It’s that time of year where I try to take a moment and look back at my photography, my business in general, and just the past year. To say this year has been hard is an understatement. Everyone of us has those years and moments in life like that and this was mine. However, choosing my best landscape and nature photos of 2019 is something that I can both enjoy and use to push me forward.
From a business perspective, this is a great experience. I get to see the progress (if any) I’ve made and any accomplishments that have came along the way. It’s a way to see just where I’m at as a landscape and nature photographer. From a personal perspective, I get to really see where I am.
I mentioned previously about it being a hard year. While I won’t go into great detail, this year was marked by the loss of my Mother. She was the biggest fan of my work. It makes it all harder now when I can’t share a new image with her. It’s just hard and that has put it’s mark on this year for sure.
One of the main points is that I want to contribute to an amazing project by Jim Goldstein (now in its 13th year I believe). Head on over there and check out all the past years and other great entries when he publishes all of the entries for 2019.
This year continues a trend for me with fewer published images than I would like. I still have a huge backlog to go through and did manage to add a few photos from some new locations this year. Colorado in Fall is one of those that I’ve yet to wade through the images. My foray into large format photography has went well and while I don’t produce a ton of images, I feel that its impact is helping photography overall.
Once again, that makes this not quite a top 10 list of landscape photographs, but probably just a favorites list of 2019. (Click on each of these and you can see settings, titles, etc.)
The first light of sunrise strikes the rock walls and illuminates the rocky outcrops over a martian looking landscape in Southern Utah. 
Remnants of Falls colors in Utah’s Zion National Park cover the floor of a wash as the fading yellow and red colors of the maple leaves slowly wash away around an eroding maple branch. 
The hillside blooms of wildflowers in Utah’s Little Cottonwood Canyon put on quite the nature show in the Summertime. 
Early morning sunlight shines through the golden aspen leaves in Utah’s Big Cottonwood Canyon. 
First successful large format film capture. 
Large format nature film photography in Zion National Park. 
Large format landscape photography in Zion National Park. 
The Virgin River carves a sharp bend in the stone canyon walls in The Narrows of Zion National Park in Utah.
Reflection
With that wonderful intro to this post, you may all think that 2019 was a downer year for me. It was and it wasn’t. It was a year of trials and pushing forward. I made smaller strides in some areas, but in the long run I feel like it will benefit me.
My new venture into large format film photography, as previously mentioned, is going well. It’s still frustrating, but it is all a learning process and I’m a sucker for learning something new.
2019 leaves me with more people enjoying my images than ever before. I can’t begin to thank everyone for the support. All-in-all it was a very difficult year. I shot fewer images, which made choosing my best landscape and nature photos of 2019 a little bit easier and harder at the same time. I really just need to start processing some images. Here’s to a great new decade everyone!
