Hi, everyone

I hope you are having a good holiday season. As has become a sort of a tradition for me, at the end of the year I reflect on my photography journey and some of my favorite photos.

Early last year I joined the Cape Cod Art Center, first as an associate artist, and then soon after as a juried artist. Consequently, I also joined the Cape Cod Art Center Camera Club, which has been a lot of fun (they have many interesting meetings over the year, including Mentors Table and competitions). This was in addition to my membership in the Worcester County Camera Club. At the end of the year, I also joined the Plymouth Center for the Arts as an exhibiting artist for 2025.

Over the year, I participated in ten art fairs. I am still finalizing my plans for 2025, but it looks like it is going to be in the same ballpark this year.

I also participated in nine exhibits (seven physical and two online). Out of those, I won second place in photography in two of the exhibits, one honorable mention, and one People’s Choice award. Overall, pretty good. I also received two silver and two bronze badges from the 2024 Epson Pano Awards.

As you can see, it was a pretty busy year.

In terms of shooting, though this year wasn’t as busy as 2023, it was still very productive. For the first time I overcame my aversion to cold weather and have had a significant amount of work done in Winter. I also visited Acadia National Park in early June (always a great location) and scouted locations for a workshop I am planning there in 2025 (stay tuned for the announcement). Then, in the Fall, I had a quick trip to Virginia and West Virginia. As is usual with me, I am severely behind on editing my images, but I am trying to make some progress.

As to 2025, I already have a winter trip planned to go back to Slovenia (and possibly Croatia) at the end of January. Additionally, I’ve already announced two short Spring workshops, and will announce the longer workshops soon. I have also announced an editing class, and consider doing a couple more short workshops, including one for shooting the Milky Way. I also have three exhibits starting in January (announcement in January).

All in all, I expect the next year to be just as busy as this one, if not more. In terms of these “definitely not blogposts” I am planning to write a couple of reviews (one for a printer and one for a screen), and maybe an update on how my photography kit changed over the last two years. I hope these might be interesting and useful to some of you. Add some comments or send me an email as to what content you would like to see from me apart from the regular updates.

Now, finally, let’s get to my favorite images. I am also making a series of three videos, which would include more images than this post. Here is the link to the first two. Subscribe to my YouTube channel for more videos in the future (though I have to admit that my posting there is rather sporadic as video editing takes too much time I don’t have).

In order not to make this “definitely not a blog” post waaaaay to long (or not to break it into several installments), I will limit the images in it only to my absolute favorites. If you want to see more, check out the videos.

Winter Wanderings: Frozen Landscapes and Fiery Sunrises

As I mentioned above (and in the past), I am not a huge fan of cold weather. As a result, prior to 2024, I didn’t really have that many good winter images. However, this year, I braved the cold and forced myself to go out. I was rewarded with beautiful images, some of which became my favorites not just for this year, but for all time.

I have been planning this shot for a while. I knew that Nubble Light on Cape Neddick in Maine was lit up in Winter, and wanted to capture a time when there was snow on the ground. Fortunately, the lighthouse has webcams where you can check the conditions. When I came to the location, I was also greeted by a beautiful sunrise, with clouds spread over the lighthouse like wings.

Winter is a great time to capture some beautiful trees. One morning, I took a long drive to Woodstock, Vermont, and spent the morning photographing in the area. As I was waiting for the sunrise near Jenne Farm (more on that in a bit), I captured this lonely tree.

As I was heading back home for the day, I saw this “burning” tree against the darker backdrop of the mountain.

On another frozen morning I went to Eaton, New Hampshire, to photograph the little white church. The weather didn’t cooperate and I didn’t get anything good from the church. However, as I started on my way back, I saw these trees shining like silver in the morning light. The name of the image is a homage to J.R.R. Tolkien (if you know, you know :-) )

When I was in Woodstock, I photographed the two famous farms there — Jenne Farm and Sleepy Hollow Farm (some of you might remember my Autumn image from the Sleepy Hollow Farm).

One of the mornings, I went to photograph the Old Stone Church in West Boylston. The church is not far from my house and is one of my favorite locations to keep going back to. The lighting on the church during the blue hour creates a beautiful contrast between the cold blue tones in the scene and the warmth of the lighting. I absolutely love this shot.

Finally, after the last snow of the year, I went back to Enders Falls near Granby, Connecticut. There is something in that location that tugs at my heart to go back again and again (one of my half-day workshops in the Spring will revisit it again).

There was something special in walking alone around the area through a fresh coat of snow, wading through the half frozen pools, and photographing ice shining like diamonds in the morning light.

A Dream of Spring

As some of you might have noticed, I am a big fan of J.R.R. Tolkien, and G.R.R. Martin. I stole the name of this section from the name of Martin’s planned last book in The Song of Ice and Fire series.

As Spring rolled in, I didn’t go out shooting as much, but I did manage to get out a few times. One morning my wife and I were planning to take the ferry to the islands in the Boston harbor. Unfortunately for that idea, the weather was extra gloomy and rainy. On the other hand, for a photographer, this is actually a good opportunity to capture some moody dramatic shots.

We decided to skip the ferry and went to the Arnold Arboretum instead. It was the first time I visited the arboretum and loved it.

During our visit to the arboretum, I captured a couple of my favorite tree shots ever. These shots really capture for me the essence of Spring.

Summer Musings

In early June I and my wife went to the Midcoast of Maine and the Acadia National Park for a short workshop and to scout locations for a longer workshop. I started my trip with a visit to the Marshall Point Lighthouse. Although some of the area was damaged by a winter storm and was under repair, I still spent a great evening photographing the lighthouse and the rock strata around it.

I still have a good amount of images to edit from the area.

After a couple of days we headed to the Acadia National Park. Acadia is always a treat, offering stunning views of the rugged Maine coast.

It didn’t disappoint this time either, offering a wonderful mix of some very moody misty conditions as well as a couple of absolutely stunning sunrises and sunsets.

On our way back home, we stopped to photograph some lupines.

Later in the summer we went for a few days to the Adirondacks, and stayed at Schroon Lake. Although this was a family trip and I didn’t do much photography, I couldn’t pass on the beautiful conditions for some Milky Way shots.

Autumn Impressions

Fall was a very busy time of year for me, with multiple art fairs, exhibits, and things happening at work. As a result, my photography time was very limited. However, I still managed to capture some of my favorite images of the year during this time. Many more images are still patiently waiting on my hard drive to be edited.

As I mentioned in one of the previous posts, in early October I went to Virginia for work, and then took a couple days to travel to the New River Gorge National Park in West Virginia. I enjoyed some amazing conditions during my stay and captured these images from the Dunloup Creek Falls, and the Glade Creek Grist Mill that make it into the list of my favorite images for 2024.

In addition to the trip, I was also able to shoot a little locally.

While I was participating in the Paradise City Northampton festival, I was treated in the morning to some absolutely stunning conditions on my way. Mostly, I didn’t have time to stop and go exploring (in places where stopping was even an option), but I did manage to capture this beautiful barn on a misty morning not five minutes away from the art fair. I am still on the fence if I like the color or the duotone version of the image better.

On another morning, I took my camera with me as I went to work. I was planning to maybe go explore in the evening, but was treated to some interesting conditions along the way. As I was driving, there were pockets of heavy fog. As I got closer, I stopped at one of my favorite spots. The pond in that area always looks amazing in the morning (especially in fall), but I always struggled to create a good composition there as the image always looked too busy to me (this just goes to show that not everything that looks great in real life can be translated to a good photograph). This time, because of the heavy fog, I was able to simplify the composition and got something unique (in my view) with a very oil-painting feel.

This image is the last one to make it into this limited list of my favorites for 2024.

I hope you enjoyed this overview. Do check out the videos for more great images that didn’t make the cut.

Have a great holiday season!

See you in the next year

Dimitry

2024 — The Year that Was. From Maine to West Virginia and Everything in Between

Winter Wanderings: Frozen Landscapes and Fiery Sunrises

A Dream of Spring

Summer Musings

Autumn Impressions

Busy Start to the New Year

Launching 2025 Workshops