In the Moment:
Michael Frye's Landscape Photography Blog

How to Shade Your Lens

Ponderosa pines in mist, El Capitan Meadow, Yosemite NP, CA, USA

Ponderosa pines in mist, El Capitan Meadow, Yosemite

Natural light comes in an infinite variety of beautiful flavors. I love them all, but if I had to pick a favorite, it would probably be backlight, because it consistently delivers some of the most interesting images. All of the photographs from my last two posts, the ones from above the fog layer, were made with the camera pointing toward the sun. The photograph above, one I haven’t posted here before, captures a moment when backlit mist rose into the pines in Yosemite’s El Capitan Meadow. This next image, voted my top photograph of 2014, was also lit from behind, with the sun just above the frame:

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Picking My Best Images of 2015

I’ve closed comments on this post, since the voting deadline has passed. You can see how the votes went in this post with the top ten. Thanks to all of you who voted!

Happy New Year!

Like champagne, Auld Land Syne, and the Tournament of Roses Parade, it’s become a New Year’s tradition on this blog to pick my best images from the past year, and once again I’m inviting you to help me make these difficult choices. I’ve posted 46 of my best photographs from 2015 below, in chronological order. After you look through these, please post a comment listing your ten favorites.

You don’t have to list your ten favorites in any order, or even name them – just numbers will do. (The numbers are in the captions underneath the photographs. Also, you can click on the images to see them larger.) Once the votes are in I’ll post the top ten on this blog, and submit the final group to Jim Goldstein’s blog project, where he’ll be showcasing the best images of the year from over 300 photographers. The voting deadline is this Sunday, January 3rd, at midnight Pacific time.

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