial called Lion’s Head before sunrise in order to be above the cloud inversion. Then, I used a telephoto lens to zoom in on the valley floor and take the picture.
The straight-from-camera file. As you can probably tell, I only made slight tweaks in Lightroom afterward to bring out the color and tighten up the composition.
Canon EOS 80D, Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6, 150mm, 1/125”, f/11, ISO 400
#8: A Patch of Light
Rand’s View, Salisbury, Connecticut
I almost never produce black-and-white images, but I challenged myself to try to take at least one this past summer. I had much of this shot visualized beforehand—I wanted some mountains, and I knew the location, Rand’s View, had mountain views that would look beautiful when viewed at a long focal length. I wasn’t sure, however, that the mountains alone would bring the sharp contrast needed for a black-and-white photo. But I got lucky when I got on location as I spotted a patch of lighter-colored trees that gave me that much-needed contrast and acted as a leading line to the mountain subject. The final result is a fairly unusual Rand’s View image that I quite like—search on Google for other pictures from the area to see what I mean!
The straight-from-camera file. Post-processing-wise, I converted the file to black-and-white, cropped it, increased the contrast, reduced the haze, and added a vignette.
Canon EOS 80D, Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6, 200mm, 1/320”, f/11, ISO 320
#7: Campbell Falls
Campbell Falls State Park, Norfolk, Connecticut
I love taking pictures of waterfalls. When finding a composition for this one, I used a wide-angle lens in order to ensure that the waterfall and the pool were both fully in frame. Then I went with a six-second shutter speed to get good motion blur in the waterfall and the whirlpools at its base. Long exposure times mean a LOT of light comes in, though, so I also used a radial neutral-density filter on my lens to reduce the light. I probably didn’t need to use such a slow shutter speed, but hey, it worked.
Fun fact: this waterfall itself is actually in Massachusetts, not Connecticut! I have no idea how the jurisdictions of it work, but most of Campbell Falls State Park is in Connecticut except the actual falls themselves. To reach this spot, I parked in a lot on the Connecticut side, and from there it’s a short jaunt across the border to Campbell Falls proper.
The straight-from-camera file. I cropped the image so that the whirlpools and falls would be more dominant (as well as to remove the vignetting caused by my radial ND filter), increased the saturation of the greens to make the moss pop, and dodged and burned the light and shadows on the rocks.
Canon EOS 80D, TAMRON 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 Di II, 10mm, 6”, f/11, ISO 100
#6: Fog in the Valley
Lion’s Head, Salisbury, Connecticut
This image was taken on the same morning and from the same place as the Misty Morning shot from earlier, but as you can tell, I went in a completely different direction for it. Keeping the cloud inversion itself in the middle of the frame, I tried to balance the mountain ridges above the fog with an open field on the other side of the valley that was catching the sunlight. I quite like the composition, and the conditions were so special, but it comes in at #6 because I think I messed up the focusing—it just isn’t sharp. I think I should have used a wider aperture, but I’ll have to keep experimenting with this particular lens out in the field to find out.
This file isn’t quite straight-from-camera—I actually combined two different shots into a panorama to create this image, one of the cloud inversion and one of the trees in the bottom half of the frame. Only then did I actually edit the picture, cropping it to get the right balance between the foreground and background of the scene, increasing the warmth to match the sunlight I saw on location, and adding a radial filter to the open field to bring out the light that was illuminating it.
Canon EOS 80D, Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6, 75mm, 1/160”, f/11, ISO 400
#5: A Walk in the Woods
Sages Ravine, Salisbury, Connecticut
I love the verticality of this image. I think it lacks a clear subject, but it does a good job of immersing you in the scene. The idea was for the viewer’s eyes to be continually pulled upward, first by the stream and then by the tree trunks, until you’re immersed in the colorful leaves.
The straight-from-camera file. Quite a big difference! Obviously I cropped it significantly, and I also warmed up the foliage, giving the leaves an orange hue instead of a yellow one.
Canon EOS 80D, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, 17mm, 2”, f/11, ISO 100
#4: Lion’s Head
Lion’s Head, Salisbury, Connecticut
Just like two of my earlier images, this picture was taken at Lion’s Head, a viewpoint on the Appalachian Trail. Despite being taken with my phone, this picture does a phenomenal job of showing the scale and beauty of the view. There are a couple of reasons why I think this image turned out well: 1) I always make sure my phone saves a RAW copy of my photos, allowing me to edit them in Lightroom later, and 2) the puddle on the rocks adds that extra bit of visual interest to the foreground, giving a clear anchor for the viewer’s eyes until the diagonals on the rocks lead them to the vista.
The straight-from-camera file. Colors and details were boosted to match the sunset as it appeared to my eyes—the washed-out look is due to the RAW format of the image, not because the actual scene was drab—but the biggest change is to the puddle. I used Photoshop’s content-aware fill tool to remove the debris, which I thought was unsightly. I have no qualms about this kind of editing, but I know some people might see something that drastic as “cheating,” which I understand…but it definitely looks better after the edit!
Google Pixel 3a, 4.4mm, 1/430”, f/1.8, ISO 69
#3: Magic Pool
Whatcom Falls Park, Bellingham, Washington
At #3 we have another long exposure! For this one, I set the shutter speed to 13 seconds, which completely transformed the water and brought out the rich turquoise and green colors. The result is unrealistic, but beautiful. I used the two rocks to help create some foreground and midground interest. I actually took this picture in direct sunlight—not ideal lighting for photography at all, but the neutral density filter on my lens allowed me to make it work.
This image is all about the crop. I’m not sure what I was thinking while in the field, but when I looked at this shot in Lightroom, I realized that everything of importance is on the righthand side of the frame. So, I cropped it in, and from there it mostly a matter of boosting the vibrance, adding contrast, and using Photoshop to remove the log.
Canon EOS 80D, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, 17mm, 13”, f/11, ISO 100
#2: North American Fjord
Mt. Storm King, Lake Crescent, Olympic National Park, Washington
“That trail looks short,” I stupidly thought to myself. “I won’t mind hauling my photography equipment up to the summit.” NOPE. Mt. Storm King is intense. It might be only a little over 2.5 miles to the top, but you gain over 2,000 feet in that time. And then, a quarter-mile from the top, the "trail," if you can call it that, was so steep that you have to use a series of ropes to scale the summit.
But once there, you get one of the best views I've ever seen. Lake Crescent below looks like a fjord straight out of Norway. I didn’t have too much of a thought process when it came to the composition here; I remember thinking that I didn’t have much of a foreground to work with, so I just stuck to the lake and surrounding mountains.
The original file. This image, I’d say, should be my most controversial edit. I did some basic spot removal, increased the contrast, cropped the sky, but then I started really playing around with it. I ended up adding two filters that changed the image, in my opinion, dramatically. The first is a radial filter over the mountains and sky in the upper-right. I decreased the clarity a tad there, increased the exposure, and warmed up the temperature in order to exaggerate the faint sunlight coming from that direction. I then added a graduated filter to the sky, used a color-range mask to ensure only the clouds would be affected, and warmed the temperature up there. I rarely edit photos in a way that would radically change the character of the scene, but I liked the drama the warmed-up clouds gave, so I stuck with it. I wouldn’t blame anyone for not appreciating such a drastic edit, though!
Canon EOS 80D, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, 20mm, 1/40”, f/11, ISO 100
#1: Ruby Beach Sunset
Ruby Beach, Olympic National Park, Washington
My favorite image from this year was taken during a stunning sunset over the Pacific while I was at Ruby Beach in Olympic National Park. I used a six-second shutter speed to capture the movement of the ocean on the beach, and I framed the scene such that the water formed an S-curve that leads your eyes to the rock formations in the background. I love the composition, I love the lighting, and I love the almost-alien scenery the rocks provide.
This image took a lot of work! First steps were to lift the shadows to reveal the foreground and reduce the highlights to bring out the color in the sky. I used a graduated filter on the sky to warm up the white balance, increased the saturation of the greens and reds, and I finished by using Photoshop to add an Orton Effect glow to the sky and water to give them an even softer look.
Canon EOS 80D, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, 17mm, 6”, f/11, ISO 100