The Ones I Like List of 2009 – A Countdown [#1]
a house on a hill – I want to write something really profound about this image, but some days the writing just isn’t there. What can I say? It was an unexpected gift, the sunburst. It was really this glorious. Kissed by the heavens. It was bordering on arrogant, but it wasn’t. It was bordering on gaudy, but it wasn’t. It was bordering on blasphemous, but it wasn’t. What it was was benevolent, breathtaking and barely able to contain itself. What it was was a stress blaster, a soul lifter, an elixir. What it was was magic, pure and beyond skepticism. It was inspired.
My photos are often filled with visual hyperbole. I like creating a story, an alternate landscape, and I like to do so through weepy textures and personality-filled color. While most of my photos can probably stand alone without the embellishment, Photoshop is like Candyland to me. I’m rendered silly by all its bells and whistles.
When fortune casts favor upon me, however, I stumble upon a scene so magnificent in its own right that the processing becomes a non-event. On September 29, the last day of my wonderful New England adventure, I did just that — stumble upon magnificence. Southwestern New Hampshire was the location. Morning was the time of day. A burst of sublime light was the party favor. There was almost nothing that I had to do to this photo, only a little color balance and curves tweaking. Anything more would have been an insult to Mother Nature herself.
I chose a house on a hill because it’s in bad form to look a gift horse in the mouth. Especially when the gift is this radiant.
{This #1 is sort of a two-parter. Moments before or after I took this photo, I took another one just a few feet down the road, almost identical to the a house on a hill. I cropped that photo and I named it breaking through. breaking through was my most popular photo on flickr this year, and I like it a lot as well. I like it so much that it really should have come in #2 on this list, but I just couldn’t put two photos of the same lineage into the countdown. Just couldn’t. For that reason, I’m including the image here…because it needed to be recognized somehow as a favorite among almost all favorites.}
As we close out the decade, I want to thank all those who have been supportive of my photography over the last five years as well as those who have inspired me to be better by their own creative output. This isn’t a complete list by any stretch, so please forgive me if I left you (yes, you!) off the list.
Linda Plaisted, Adrian Gibbs, Phillip Portugal, Paul Watson, Patrick Lentz, Mario Maura, Laurie Ballesteros, Matt Penning, Marya Figueroa, Ben McKeown, Bobby Alcott, Patrick Power, Derrick Tyson, Myla Kent, Deji Osinulu, Debora Smail, Ted Forbes, Irina Souki, Ralph Nardell, Laura Kicey, Betty Schlueter, Gerard Harrison, Leland Isley, Mark C. Austin, John Mueller, and Jody Miller.
Special thanks goes to my dear, dear friend and partner in photo crime, Jeff Balke. Jeff has listened to every last bit of self-doubt I have dished out regarding photography, and he has always managed to make me feel like I can do this. I wouldn’t be where I am today with my photography without him. A true and valued friend.
Special thanks also goes out to my wonderfully supportive family and friends. My mom, in particular, started helping me organize my vast, black hole of an archives this past year, and I couldn’t be more appreciative.
Lastly, I’d like to thank two superstars in my book. First, Jeremy Hawkins, who inadvertently introduced me to Flickr almost five years ago, something that changed the course of my life. A good guy and a very talented writer. He’ll make the “thank you” list as long as I’m writing them. Second, Flickr itself. I love you, Flickr. You make my world go round.
This entry was posted on Sunday, January 3rd, 2010 at 6:43 pm. It is filed under fog photography, My Favorites - 2009.
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