However, in the end, I made my choice.  I have my Top 10 shots.  I also included one additional shot which, while not in my Top 10 shots for the year, is a first step towards a different type of photography that I would like to get into and hopefully, I will expand on that in 2017.

So, without further ado, here are the Top 10 shots, in order of when they were taken.

“Pink”

I took this shot in February at the New York Botanical Gardens.  I love the vibrant color and the detail on the flower (I’m a big sucker for details in pictures).  I have no idea what this flower is called (do any of you?).   I purposely shot it with a wide aperture, to throw the background out of focus, allowing the main subject to stand out.

“Two Bridges”

The Manhattan Bridge at Sunset, with the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan skyline in the background.

You’re going to see a lot of New York City shots in this set, which, I guess, is logical.  I live in the city and it is full of wonderful things to photograph.

I took this shot in May, while in Brooklyn Bridge Park.  If you’ve never visited the park, I highly recommend it.  It offers stunning views of the Broooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, as well as great views of the skyline of the Battery (the southern tip of Manhattan — see below for an example).  It’s a great place to take the family and spend the day.

I like this shot for several reasons.  One of the things I learned this year is that a great way to add interest to a landscape shot is to make sure that there is something in the foreground.  I’ve shot landscapes in the past where there was nothing in the foreground.   They’re nice shots, sure, but nothing special.  Having something in the foreground, however, as in this shot, helps to give the picture depth.  In addition, I like the way the rocks lead your eye right to the bridges.

“Manhattanhenge”

This shot was taken on the day of Manhattanhenge in July.  Manhattenhenge is the term used for the four days a year when the sunrise or sunset line up with the street grid of Manhattan.  Here is the sun setting over 42nd Street.  It’s not often that us New Yorkers get to see the sun at the horizon — usually there are buildings or other obstacles in the way, so when it does appear at the horizon, we take notice. As you can see from this picture, *lots* of people stopped and took notice of the sun setting that day.

One thing I particularly like about this photo is the color.  Normally, the time around sunrise/sunset is called the “golden hour” due to the coloring of the sunlight at this time.  I don’t know what it is, exactly (I suppose I’d have to ask a physicist), but something about Manhattanhenge amplifies that effect, so that the sunlight is almost a golden red (does that even make sense?).

This particular photo happened to be my most popular of the last year.  After Manhattanhenge, I shared it on Facebook and it took off like no previous photo I had ever taken.  It ended up being shared numerous times and was seen by thousands of people.

“Verrazano at Sunset”

The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge at sunset in July, with Shore Park in the foreground.

I took this shot of the Verrazano-Narrows bridge in July.  I have an app (The Photographer’s Ephemeris – a great app, by the way), that showed me that the sun would be setting over the bridge and I wanted to grab a shot of it.  I set myself up on a hill overlooking the park and bridge and waited for sunset.  Using a narrow aperture (f//20), I was able to capture those sun rays in camera.

“Manhattan at Sunset”

The Manhattan Skyline at Sunset

I took this shot on September 11.  I went down to Brooklyn Bridge Park to take pictures of the Tribute In Light memorial that is put up every year to remember the victims of the terrorist attacks of the day.  While I was waiting for the lights to be turned on, I set up and began shooting.  The sun setting just beyond the tip of the island and the great cloud formations in the sky made this a scene I had to capture.  I had a tough time choosing between this shot and another one shot just a few minutes later when the sun had set and the lights went on (see below), but in the end, this one won out.

“Brooklyn Bridge/Towers of Light”

The Brooklyn Bridge with the Tribute In Light memorial to the victims of the September 11 attacks in the background. Taken in Brooklyn Bridge Park.

This shot was taken the same night as the previous shot.  After I had taken the shots I wanted, I wandered around the park for a while.  Eventually, I found this angle, which showed the Brooklyn Bridge with the Towers of Light behind them.  I don’t know if I can articulate why, exactly, I like this shot.  I suppose it has to do with the composition, the coloring, the lines and the lights.  But I find that I like it a great deal, and so it’s on the list.

“Pathways of Life”

As I said previously, I am a sucker for details in pictures, and this shot has details.  I really like the texture of the leaf and the way the lens captured all those wonderful veins.  But there is also another reason I like this picture – it’s one where I tested out a new technique.  You see, when I took this picture (September 25), it was still far too early for that sort of fall color here in New York City.  The leaf, in actuality, was completely green, the color in the lower left corner.  I added the remaining colors in Photoshop, and was rather pleased with the result.

“New York”

A sunset over Manhattan, south of 34th Street

For most of the year, I worked in the Empire State Building.  As a result, it was fairly convenient for me to go up to the Observation Deck and take photos.  I took this shot just after sunset on a November day.  Again, being a sucker for detail, I love this shot – the streets, the buildings and the background all came out beautifully.

“The Reading Bench” 

A peaceful bench to sit and read in the autumn at Wave Hill, Bronx, NY

I found this spot up in Wave Hill, in the Bronx.  I had been meaning to get there for a long time, but whenever I planned to go, something came up to prevent the visit.  Finally, in November, I managed to spend a day there.  From the looks of it, it’s a beautiful place to go to any time of the year, but at the height of fall color, it was spectacular.

I found this bench sitting under one of the oldest trees in the park.  With the fall color, the view of the Hudson and the Palisades, this looks like just the sort of place where you can spend an afternoon curled up with a good book.

“Red Rose Reversed”

This shot was taken earlier this month.  Again, being a detail “junkie,” I could not help but include this shot.  This year I bought myself a new flash, as well as a stand and umbrella and I have begun experimenting with off-camera flash.  This shot is one of those experiments.  I happen to really like the lighting in this picture and how the light falls off from the left side of the photo to the right.  I definitely will be experimenting more with this type of photography in the future.

There is one additional shot that I’d like to include.  It’s a shot that is not typical of my work, but it represents the type of shot that I’d like to do more of.

One of my favorite photographers is Brooke Shaden.  She takes these awesome photographs and composites that are surreal, dark, sometimes creepy and vivid with imagination.  While I don’t, in particular, share her dark tastes, it is as plain as day that she is incredibly skilled at telling stories through her photographs.  Just looking at her work makes me envious of her amazing skill and talent.  While I would not do things as she does them (I’m not that big a fan of the surreal or the dark – despite the shot below), I certainly would like to be able to tell stories of people through my photographs.  I did one last year, and hopefully will do more in the coming year.

“Freed From the Pages”

I took this shot for 52 Frames (my weekly photography group) when the theme was “Books.”  I don’t often shoot with people in the scene, and so, I wasn’t quite sure how to set up this shot.  However, through some creative dodging and burning (and the helpfulness of two of my kids), I was able to capture this shot.  While this shot isn’t one of my ten favorite for the year, I still love it, and certainly plan on doing more over the coming year.

And that’s it — that’s the Top 10.  What do you think?  Are there any shots that you think should have been included?  Do you think that any of these should have been omitted?  Let me know.  In the meantime, he’s towards better photos in 2017!

Zev

The park happens to be a great place for photography.  It’s blessed with a great view of the George Washington Bridge, a commanding view of the Hudson River and the Palisades, beautiful flower gardens and the grounds of The Cloisters.  I made my third trip to the park two weeks ago, leading a group of fellow photographers around the park.

Here are some of the shots that I took there.

If you’re in Manhattan and you are looking for an alternative to Central Park, you can’t do wrong by going to Fort Tryon.

I bought a dozen roses — eleven white and one red.  After arranging them, I took the shot.  I wanted to emphasize the red while downplaying the rest of the picture.  One way I could have done this was by using selective coloring to turn the entire picture black and white and then restoring the color to the red rose.  However, I’m not really a fan of selective coloring, so I decided to try a slightly different approach.

After performing some basic enhancements, I reduced the saturation of the entire photo except for the red rose.  I then bumped up the saturation of the red rose so that it further stood out.

What are your opinions about this shot?  Would you like me to put up a tutorial on how this shot was processed?  If so, please let me know.

Zev

It’s funny how life can be charging along at full speed, everything going right (or about as right as it usually goes) and then, when something happens and everything comes crashing to a halt.

I had personal goals set for the year – goals related to work, goals related to photography, goals related to other hobbies that I have.  For example, I belong to a weekly photography group called 52 Frames.  I managed to have a perfect submission record in 2013 and 2014 — and I stared that way in 2015 as well… until my mother died in February – and then my life came to a crashing halt.

It took me longer than I expected to get back into my routine.  Needless to say, I did not maintain my perfect submission record.  In fact, there were times, even months afterwards, where I just didn’t feel motivated enough to take and submit a picture.  Even when I began to emerge from the mourning, I still wasn’t always 100% motivated to be creative.  As a result, my photography suffered.

That’s not to say, of course, that I didn’t produce anything of value over the last year.  I have a number of shots (see below!) that I’m extremely proud of from 2015… it’s just that I think that, had circumstances been different, I could have done far better.

Well, 2015 is just about done and I’m ready to face new challenges.  I’m looking forward to submitting to 52 Frames all 52 weeks of the year, as well as try some new, personal photographic challenges.

All that being said, let’s take a look at what I did do in 2015, and some of my favorite shots from the past year.

Macro and floral photography have always been among my favorites.  There’s just something about a beautiful flower, bursting out in color, that puts some life back into the spirit.  In addition, it’s always refreshing to see them in new ways, from angles and perspectives at which you don’t usually see them… and there are two such shots from this past year that capture those ideas.

The yellow rose is a standard macro shot.  I really like the detail that you can see in the rose petals in that shot.  Most of us don’t really stop and really look closely at roses and other flowers and I always marvel at the beauty contained in them when I do.

The second shot is a daisy shot from behind.  When we look at flowers, we generally look at the front — and for good reason.  But every now and again, it pays to look at them from the other side.  Sometimes, the shift in perspective is interesting in and of itself.  And, again, I love the detail that can be seen on the back of the stem.  Details in pictures are, to me, like sweet maple syrup on pancakes… you could live without it, but why would you want to?

The next two shots are from the city that I call home – New York City.  New York City is famous for lots of things including it landmarks and skyscrapers.  Of course, as a New York resident, I try to photograph them as well.  However, as with the flowers, sometimes you need to find a different way of seeing them, a new angle to explore.  I tried to do that in these next two pictures.

Downtown Manhattan as viewed from Brooklyn Bridge Park

Nightfall on the Hudson

Both of these shots are of structures that, if you’ve seen pictures of New York City, you’ve seen lots of times.  We’ve all seen shots of New York’s famous skyline and I’m sure many of you have seen the George Washington Bridge before.  However, hopefully, these shots are different than the ones you’ve seen before.

The first of these shots was a lucky accident.  I was on a date with my wife down by the Brooklyn Bridge when we stumbled across this view of downtown Manhattan.  Naturally, I went down to photograph it.  Lucky for me, my wife is a very good sport regarding my photography and was willing to put up with me taking the time to grab a few shots of the scene.  I liked the way the wooden remains of the old pier seemed to “point” right at the southern tip of Manhattan.

The second shot, too, was a lucky accident.  I was shooting up in Fort Tryon Park on the northern end of Manhattan, when I decided to head over to the river and see if I could spot (and maybe photograph) the famous Little Red Light House.  While hiking on a path near the river, I found a clearing that offered this view of the bridge.  As it turns out, it was just about sunset then as well, and I figured that this was the perfect place to capture the bridge as night began to fall.  This shot was the result.

This next shot was shot off of Red Hook in Brooklyn.

A sailing ship in New York Harbor, shot from Red Hook, Brooklyn.

I went to Red Hook to take sunset pictures of the Statue of Liberty.  Unlike other parts of the city and surrounding neighborhood, you can see Lady Liberty’s face from Red Hook.  I got some interesting shots of the statue, but this shot turned out to be my favorite one of the night.  The schooner (at least, I think it’s a schooner — I’m far from a naval expert) happened to pass right under the sun so that the sun was setting right on it’s mast.  The red glow of the sunset just filled the frame with this wonderful color that made this my favorite shot of the night.

Billings Arches at Fort Tryon Park

This shot was taken on a trip to Fort Tryon Park.  Part of the park used to be the estate of the Billings family once upon a time and this arcade, which leads to the Henry Hudson Parkway (and served as the entrance to the estate), is among the last of the remnants of the Billings house on the site.

Another shot that I’m proud of is this one:

Patriotic water drop refraction

When I started posting this picture in Facebook groups, lots of people asked me how I did it.  I happen to love water drop refraction photography (you can see some of my other refraction shots here) and I’m always looking for something new to try in this area.  The idea here is to focus on the water drops and not on the background.  I did this on July 4 (hence the patriotic theme) and almost everyone I showed it to really liked it a great deal.

The last three shots were all taken on the same day and, oddly enough, I have my boss to thank for it.

My birthday is in the autumn and I love to take pictures of the fall foliage.  The colors are simply amazing.  As it turns out, my boss suggested that I take my birthday off and do something fun.   So, I took the day off and went to Prospect Park in Brooklyn and Central Park in Manhattan.  These shots are the results:

The first two shots were taken in Prospect Park.  I couldn’t help but shoot the leaves on the ground and the puddle.  The third shot, taken in Central Park, is a long exposure shot of the Lake and the San Remo, taken just as it was getting dark.

So, those were my favorite shots from 2015.  On to a new year and new adventures!

Zev

I can’t say that sunflowers are my favorite flower, but they have always seemed special to me.  They often just seem to burst with energy, just like their namesake and it’s rare scene that can’t be improved by the addition of a beautiful, healthy sunflower.

One of the places that we went to was Pindar Vineyards.  I went there because I knew, from friends who were there previously, that they had a wonderful field of sunflowers that would look just perfect in a photo.  However, by the time we got there, most of the sunflowers were wilted and gone.  I was upset about it for about a few minutes when I realized that I could still make a nice photo using one of the few still healthy sunflowers.   I focused on the still blooming sunflower and threw the rest of the photo out of focus to emphasize that one.  The result:  this photo, titled “Sole Survivor.”

Even though we did not find a full field of sunflowers at Pindar, we did manage to stumble across some that were growing in fields along the roadside as we drove around.   We came across one nice field of them and I had to stop to take some shots.  The result was this shot, titled “Looking Up.”

Another time, we managed to catch a few growing by the road just at sunset.  As a result, I got this shot:  Sun and Sunflower.

Lastly, on the last day of the trip, I found this flower.  “Grace.”

As always, comments, critiques and criticisms are appreciated and welcome.  Which of these do you like the best?

Zev

I also spent some time walking around the Upper West Side, shooting pictures of the George Washington Bridge.  I’ve often gone across the George Washington Bridge (or the GWB as we call it here), but I’d never stopped to take pictures of it before.  My favorite shot of the day is this one that I took of the bridge.

The George Washington Bridge at Sunset.

Other shots that I took that day of the park and the bridge are below:

     I really hope to get back to Fort Tryon Park soon.  I really didn’t have a lot of time and barely scratched the surface of what there was to see.