2022—another “interesting” year! Travel brought me to Maine, Colorado, France (twice, once in the spring and once in the autumn), Spain, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. Professional highlights included the publication of Composition & Photography, seeing my work as U.S. Postage stamps, and receiving the PSA Progress Award. Many flowers were photographed!

I’ve been making my “personal choice” best-of selections for many years, going back to 2013. These selections can be found here. My choices are idiosyncratic, based on no discernible criteria whatsoever, and simply are my personal taste. These selections are by no means complete. A more thorough catalog of my work can be found on Flickr, Instagram, and on my blog (but many of my images never get blogged even if I like them).

Starting in January, 2022, with Purple Tulip, I used my macro probe lens placed inside the outer petals of the floral blossom. Read more.

Petal Dancer made me laugh, because the composition of this partially dried flower petal seems to resemble a high-stepping dancer.

Speaking Truth to Power, created in March, 2022, is self-evidently an abstract work. But truth, justice, peace, and kindness can be in such short supply—and creating this kind of patterned abstraction helps to calm me in the face of the heedlessness of the world. The colors—Iris and Daffodils, with invading Tulips— are intended to bring those of Ukraine to mind.

About Calla Lilly Study #4, Scarlet Black on Flickr comments: “I love how this close up references subjects beyond the flower. Sun, celestial bodies, orbits and galaxy swirls step into the frame once imagination lets go of the calla lily. Even with that imaginative detour, the flower is nice to come back to.”

Flowers Party Too! Yes. Well of course they do.

I am always amazed at the the delicate intricacy of flowers in the Protea genus. My image is an attempt to render both the complexity and delightful delicacy of this flower in monochromatic, using a light box.

Quantum Entanglement is only vaguely understood and seems pretty weird. In my image I hoped to echo this sense of scientific befuddlement using glassware, a light box, an LAB inversion, and compositing. Read more.

In April I left for France. Spending some time photographing Paris with friends was great fun. Some of the images I made were from the footpath on the Ile aux Cygnes, and showed reflections in the windows of the buildings of modern Paris.

In my blog, I noted after arriving in Toulouse “the hubbub of the nearly perpetual marketplace in the Place du Capitole (shown below from a window in my hotel).” Read more.

Along the Camino de Santiago, I made a grab shot into a mirror. Read more.

Back home after various adventures and misadventures, I posed the question “what if James Bond had liked flowers more than guns, gadgets, fast women, and cars?” in Too Many Tulips Are Not Enough. [Answer: the world might be a kinder, gentler, and more colorful place.] Read more.

Flowers make such interesting patterns. One such is shown in Dodecagram Papaver Pod.

What happens when you use my light box techniques for Photographing Flowers for Transparency without a light box? I decided to find out in Florista on White. Read more.

Over my garden gate, the Clematis vine is thriving, provided we keep its “feet” moist. Two of the Clematis flowers bloomed together, and I cropped them to make this composition on the light box. Read more.

As summer 2022 began, I created a bouquet. Read more.

Some flowers remind me of sea creatures, an idea I explored in Do Flowers Come from the Sea? Read more. 

In Lavatera trimestris I used my macro probe lens to create a different view of a Rose mallow, with an idea to showing details and symmetry.

I taught Composition & Photography at Maine Media Workshops in September, and had a great, small group of students. It was great fun getting to photograph “stuff” that I didn’t have to take care of, store, or own! One such collection is shown in Tripping the Glass Fantastic.

From Maine I went to Colorado, where I photographed this steam train. Read more.

Starting in October, I was in Europe. There was almost too much to photograph. One such sight was the Himbachel Viaduct. Read more.

In Heidelberg, Germany I made X-Ray and Fusion X-Ray images of flowers with my friend Julian Kopke. Read more.

Julian and I enjoyed the Tuscan landscape, particularly the early mornings wreathed in fog.

In Orvieto, in Umbria, there was much to photograph, including the spectacular Duomo. Read more.

St Patrick’s Well, or Pozzo di San Patrizio, is located in Orvieto, Umbria, Italy. There are 248 steps down (and up). The view in my image is looking up at the daylight at the top of the well. The whole thing is like a tower that goes down into the ground, rather than standing above it. Read more.

In Florence, I enjoyed an exhibition of work by M.C. Escher, and was surprised to learn how much he was influenced by the Italian landscape (one just doesn’t think of Escher in the context of landscape, at least I don’t)!

I moved on to Trieste, and photographed the hotel where I was staying, and contemplated Escher. Read more.

Venice is one of the places in the world I most enjoy visiting and photographing. Of course, like everyone else, I always try to visit when no other visitors are there!

Back home for the waning of the year, there are always flowers to photograph! With Floral Gestures, as the title implies, I was trying to create a composition where the image was gestural, almost as it one was having a conversation in the wild with a floral entity.

Every flower is unique, of course, which is part of what I enjoy so much about photographing them. This Chrysanthemum somehow makes their individuality very apparent to me, hence the title.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this overview of my 2022 photography Odyssey. This year has been not without challenges for myself and our family, but I always find it worthwhile to review what I’ve done artistically.

Most of my images are available as prints. If you are interested, please let me know.

Check out my self-selected bests from previous years in Best Images Annuals!