BEST PHOTOGRAPHY WORK OF 2023
Now that the sun is about to set on 2023, it's time to reflect back on the past year, photographically speaking. Looking at your own work with a critical eye, can be an interesting exercise and is actually more difficult than what most think.
Interestingly, it is very common for these images to be very different from what is most popular on social media (Instagram, Facebook...).
Like every year, I try to come up with the best 3 images of the four main categories I typically shoot;
Click on the respective links above, to check out the Portfolio galleries of these on my website.
STREET
On the second day of the New year, I shot the image below of a monitor sitting next to a waste bin in Dusseldorf, Germany. For me a good street photo should always created more questions, than it provides the viewer with answers. Why is the screen there? Did somebody get a new monitor for New Years?
New York, remains one of my favorite cities to shoot street. This one, captioned Lady in pink, was shot late at night on 5th avenue. I like the atmosphere of the shot as well as how the gold windows work nicely with the pink subject.
In Street photography one can be a hunter or a fisherman... When I bumped into this interesting zebra crossing in Seoul (South-Korea), I knew there was potential for some interesting compositions. I stayed over an hours at the crossing and the image of two "suits' crossing the street is the one I like most.
AERIAL
It's the second year in a row, that I can't fly my drone anymore in Dubai due to security restrictions, which is a bummer. 
Looking for alternatives, I managed to still do a fair bit of aerial photography from the passenger cabin on airliners and while flying smaller aircraft. The one below was made on the arrival into New York. The green colours and the two speedboats racing each other made for an interesting image.
The second one was shot from my 1954 Piper Cub while touring around France. The abstract image shows a beach along the Cote d'Opale at low tide. I liked the play of light and shadow in the image, as well as the interesting texture.
Winter mornings often provide great visibility when taking off from Dubai. Being on the good side of the cabin is essential to shoot the Palm Jumeirah, Burj al Arab and Dubai Marina in a single frame. Interestingly the image was actually shot on my iPhone 15 Pro Max.
TRAVEL
I sometimes debate if Travel photography can be shot in your own city...
Whenever there is a full moon rise and when I'm not working, I try to shoot some interesting perspectives of the moon rising over a specific structure or landscape. The image of the moon rising over an older mosque in the Sharjah desert, made for a unique image.
End of the year, I went on a 12 days photo-adventure along the Western Cape province in South-Africa. During one of the stays in a tented Private game reserve, we witnessed the most beautiful sunset. Hard to believe, but there is actually very little work done on the image. The highly saturated pink colour stayed for a least 15min which is quite rare. I love the IBIS (In Body Image Stabilization) for shot like these, when a tripod might not be available at the time.
The last Travel image comes from the same "Hartenbos Private Game reserve", where I shot two giraffes against an interesting cloudy background. Like how they form an X; a hint to the Fujifilm X-series camera system I've been using the last +10 years.
AVIATION
As a pilot/photographer, Aviation photography is always close to my heart.
When visiting the Aero-Hasselt (Belgium) last summer, my 1954 Piper Super Cub was standing in some very dramatic light. A perfect setting for a black and white high contrast image.
Every two years the Dubai Airshow is held, a trade show which is on par with the Paris and Farnborough shows. I've recently blogged about the show here.
The image below of two Emirati ladies snapping some images of the Italian Frecce Tricolori jet team, was one of my favorite people images of the show.
The UAE also has a military jet team, called Al Fursan. I was looking for interesting compositions playing with the UAE flag displayed on an Emirates airline B777 in the foreground.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
Early 2023, I announced that I would blog once a month about one specific gallery that I would like to highlight. 12 Posts later,
My 2023 Lightroom catalog is presently holding 9000 images which is a little over than previous years. Of these, I've tagged just over 653 images as "five stars" images; a classification of an image which makes it portfolio worthy. Call it the best of the catalog!
Lastly I wish all my readers, a Happy 2024!
See you on the other side!
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