What is your best photo you have taken in 2013 and why?

What a fantastic thread. The diversity is excellent :)

My favourites are always candid shots. With this, we were at Lake Garda in Italy and I spotted two Swans swimming away from me. I rushed to get a photo and this was the result...



With more time I could have framed it a little better but then it probably wouldn't have been such a nice surprise :)
 
Ooh difficult thread! I'm going to go with:



This was a spur of the moment decision to go out walking after work. It was blowing a gale, and by gale I mean I was barely making any forward progress at all against the wind. My tripod was useless as it was blowing away! I persevered up an over a mountainside and down the other side to catch some of the most beautiful golden light I've ever seen.
 
I photographed some of my heros this year and they didn't disappoint.

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The rest of my best of 2013 are here:

http://www.carlspring.net/blog/2013/december/thirteen_13
 
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Wow, some lovely photos on here and a few tales that gave me goose bumps :crying: :)

Not too sure which my favourite is - will have to have a look and a think about it.
 
I think this one would have to be one of my favorites, took loads of posed wedding photos etc this year and this was in contrast a simple un-planned and un-possed photo.

I had my camera in my hand while outside on a lovely hot summers day and Katie was enjoying the sun and I just saw the opportunity ( Yes our yard wall is that colour )

Sunshine%20Katie2.jpg
 
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This is the most striking of all my shots in 2013 and I was pleased the picture came second in a DPReview.com challenge. I took it within a month of returning to serious photography at the beginning of 2013 as I was getting to know my brand new Olympus OM-D E-M5. I'm constantly amazed at the results of this camera, and being keen to try it out, and with the weather being cold, dull and wet, I photographed anything I could. Including my cat Sparky in natural light near the window..

Idea: Although the colour + B+W thing is not original, I was also having fun getting to know the Gimp software. But the real inspiration for the toning of the fur, came from a flash photograph I took of another cat on B+W film 30 years ago. I printed it on contrasty Agfa paper making the fur very dramatic.
Processing: With that old print in mind I worked on this picture until I achieved a similar result. Then I replaced the eye with a colour one as my first attempt at layer masking that did not go too well. Finally I simply mirrored the whole picture to the result you see above. This also resulted in the cat appearing to look directly at the camera. Which is what I suspect makes the result much more powerful than the original. Amusingly the eye reflections are on opposite sides due to the mirroring. Nonsense, but harmless.
 
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TBH not really done much shooting last year, unfortunately, so not got much I'm that happy with.


Self Portrait by redddraggon, on Flickr

only one landscape trip of the year, and no other real trips or holidays anywhere, which is way down on previous years. But 2014 should see me do more adventuring.
 
Here's mine. Shot on a cold, wet & windy afternoon in November. I've seen a few long exposures of the pier over the years, but I don't think I've ever seen one that looks anything like this. It's a picture I'm proud of on both technical and artistic levels. And it wasn't a random, either; I planned this shot.


Saltburn Pier by Peter Whysall, on Flickr
 
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Technically not the best image of the year, but Mark Cavendish in Glasgow was a very special moment. Just as the leading group of three came in for the last lap the clouds parted and the sun came out so strong that the light just bounced off the road and the resultant glare made it extremely difficult for everyone to get a usable head on shot. I was struggling along with everyone else and decided to move, closely followed by two other photographers, I flashed my SJA card and was escorted to a prime location closer to the finish line. While waiting at the finish I noticed a number of children on shoulders and youngsters standing behind the older guys and wanted to incorporate them into the shot. Instead of the usual f2.8 or thereabouts I went to f8 in order to capture the wider crowd enjoying the moment almost as much as Cav.
 
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Probably this one:


IMG_4588 by Inglesias, on Flickr

Reason being I love electrical storms and I took this on holiday having fallen asleep on the sofa watching tv and I was awoken by one of the biggest storms I have seen- my camera happened to be right next to me.
 
This one for very personal reasons.

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My daughter & her husband had been trying to start a family for many years with no success. They were then told of medical reasons why it would probably never happen. My daughter then underwent painful invasive (expensive) IVF treatment for two years with no success. They finally accepted they would never conceive a child of their own and made a decision to apply for an adoption. After 3 years on the adoption list including 2 (almost) adoptions that failed leaving them heartbroken, finally this august a 2 1/2 year old little boy found a new mummy & daddy and my daughter & son-in-law completed the family they had wanted for many years.
 
Not taken many this last year for a variety of reasons ... but this is perhaps my favourite simply because it is our first grand daughter and her birth brought the family together. Here she is being doted on by dad held in his arms and she was no more than an hour old.


Penelope_Mia-0290 by PabloRosso, on Flickr


Hope posting two is ok ... here she is on Christmas Day - just a grab shot, but still makes me smile :)

Penelope_Mia-5328 by PabloRosso, on Flickr
 
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I was bored so went and cheered myself up with some flowers and had a play with my Camera. Not the best but i like it.
 
I don't have a picture to add to this thread myself but I have looked though it and I just have to say it is full of some absolutely stunningly beautiful images

Well done everybody!

What a pure pleasure it has been to see all these pictures, it is times like this that make Talk photography such a great place to be
 
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This is my favourite shot taken last september on the cliffs of West Cornwall, I was sitting on top of a cliff photographing Buzzards hunting on the cliffs, I had being getting a lot of longer range shots, but was very fortunate when this Buzzard landed a lot closer to me, the sun was almost directly behind me, everything was just right.


Buzzard by Mike-Chapman, on Flickr
 
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View attachment 3281 There are some fantastic images in this thread!

My favourite is this one, taken in Cameroon earlier this year whilst I was on assignment to create images around the theme of girls in education. This photo was used to promote the phrase that "every girl has a right to an education". I have shot a lot this year for the charity, but this is definitely the one I was the most happy with.
 
Some wonderful photos in this thread (y)
 
jamesoliverstone said:
My favourite is this one, taken in Cameroon earlier this year whilst I was on assignment to create images around the theme of girls in education. This photo was used to promote the phrase that "every girl has a right to an education". I have shot a lot this year for the charity, but this is definitely the one I was the most happy with.
Click to expand...

As always James, love your work. Such a simple idea but works so well.
 
My favourite and/or best changes every time I look, but I think on balance, the one that has won me competitions, won praise from a lot of people, and I like very much, is this one:


6-4-2013 Film Noir 1 by Bend The Light, on Flickr

It was a studio shot whilst I was still very new to shooting anything but white background kids shots. I set up the lights, the blind, the position. The model, Kat, got exactly the right position, and the shot took very little PP to sort out.

All together, it just worked! :)
 
I think someone else has already said it, but wow, what a wonderfully diverse bunch of images. Thoroughly enjoyed looking through this thread and will check back again soon!


Sent from my iPad using Talk Photography Forums
 
Probably this one because it took 150 frames to get it and I wanted something different.


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And this one because it taught me a lot about landscape photography and processing in a single image.

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I'm shooting an increasing number of festivals and concerts, but this was my first theatre production in a major venue. It was enormous fun!
This shot was one of my favourites from the set and has stayed near the top of my list of recent shots I'm proud to have taken and was one of a set displayed outside the theatre to entice people to buy tickets.
This is a full on musical and this is one of the main songs. I shot this scene twice and everything came together for the briefest of moments.

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+1 for this being a fantastic thread!
 
jamesoliverstone said:
View attachment 3281 There are some fantastic images in this thread!

My favourite is this one, taken in Cameroon earlier this year whilst I was on assignment to create images around the theme of girls in education. This photo was used to promote the phrase that "every girl has a right to an education". I have shot a lot this year for the charity, but this is definitely the one I was the most happy with.
Click to expand...


Amazing image.
 
Bend The Light said:
My favourite and/or best changes every time I look, but I think on balance, the one that has won me competitions, won praise from a lot of people, and I like very much, is this one:


6-4-2013 Film Noir 1 by Bend The Light, on Flickr

It was a studio shot whilst I was still very new to shooting anything but white background kids shots. I set up the lights, the blind, the position. The model, Kat, got exactly the right position, and the shot took very little PP to sort out.

All together, it just worked! :)
Click to expand...

Just love this one....Thanks for posting it.
Stuff like this inspires me to get better!
 
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yes I know it doesn't look much, BUT this is a lava flow on top of MT Etna that occurred only 2 weeks before we got there. Had we even been a week earlier the whole area was closed to the public on safety grounds
 
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