National Geographic photographer Jim Richardson once said: “If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff.”
According to my Lightroom catalog, I took 12,173 photos this year. Granted, not all of the things in front of me were interesting. Or even in focus. But still. It was a prolific year.
The process of reviewing a year’s worth of pictures is always interesting, because common themes always emerge. As I looked back over previous recaps (mostly to make sure I’m not getting worse at this), I realize my photography style has changed quite a lot over the decade. I’m becoming much more of a landscape, travel and fine art photographer and much less of a street/people shooter. And I’ve definitely become more technically capable. There are pictures in this year’s list that I simply couldn’t capture just 3 years ago - I didn’t know enough about my camera to get the settings right.
The big themes I was drawn to for 2019 were epic scenes, leading lines, sunset palettes and silhouettes. The collection this year is also strangely bipolar. The images are either totally serene or totally chaotic, with not much in between.
2019 was also a big year for new long-term photography projects. Here are four ongoing projects that kicked off in 2019. You can follow the links below to see the full galleries.
2019 PROJECTS:
Shutter and Grind is a project I’ve had on my “someday” list for a long time. It’s a clothing label of original fine art photography apparel for adults, kids and even babies (What? Babies need cool clothes too!) $1 from every shirt sold goes to help pets at Best Friends Animal Society. Check it out and shop here.
A few years ago, I started a project called “Crud,” a germaphobe’s eye view of the cringe-worthy, yet strangely beautiful “crud formations” in NYC subway stations. It even got a bit of press.
“Chaos” is close, above-ground-relative. It captures another under-appreciated side of NYC life: The Chaos.
Most of the time, photography is about creating focus and reduction. This series is the exact opposite. Each streetscape is a sort-of-still-life, counterintuitively composed to be as sloppy, claustrophobic, and anxiety-inducing as possible. You can see the full Chaos gallery here. For maximum impact, be sure to click into each photo to view them one at a time.
Much to the chagrin of my sleepy airplane seat-mates, I’m not one to take the window seat and just leave the shade down. This is why.
I fell in love with photography in the post-digital era. So even though I grew up with film, I never really learned to shoot it, beyond snapshots and disposable point and shoots. But lately I’ve become more and more intrigued by the look, and the more-considered process of shooting film. This year I finally dove in headfirst, and somehow collected a dozen old film cameras along the way. (Apologies to my wife for completely taking over our closet with my toys.) I’m just getting started, but I’m pretty pleased with the results so far. You can see the new gallery of 35mm and medium format film photography here.
THE 25 BEST PHOTOS OF 2019
Without further ado, and in no particular order, here are my 26 best photos of 2019. (I know. It was only supposed to be 25. But I’m bad at math and self-editing).
Click on any image to see it bigger in Lightbox mode.
Muscle Beach. Santa Monica. Los Angeles, California. July, 2019.
Fujifilm X-Pro2, 35mm, ISO 1000, f/4, 1/500
“Free.” Santa Monica. Los Angeles, California. July, 2019.
Fujifilm X-Pro2, 23mm, ISO 200, f/5.6, 1/280
Santa Monica beach is one of my favorite places in the country to shoot. I’ve taken a lot of photos from this location during trips to L.A. over the years. But this was the first time I noticed muscle beach. I realized if I got down low enough, underexposed the image, and got the shutter speed fast enough, I could silhouette the people and freeze the action against the pastel sunset.
Montmorency Falls. Quebec City, Canada. August, 2019.
Fujifilm X-Pro2, 55-200mm, ISO 200, f/4.8, 1/1000
I hate photographing waterfalls. They always look so epic in person and then you get home, download the photos and it’s always disappointing. The pictures just don’t do them any justice. The problem is there’s never a sense of scale. The waterfalls always feel so much smaller in photos than they are in real life. And so, after spending hours shooting mediocre too-small photos of Montmorency Falls in Quebec City, I finally saw this guy fishing in the river at the foot of the falls. If it were less dangerous and more socially acceptable, I would have hugged him.
DUMBO waterfront. Brooklyn, New York. August, 2019.
Fujifilm X-Pro2, 14mm, ISO 200, f/8, 30s
I love the way long exposures from Brooklyn Bridge Park smooth out the texture of the water and accentuate the reflection of the city lights. The light streaks on the right side of frame are from a tour boat. I’m not sure what hiccup in camera caused the floating lights above the Brooklyn Bridge. It may be the reflection of the lights in the filter I was using in front of the lens. Or UFOs.
Webbed. Sunset Blvd. West Hollywood, Los Angeles. July, 2019.
Fujifilm X-Pro2, 35mm, ISO 1600, f/1.4, 1/80
This is why we don’t let Spiderman drink anymore.
Greenport Harbor. North Fork, Long Island. November, 2019.
Fujifilm X-Pro2, 56mm, ISO 200, f/11, 16s
Sunrise. Greenport Harbor. North Fork, Long Island. November, 2019.
Fujifilm X-Pro2, 14mm, ISO 800, f/5.6, 1/8
Waking up at 4:45 am and getting out a very comfortable, very warm bed to go take sunrise photos on a frosty November morning is the worst thing ever. Until you get out there and it’s the best thing ever.
Swirl. Jamaica Bay, Queens. September, 2019.
Fujifilm X-Pro2, ISO 200, 55-200mm, f/5, 1/340
I love flying in and out of JFK airport because the view over Jamaica Bay wildlife refuge changes drastically with the tide, the light, and the time of year. This marsh formation looks like the Caribbean. Hard to believe it’s in Queens.
Mt. Hood. Portland, Oregon.May 2019.
Fujifilm X-Pro2, 55-200mm, ISO 200, f/3.5, 1/6400
Another airplane window seat shot. When you land at Portland, Oregon’s PDX airport you get an amazing view of Mt Hood and the Cascades on the descent. Thanks to Delta for providing the 175,000-pound drone.
JFK Airport. Queens, NYC. September, 2019.
Fujifilm X-Pro2, 23mm, ISO 1600, f/5, 1/60
I love how much is happening in the shadows of in this image, and the way the lines on the tarmac make your eye zig-zag all over the frame.
“Leave the light on” Chatham. Cape Cod, Massachusetts. July, 2019.
Fujifilm X-Pro2, 35mm, ISO 1250, f/2, 1/125
I used to work hard to crop out power lines and try to get frames “perfect.” Then I spent more time admiring the work by Joel Meyerowitz, Stephen Shore, Fred Herzog and Todd Hido and realized the error of my ways. This photo is the Cape Cod version of this shot from Cape Town from my 2017 best-of list. Funny how some images repeat themselves over time.
Tribute in Light. September 11th. SoHo, NYC.
Fujifilm X-Pro2, 14mm, ISO 200, f/11, 10s
I’ve been documenting the September 11th Tribute in Light for eight years now. It’s my longest running photography project. There are a million photos of the light display, and, at this point, I’ve shot it from two states, three boroughs, and a lot of different angles. Each year, it’s a new challenge to try to find a new perspective. This year, I started my photowalk in SoHo. I realized I could use the cobblestone streets for a more interesting foreground, and the curb as a leading-line. Then I left the the shutter open for 10 seconds to create light trails from a passing truck to create an x-axis of light. This is another shot that echoes one from the past - this 2013 mirror image from the West Side Highway in Tribeca.
TriBeCa, NYC. September 11th Tribute In Light. September 2019.
Fujifilm X-Pro2, 14mm, ISO 200, f/16, 5s
When shooting the Tribute in light, half the battle is finding an interesting foreground. The other half is not getting arrested for kneeling down next to the tire of a police car with a tripod and a bag full of suspicious looking photography equipment.
Handball. Venice Beach. Los Angeles, California. July 2019
Fujifilm X-Pro2, 55-200mm, ISO 400, f/11, 1/1400
Like I said, I had a thing for silhouettes this year. You could spend a whole day taking photos at the handball courts in Venice Beach.
Santa Monica Beach. Los Angeles, California. July 2019.
Fujifilm XPro2, 23mm ISO 200, f/13, 1/140
Another stunner of a sunset from Santa Monica Pier. I like the way the breaking wave and shoreline lead your eye through the crowd of swimmers to the mountains in the distance, and then the reflection of the sunset brings you back around again.
All at Sea. Santa Monica. Los Angeles, California. July 2019.
Fujifilm X-Pro2, 23mm, ISO 320, f/8 1/125
I took this photo on the pier just a few minutes before the sunset shot above. It’s good in color too, but the Black and White version is much more dramatic. The pattern of the foam almost creates a golden ratio spiral.
Sandwich Boardwalk. Cape Cod, Massachusetts. July 2019.
Fujifilm X-Pro2, 55-200mm, ISO 200, f/8, 1/500
Sandwich Boardwalk. Cape Cod, Massachusetts. July 2019.
Fujifilm X-Pro2, 55-200mm, ISO 200, f/8, 1/500
In the town of Sandwich on Cape Cod’s north shore (mmm, Sandwich), there’s a 1/4 mile long elevated boardwalk that crosses over the salt marshes on the way to the beach. This raised platform is (unofficially) for local high school and college students to show off their acrobatics. The whole scene felt like something from another time - simple, wholesome summer fun, and not a single smartphone or GoPro to be seen. I love the chaotic energy of the shot on the right. Cropping out the water makes it more mysterious and hard to know what’s even going on.
Public Market. Seattle, Washington. December, 2019.
Fujifilm X-Pro2, 55-200mm, ISO 1250, f/4.8, 1/125
This is another shot where The Old Me would have definitely cropped out the cable car lines at the top of the frame for a cleaner picture. But I think they make the image more interesting. The stripes make this image all about the horizontal lines - the crosswalk, the horizon line on the street, the river, the tree line, and of course the scaffolding on the famous Public Market sign.
Park Avenue, Kips Bay, NYC. February, 2019.
Fujifilm X100s, 23mm, ISO 200, f/11, 1/500
Manhattanhenge gets all the glory, but my favorite NYC natural phenomena is when the sunlight catches the windows of a building and bounces across the street, creating these wobbly pools of light.
I realized after editing this picture that the direction of light falling on Park Avenue below is strikingly similar to one of my favorite photos – Rene Burri’s iconic “Men on a rooftop” shot from Sao Paulo, Brazil.
“Photographers sometimes take pictures of each other; occasionally they take pictures of each other at work; more usually they take photographs - or versions - of each other's work. Consciously or not they are constantly in dialogue with their contemporaries and predecessors.”
― Geoff Dyer, The Ongoing Moment
Sunrise. Quebec City, Canada. August, 2019.
Fujifilm X-Pro2, 23mm, ISO 200, f/5.6, 1/8
Old Quebec in Quebec City is a UNESCO World Heritage site, one of the oldest cities in North America, and a pretty spectacular place to watch the sun rise (which, for the record, is a lot easier in August than it is in November.) This shot is taken at the foot of the Citadel in Parc du Bastion-de-la-Reine. The castle-looking building in the center is the Chateau Fronternac, which is French for “that building on all the postcards.” If I was better at photoshop, there wouldn’t be any scaffolding on it.
Sunrise. Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac. Quebec City, Canada. August, 2019.
Fujifilm X-Pro2, 14mm, ISO 200, f/8, 0.3s
Another sunrise from Quebec City, taken two days after the one above. This one also features the Chateau Fronternac, this time from Terrasse Dufferin, the hilltop boardwalk that overlooks the St. Laurence River. I got as low as I could for this photo so I could use the planks on the boardwalk as the leading lines into the distance.
Stage Harbor Lighthouse. Chatham. Cape Cod, Massachusetts. July 2019.
Fujifilm X-Pro2, 35mm, ISO 200, f/5.6, 1/1400
Before our trip to Cape Cod, I saw this location in a photo online and was determined to find it. The building in the distance is an old, deactivated lighthouse called Stage Harbor Lighthouse. I love the way the pool of early morning light is streaming through the trees behind me and bouncing off the water to illuminate the rowboat.
This scene looks so serene. But it wasn’t. The muddy low-tide shoreline where I set up to take this photo was covered in seaweed and swarming with a billion tiny biting gnats. And they were VERY excited to see me. I can’t be certain, but I’m pretty sure, as I was smacking my own face over and over again, I heard one of them taunting, “why are you hitting yourself? why are you hitting yourself? why are you hitting yourself?”
Old Quebec. Quebec City, Canada. August, 2019.
Fujifilm X-Pro2, 23mm, ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/125
A photo has an amazing way of capturing time. This photo was only 1/125th of a second. But it captured the this poor guy’s entire morning.
“Beauty and the beach” Santa Monica. Los Angeles, California. July, 2019.
Fujifilm X-Pro2, 55-200mm, ISO 200, f/14, 1/950
It was a legit struggle to not make this recap 100% photos from Santa Monica beach.
Chinese New Year Firecracker Festival. Chinatown, NYC. February, 2019.
Fujifilm X-Pro2, 23mm, ISO 200, f/4, 1/450
This year, I finally got to check off one of my New York photography bucket list items - covering the Chinese Lunar New Year Firecracker Festival. After the firecrackers are set off, the celebration spills out through the side-streets of Chinatown, with spontaneous drummers and dragon dancers everywhere. Before long, the whole neighborhood is blanketed with confetti and party poppers. I took a million photos. This one of a young girl joyfully flinging fistfuls of confetti into the air was by far my favorite (and luckiest) capture.
Thanks for reading! And if you want to see more, you can check out the last five years in review: 2018’s Year in Review, 2017’s Year in Review, 2016's Year in Review, 2105's Year in Review, or 2014's Year in Review. Or follow me on Flickr or Instagram. Happy New Year, all!