Backwards, Forwards

Digital imaging has brought so many capabilities we never dreamed of in the film era. Today I used Lightroom's metadata filter to bring up all of the images I made in 2016. The total is 5,789. Could I select just one as my favorite of 2016?

I took time to scroll through all of them, for a couple of reasons. First, some images look much better when I haven't seen them for a while. (Why is that? Maybe because I recover the "first impression" that made me shoot it originally but which can get lost when working too long on an image. Or maybe because the additional inspection increases the chance I'll see something I missed before, not that each of five thousand will get many seconds of review.) I found several to fiddle with, including two that wanted to be black and white:

Milford Sound Sydney lamppost The second reason for looking through all of them is, of course, the chance to remember where I've been and what I've seen this past year; to re-visualize 2016. Susan and I traveled to Australia, New Zealand and Mexico. There is much to recall and review, beyond the photos I've already posted from those trips. But one shot from close to home at one of my favorite locations, the Great Falls of the Potomac, seemed worth a second look: Kayaker at Great Falls of the Potomac So the look backwards was worthwhile. Truth be told, though, I knew all along which image I like best from 2016. This shot of Kata Tjuta in central Australia still makes me happiest. Kata Tjuta Looking forward, I wish you and yours much happiness in 2017.