I'm starting a new tradition, a year in review blog post. I hope this becomes a dynamic exercise that evolves over the course of time. This year I did not have a lot of opportunity for photography. While 2024 was not a great year for me in terms of capturing new images, I am excited about a few of the images I took and have made available as prints. I was able to travel to Mount Rainier National Park and The Outer Banks where I took some images I like. In addition, I captured the northern lights in Maryland. I spent time in 2024 redoing this website using Shopify as the backend so was able to learn this new system. While slow going this website transition has been a fun project.
Website Rebuild
Early in the year I worked on rebuilding this website. I had used the Smugmug platform for years. Smugmug has many great features, esp. for portrait photographers, but it's really lacking many features of todays advanced sites and platforms. So I left. After finally deciding to give Shopify a try I spent time working on getting this up and running in the winter/spring and then throughout the year. There are not many photographers I come across using Shopify, but it is a powerful system. I've been considering creating a blog post about Shopify for photography, maybe that will be a future article.
Deep Creek Lake, Maryland
In March I went to Deep Creek Lake in western Maryland for a long family weekend. I got a few pictures at Swallow Falls State Park.
Swallow Falls State Park, in Garrett County, is home to Maryland's tallest waterfall, Muddy Creek Falls. The park is also home to Maryland's oldest grove of eastern Hemlock trees. While the weekend was mostly about family I took a few pictures and that made me happy. The image below is Tolliver Falls, which is a small waterfall on Toliver Run, just before it flows into the Youghiogheny River.
Sunflowers
The one thing I did shoot locally in the summer was a sunflower field outside of Frederick Maryland.
Washington State
In July I traveled to Spokane, WA for a medical workshop. I had a nice trip. Having spent a year at Washington State University (WSU) in Pullman, WA, the trip felt like a little bit of a homecoming. While I was in Spokane, I drove over to Coeur d'Alene in western Idaho one morning for a few hours. Coeur d'Alene is a stunningly beautiful place. I would absolutely love to explore Coeur d'Alene more in the future. For that matter I would love to explore more of Idaho with my camera.
The more meaningful drive I took from Spokane was to drive south to Pullman for an evening. Pullman, WA, which is located about 90 miles south of Spokane, is located in the Inland Empire or Palouse region of Washington. The Palouse is a large agricultural area that mainly produces wheat. While most people would think of Pullman as nothing more than a small, university town in the middle of the wheat-fields, I think it's a special place. Below are two pictures I took in the Palouse.
When I was a student at WSU I distinctly remember walking around campus listening to U2's song "In God's Country" (and the entire album The Joshua Tree) on my walkman. Yes, I wrote and meant "walkman" and that does indeed make me feel old. At the time I felt like the lyrics had to be talking about the simplicity of places like the Palouse. One day I hope to go back and capture some nice, meaningful images from the region, a place I love.
After my course ended I drove west to meet up with my friend Todd in Rainier National Park. Todd and I have been friends since we worked together in Hawaii. He now lives on the west coast, so I was thrilled to be able to connect with him. We had about 36 hours to shoot photos and I ended up with a number of shots I'm pretty fond of. One of them I have made available as a print. That image, Edith Creek Mount Rainier National Park looks really nice as a large print as there is a lot of detail in that image. The images below where both taken at Little Tipsoo Lake. The first image is foliage on a foggy morning. The second image captures the reflection of Mount Rainier in the lake during sunrise. After leaving Mount Rainier I went to Seattle, where I was able to see two of my cousins before flying back home. I loved being able to see them and enjoy a beautiful summer day in Seattle.
Delaware
In early August my family and I took a quick weekend trip to the Eastern Shore of Maryland/Delaware. I had not been to the Eastern Shore in probably 20-25 years. We stayed on the Maryland / Delaware border in Fenwick Island. I did not really do much photography. I went out one morning for sunrise and as I walked over the dune at Fenwick Island State Park a red fox ran across the beach in front of me. The fox's prints were all over the beach. That is what I will remember from that morning. Here is a long exposure I took that morning.
Outer Banks of North Carolina
In late September my family and I took a week long trip to North Carolina. We went to the Outer Banks for a few days and then to a wedding in Raleigh. Late September was a lovely time to be on the Outer Banks. The weather was excellent, the water was fairly warm. While September is hurricane season, we lucked out with generally reasonable weather. I shot sunrise photos a few times and came home with a number of shots I like, especially a shot I titled Shorebreak Sunrise that I have made available as a print. From a photography standpoint there is a lot I'd like to explore in North Carolina. The series of images below are all photos I took near the Avalon Pier in Kill Devil Hills around or just after sunrise.
The Northern Lights in Maryland
Finally, in October there was a massive solar storm that produced fantastic aurora all over the world. While I never thought I would capture aurora in Maryland, I was able to do so in 2024. Certainly the aurora in Maryland was not of the quality of the northern latitudes, or like I would capture when I lived in Alaska, it was still a pretty neat experience. The first image shows the aurora over a farm in Frederick County, Maryland. The second shows a colorful sky over LeGore Bridge, also in Frederick County Maryland.
