Emerald Lake, NWT Canada (Painted)

Had a Photo to Painting Marathon last Saturday over at Google Plus, so I spent a few hours Saturday turning photos to paintings!

Best of the Year 2010, Part 1.

As a photographer, I get connected to my work. Certainly not like a parent develops a connection with their children, although sometimes I think it comes close! Of the hundreds of photos I have put up for display this year, either here on my website or on Flickr, I picked out 34 that I felt were my best. But that's not nearly narrowed down enough. Going through a couple more times, I have finally narrowed that down to my ten favorites of the year.

About some of my favorites. Sometimes I want an outcome that reflects reality just as I saw it. And at other times, I want to enhance or alter reality, without going to large extremes (in most cases).

So then, how to define my ten favorites of the year 2010? The obvious criteria is that the photo must have been taken in the year 2010. But for a lot of photographers, myself included, photography is a multi-step process, the two most important steps being taking the shot, and post-processing. What if taking the shot occurred before this year, but post-processing occurred this year? Does that count? Should it?

For my best of the year, my answer is yes. A shot taken in a previous year, but post-processed this year can count as one of my best of the year. So, here is my year 2010 top photos. I will display five today and five on Friday, in no particular order. And a bit of history behind the photo.

Also, to see a larger view of the photo, just click on it and you will be taken to a larger view on flickr.com. Enjoy.

 
 

1. Emerald Lake, Nahanni NP, Canada ~ Photo from August 1999, reprocessed this year.

There seems to be something about the process of getting a great outcome from scanned slides. Things that work well on digital files seem to fall flat when tried on scanned film. Maybe I just haven't mastered the process yet. But on this one, I hit the results I wanted.

2. The Golden Gate of Kiev ~ Photo from June 19, 2010.

This is a panorama made from two other photos. I then tweaked it a bit using Topaz Adjust. A really pleasing outcome.

3. Gold Domes in January (HDR) ~ Photo taken January 14, 2007, processed for the first time this year.

With this photo, HDR made all the difference. I liked the original photo enough to keep it, but never displayed it anywhere until I got this result. HDR and Topaz Adjust.

4. Drama Theater of Chernigov (HDR) ~ Photo taken August 19, 2010.

Also a panorama made from two photos. Then created this HDR version, and finished it in Topaz Adjust.

5. Dormition Cathedral, Rear View (HDR) ~ Photo taken January 14, 2007, reprocessed this year.

I originally posted a different version of this exact photo early in 2010. I revisited it later in the year and felt I could improve on it. Here are the results.

On the South Nahanni River

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~ Photo Series ~ Nahannni – River of Quest and Legend ~
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Killing time - I often think of the expression and how swiftly time passes in the out-of-doors, where there is never a moment without something new; dawns and sunrises with mists moving out of the bays.  The sifting of clouds, the way light plays with water and trees, the sound of bird calls.  This sight of flowers, the movement of animals, the magic of dusk and the last slanting rays of color.

Sigurd Olson

~~~

This is probably day four or day five.  Who really knows for sure?  Out on the river, you need to be prepared for clouds and rain, sunny and warm, and chilly misty mornings.  And you will lose track of time.

The first few days, while you're adjusting to your new reality, you may wonder "ten more days to go!  How will I make it?"   But then, after a few more days, you wonder "only five days to go.  I really need another week here."

You will, of course, encounter unexpected surprises along the way, too.  Like this rainbow.

~~~

View from the Tufa Mounds.

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~ Photo Series ~ Nahannni – River of Quest and Legend ~
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View from the Tufa Mounds, looking toward the Ragged Range.

Rabbitkettle Hotsprings and Tufa Mounds
At Rabbitkettle, and other hot springs in the park, water bubbles to the surface from deep beneath the earth, warmed by the same volcanic energy that induced the formation of the Ragged Range. The Rabbitkettle tufa mound is the largest in Canada and a key point of interest in Nahanni. Tufa mounds are created by the precipitation of dissolved minerals, primarily calcium carbonate, from thermal spring water. In Nahanni, this water retains a temperature of 20 degrees C year-round. As the warm mineral water pours from the spring, it radiates outwards over the surface of the tufa mound. Calcium carbonate precipitates out of the spring water and hardens to form tufa. As the calcium carbonate hardens, it forms series of intricate terraces and basins known as rimstone dams and gours. The North Mound, believed to be 10 000 years old, is 30 m high and 60 m in width. The tufa mounds are very fragile and are accessible only through guided hikes with park staff.

Parks Canada - Nahanni National Park Reserve

Little Doctor Lake, NWT, Canada

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~ Photo Series ~ Nahannni – River of Quest and Legend ~
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Solitude is a silent storm that breaks down

all our dead branches;

yet it sends our living roots deeper into

the living heart of the living earth.

Man struggles to find life outside himself.

Unaware that the life he is seeking is within him.

Nature reaches out to us with welcome arms,

and bids us enjoy her beauty; but we dread her

silence and rush into the crowded cities, there

to huddle like sheep fleeing from the ferocious wolf.

~ Kahlil Gibran

Solitude is pretty much a given on this trip.  Permits to travel the river at the time was 1500 people a year, most in the summer months, of course.  The year I traveled the river, only around 800 permits were actually applied for.  Most are for groups run by outfitters.  These trips are spaced out so you are not likely to encounter any other large group on the river.  Some permits, however, are granted to individuals and small groups traveling the river on their own.  You may encounter some of these people.

The view through the window of the airplane.  Being in a two engine propeller plane, we were flying a lot lower than a jet would, and therefore had a much better view of all passing beneath us.

First Canyon View

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~ Photo Series ~ Nahannni - River of Quest and Legend ~
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Downstream on the South Nahanni River, there are four spectacular canyons, starting with the Fourth Canyon. The Fourth Canyon has been formed just after Virginia Falls. The Third Canyon has been formed cutting the mountains of the Funeral Range. At the Gate of Third Canyon, the river takes a dramatic turn. The Second Canyon passes through the mountain of the Headless Range, which finally leads to the First Canyon through Deadmen Valley. The depth of the First Canyon is the highest in the park and it has created the most stunning landscape of the park.

Emerald Lake, NWT Canada

Emerald Lake, Nahanni National Park, NWT, Canada

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~ Photo Series ~ Nahannni - River of Quest and Legend ~
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The river courses through a spectacular reach of canyon walls -- and an equally towering scale of legend. Every paddler who has moved into the Nahanni's vast and exalted solitude has felt the river's enduring claim on his or her soul: a sense that this river is not just a rushing of whitewater through a channel of rock, but the very expression, in rock and river foam, of an ancient and abiding quest.

Legend has hewn that quest in the form of gold. The story is so often told it feels like ancient echoes trapped between these canyon walls: of two prospectors very early in the (20th) century who are said to have explored the upper reaches of the Nahanni and -- some believe to this day -- discovered an incredible lode of gold, then took all the gold they could carry and haul, down the "Dark River of Fear" until it led them to "the Valley of Vanishing Men" -- the site where they were later found, headless, a site known to this day as Deadmens Valley. Join us on this unparalleled adventure -- what filmmaker and veteran canoeist Bill Mason described in his journal in 1985 as "Still the greatest canoe trip in the world -- the Nahanni."

~ Black Feather Wilderness Adventures brochure, circa 1995. ~