My Top 9 Images of 2024
It’s that time of the year again…that time when most people tend to question themselves about whether the year was a good one or a bad one. As far as I am concerned, it was a gorgeous year! I was able to accomplish many wonderful things at home on my property. Work in general was good, incomes were good… I met new amazing people from all around the globe, travelled a bunch…what else could I ask for? My garden was also so lovely! I took a ton of pictures of my flowers which are very different from what you normally see from me. In fact, would you like to see more images from that said garden? Let me know in a comment below and I will gladly share some!
And most importantly, it was an awesome year for me because I was healthy. I didn’t have any major health issues other than a regular cold. My back injury seems to be far behind. I am never going to take my health for granted…for that reason, I take good care of myself by eating well, stretching every morning, walking a minimum of 5km per day and I try to workout as much as possible. Being healthy is the most important thing ever.
While I am at it, this entire article will be dedicated to my Top 9 Favorite images of 2024. I will share why these are important to me whether it is for technical, emotional or funny reasons…here they are, in no particular order, my Top 9 of 2024:
ONE MOON AGO
The first image I will talk about actually happened to be one of the first images I took in 2024. It’s from a place that I cherish; Mount Chester in Kananaskis Country. It’s hard to put into words how special and impressive that place is… The hike is a total of 7km round trip and some 400M elevation gain. That might not sound like a lot but when you carry heavy winter clothes, snowshoes, a heavy camera backpack, and a tripod, you are in for a serious workout. But once you arrive in the meadows near Chester Lake, OMG! You are literally surrounded by majestic peaks and snow covered hills. On that particular evening, I just so happened to bump into a friend which I had met on Instagram. We had been chatting for years but never had a chance to meet in person. He hiked up there for a specific image of the moon rising over Mount Chester but for some reason, he missed the shot because he was busy photographing other things…I had no clue the moon was going to rise over Mount Chester since I am not a big fan of the moon in general…but I think it added such am amazing little something here! I love that image, the after sunset light was very soft thanks to an overcast sky.
LIGHT AND FLOW
When driving into Banff National Park, the very first mountain to greet you is Cascade Mountain. It is one huge piece of rock! I truly love it’s shape. It’s not rare to see low puffy clouds hugging its peak which adds drama to the scene. I have always wanted to find a unique composition with that mountain. One day, while exploring, I came across some water cascades looking on Cascade Mountain. I don’t know if that was unique…I have simply never seen any images like that one before so I guess it must have been quite unique, right? And in 2024, finding unique compositions is really tough because everything has been over photographed… I knew from previous sunrises that Cascade Mountain catches the loveliest and warmest light for sunrise during the winter season…if the sky is cooperative enough, of course. So on that morning just before our Banff Winter Wonderland Workshop started, Gina, Pietro, Élizabeth and I went there in hopes of catching some lovely light…did we succeed? I think we did!
IMPRESSION OF DÉJÀ VU
Pacific North West had been on my list for many years…in fact, I was supposed to go in 2019 right before COVID but I changed my plans and went to Ireland instead. I had been looking at images of the PNW for years. Everything about this huge area seemed so attracting to the landscape photographer in me. So in May, I decided it was time to finally walk on that piece of land for the very first time. Gina also wanted to see the PNW badly so she didn’t mind coming with me. My guess was that the late spring season was going to be a good time to visit the PNW because precipitations are normally good during that period and the amount of water flowing in the waterfalls was going to be very abundant. And boy was I right! Every single waterfall we visited was flowing with an impressive amount of water. Everything was so nice and fresh, I had never seen that many ferns. The vegetation is very impressive in the PNW. And the natural contrast between complementing colours was simply perfect! Pacific North West, I will be back for more memorable moments like this one soon! To me, it was love at first sight!
ON THIN ICE
Lake Minnewanka located just a couple minutes away from the town of Banff can be both very lovely or very annoying…why? The crowds there can be truly hectic. Hectic to a point that you can barely find a parking spot. Hectic to a point that you hear people screaming all over the place…but if there is one reason why I love that place, it has to be for all the photographic potential it has to offer to any landscape photographer.
That evening which happened to be the last of our Banff Winter Wonderland Workshop wasn’t disappointing at all. The entire shore was filled with beautiful shinny tilted ice slabs, the temperature had been so mild that water was starting to flow over the ice in some spots and partial reflections were part of the party. The light and the clouds were nothing short of spectacular. I think these were Chinook clouds…there are a few interesting weather phenomenas happening in the Canadian Rockies: Right after a really cold temperature burst over a couple days, warm air coming up from the plains east of the Rockies in the US and bringing in some really warm temperatures into the mountains. A week prior to the moment I took that image, it was -20 celsius…on that specific day, we were all photographing ice slabs with our jackets unzipped and the temperature was +15 celsius! Now that’s wild!
RING OF FIRE
The Total Solar Eclipse of April 2024…who hasn’t heard about it? Back in April, I was even fed up of hearing people talking about it in the news and on social media. It was on everybody’s lips! Then I looked where it was going to be visible. There was an official path were we could witness totality, so I started to look into things more seriously and I just happened to be right in the path of totality! Okay, now this got my attention. I had never witnessed a Total Solar Eclipse so why not? I looked at what was required to capture it safely and ended up ordering a Solar filter…
The next step was to find a proper composition. I just didn’t want to photograph a bunch of circles in the sky and composite them like everybody else did a couple of years ago. I wanted to be more creative! I live in a rural zone and I wanted to show the environment where I was going to photograph the eclipse. I drove near by my home and found an interesting old barn right by some corn fields. That particular barn has quite the charm and at the moment I saw it, I knew I had found my subject! I asked the land owners for permission and they were super cool about me being there to capture this very unusual phenomena.
The eclipse itself wasn’t that impressive until it reached totality. OMG! I have goosebumps just by writing these lines! What an experience. The sky becomes as dark as night but only above your head, The light all around you is very warm as if it was dusk…birds all went back to their respective nest thinking it was night, mosquitoes came out thinking it was their time to party…it was one experience I will remember for ever! Do you wish to learn more about that eclipse? Then you should also read my article Have You Seen The Total Eclipse?
THE EPITOME OF BEAUTY
Another image from the Pacific North West made it to my Top 9. When you think about the PNW, you have to think about rugged sea shores with extremely dramatic cliffs, huge waves crashing against rocks and sea stacks and cute little trees on top of those sea stacks. This to me was the perfect scene to describe the PNW in a single image. Temperature wise, it was comfortable enough that I only had a t-shirt and regular pants on…it was barely windy, no mosquitoes, the light was rich and kind of diffused thanks to the thick marine layer, the sky was very lovely…things don’t get much better than this!
Gina on another hand didn’t enjoy herself as much as I did…she couldn’t stand near the edges of the cliffs. Her reasonable self preservation from the dangers of the cliffs was much more reasonable than my actions. But sometimes we have to take chances to get those incredible images, right? If I had to describe that sunset with a few words, it would have to be The Epitome of Beauty!
A STORM IS COMING
I live in the Province of Quebec. As a landscape photographer, that’s not going to be your favorite province. Don’t get me wrong, Quebec is lovely, we have great food in Montreal, amazing museums, a great cultural life in general…but very few proper landscape photography opportunities unless you drive many hours away from the big city.
Speaking of which, I challenged myself to find some scenes worthy of a portfolio spot captured in my home province. After researching for countless hours, I had a pretty impressive list of locations that I wanted to see with that specific one being on the very top of said list. I planned a last minute photography gateway with a customer and also good friend of mine, Claude and we went to Gaspésie Peninsula with his camper. The amount of gorgeous light we had in a single week was mind boggling…our timing was great, our planning was equally good and we made it there for one sunset to remember for ever…
ONE MORE LIGHT
Here’s another image from the Province of Quebec that made it to my Top 9. That one is cityscape which I don’t do very often to be honest. But it’s an image with a very special meaning to me. My father was born and raised in the City of Quebec and Chateau Frontenac has always been his pride. You could tell by listening to my dad talking about his natal city that he was a proud Quebecer.
I had wanted to capture an image of Chateau Frontenac for years…there was always something holding me back. The image I had in mind was never possible because of various reasons such as it was under construction/renovation, bad weather or something else. I initially wanted to capture an image of the castle during the winter season but then I told myself why not try during the fall season colour peak? I also wanted to do a long exposure image with cars driving by, 30 seconds was the shutter speed I chose and I used a Neutral Density Filter to cut some light even though it was still pretty dark. Then came the very first glow from the rising sun, the clouds started to turn pink and the rest of the scene was also catching some warm glow… I finally managed to capture the image I had dreamed about for years.
A SEAT ON TOP OF THE WORLD
The final image from my Top 9 of 2024 is a special one too…I have a love/hate relationship with that location. I wanted to captured a decent image of Peyto Lake for the past 10 years…can you imagine? The first time I went, I couldn’t make it to the viewpoint because there was too much snow and I wasn’t well prepared, second, third and fourth time it was closed for construction of the new platform. And after that, I could finally see it for the first time but never had lovely light…
Things changed in September when we brought or workshop group there for sunrise. It almost didn’t happen again because I missed the exit and noticed a couple kilometers later. I was mad at myself, the light was very promising! But I was busy chatting with my customers…so it’s not really my fault, right? I turned around, drove back up the hill and didn’t miss the exit that second time…dropped the group in the second parking lot which is closer to the view point and went back to the lower parking to drop off the SUV…ran up to the viewpoint which wasn’t smart at all. Who knew that there wasn’t as much oxygen at 8000 feet elevation than at sea level? I knew, I simply forgot about it! I had a hard time catching my breath even though I am not in bad shape at all. And finally we made it to the view point on time for that view! After 10 years of trying and trying and failing countless times, I finally got a shot I am really happy with! Never give up, failing will only make you stronger!
…IN CONCLUSION
This completes my Top 9 of 2024. In conclusion, I don’t think 2024 could have been any better. I am extremely happy with what I have accomplished during the last twelve months. Photographically speaking, we always want more but all in all, I can call myself very pleased with my year. I was able to finally put check marks on images I had wanted to do for years, I explored my own backyard on multiple occasions and found many hidden gems.
I will push even more to make the next twelve months even better and hopefully you will be here next year to see my TOP 9 for 2025!
Ok now, it’s time to go shopping for those Christmas presents! Oh…you don’t know what to ask for? Or you don’t know what to give to your photography fanatic partner? Have a look at my previous Blog Article; My Photographer’s Christmas Wish List! You still have enough time to get them the Christmas gifts they will really enjoy and after reading that article, you’ll know what to get for them!
On that final line, I want to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas!