My Favorite Photographs of 2023 (12 Images)

This year’s collection is interesting to me, because of how many images include water. This is a little unusual for me. Upon reflection, I realized I purposely avoided the beach areas in San Diego because of the crowds. We were also experiencing the most severe drought in 1,200 years, and despite last year’s rain season, it isn’t clear if the drought is over.

I would also mention that once again, I am keeping another list of blog posts of other people’s 2023 favorites, on this page. This is just a list, and not an attempt to clout chase like I have seen elsewhere on the internet. I’ll keep adding to the list, but if you come here and want your name on the list, just Contact Me.

But this year, I got to the coast a little more, and also had the opportunity to work remote in a few areas in the United States with a lot more water than my home arid region.

I am also really bad at following through on editing, so I will mention that I have 78 “Picks” this year. This will increase over time if I pick up my previous “Unprocessed Sunday” blog series. Last year, I had 67 “Picks.”

As mentioned in previous series, this isn’t a collection of my “best” images, as it is my personal favorites. There is a subtle distinction there that informs some nostalgia with a little craft.

On first pass, I had 24 images selected, and had the difficult task of cutting 12 images out. Some were ones I really liked, which makes these selections a real challenge. But at the end, I got down to 12 images to show.

I am also proud to say that none of these were shown on any social media platform. I actually wish Elon would purchase every major social media company and destroy them all, one-by-one.

On that note, here are the images, in order of when they were taken.

This was an early January, as our blockbuster rain season was going. This is one of the most reliable vernal pools in Mission Trails Regional Park, and perfect distance for a short hike. Afternoon light is always great here.

Now we move to February, and a trip to Sunset Cliffs. I was pretty annoyed with a bunch of AirBnB tourists beside me who just would not shut up, but the image was nice. I love the dark as much as the light.

Now we jump to April, and some of the results of a wonderful rain season. I don’t know if this counts as a vernal pool, and this is actually a creekbed that is normally dry. Readers Alex and Joe should know where this spot is off Sunrise Highway. Sadly, I only managed to see the Laguna lakes from the window of my airplane, but this is always a good spot when it has water in it.

Come May, I was working out of my friend’s basement in Maryland. Taking advantage of the Eastern seaboard, I found areas like this from the boardwalk at Solomon’s Island, Maryland, during a nice sunset.

Because of history and topography, there are lighthouses everywhere in this region. I didn’t hit enough of them, and I wish I could go back and photograph more of them. Some (but not all) are easily accessible, like this one from Point Lookout.

Besides the Atlantic coast and the Chesapeake Bay, this region has a lot of rivers that may as well be seas themselves compared to our arid West. Small scenes like this sunset are seemingly everywhere you look.

Next, we move to Kentucky, where a couple friends generously lent me their guest room for a week. This bridge is actually a former railway bridge. It has been repurposed as a mile-plus walking span of the Ohio River into Indiana. This was a personal highlight, and you can see they do a nice job lighting the bridge at dusk. I love when places like this are repurposed into something nice.

This scene was from a neat botanical garden outside of Louisville called the Bernheim Forest. I really want to return and see more of this place in good light. There was a nice afternoon and just still enough water to get some nice reflection. This place has a lot of interesting spots like this, public art pieces, and a huge collection of tree specimens that are nice but sadly succumbing to our various beetles, fungi, and other predators destroying our flora everywhere.

Here is my one and only Summer image, from July. I have really grown to hate the Summer season. It is simply too hot, and the extra sunlight hours are simply spent running up my electricity bill. San Diego is way too crowded at that time, and the nature of my area of work is busiest during the Summer. If I am not following monsoon season, I just don’t feel like photographing much. That being said, Windansea Beach in the mornings is always a nice treat. I don’t think I will ever run out of compositions because there is so much variety in the sea stacks, tides, and a mile-plus run of areas to explore. Maybe I should be brave and show up for another sunset to see if I can make one frame without 28 people in my way.

On to October and off to Utah. I spent a very brief week up in the Wasatch thanks to another friend. It went by too fast, but I enjoyed the images I made. People come up to the high elevations for the aspens, for good reason, but find the right spot and I think the Red Maples can be more striking. This is on the backside of the Wasatch coming down to Heber Valley. This was a super busy stretch with a lot of people from the Wasatch Front, but with a little patience (and earplugs), you can find a nice spot to enjoy and capture a special moment.

Another treat was the usual visits to Guardsman Pass. This is prime Aspen territory. Local folks were really cracking down and preventing any stopping or parking on the road, making it very difficult to get around certain spots. While this helped a little with the road traffic, it made the couple parking areas at the hiking trailheads very difficult to traverse. That being said, I got lucky, because usually at first snow, they close the road, and usually for the entire Autumn/Winter season. During this week, however, there was a good touch of snow, but not enough to close the gate. I got to get my boots on some snow and enjoy some real snow hiking. This is a view South from the pass with a beautiful mix of conifers and Aspen, right after a couple inches of snow.

And here we come back to Windansea Beach, just a few weeks ago, during a period of awesome surf. I did have to pick up my tripod and run a couple times, and the adrenaline rush was fun. Happy to report that no gear was destroyed.

As always, thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed my favorite photographs of 2023.

Favorite Images In The Past

• 2022
• 2021
• 2020
• 2019
• 2018
• 2017
• 2016
• 2015
• 2014
• 2013
• 2012
• 2011
• 2010