Top 10 for 2022

It’s a new year and I’m making my way home from Mexico with a drive up the Baja Peninsula. Not rushing this trip and taking time to review the past year. I’m way behind on processing the photographs I made during numerous travels and workshops, but here are 10 of my favorites from 2022.

For my first big photo trip of the year, I joined the Muench Workshops group in Death Valley National Park. We hiked out deep into the Mesquite Flat sand dunes before sunrise and were treated to beautiful golden light as the sun crested the Amargosa Range. I’ll be returning to Death Valley in March for my first workshop of 2023. This one will be really special because we’ll spend a couple of days with a fully-outfitted campout at remote sand dunes. Check out the details and sign up soon.

On a hike with my Muench Workshops group on Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park, we came across this young buck who posed nicely for us. I’ll be leading another ONP workshop in July – more info on the Muench Workshops website.

In March, Penelope and I flew to Spain to visit her brother and sister-in-law. Steve and Isabel took us to several historic cities and a highlight of each tour was a late afternoon meal at an open-air restaurant. 

Over the years I’ve made many visits to Bandon, but rarely have I had the kind of sunsets this beach is known for. On this year’s Oregon Coast workshop, we got lucky one evening with just the right kind of clouds as the sunset hit the horizon. 

Bald eagles are fairly common on the coast in Olympic National Park, but I’d never seen one so close. My photo workshop folks were able to get some great images of this handsome bird. 

This year Penelope and I had the pleasure of going on two river rafting trips with Far and Away Adventures. The Bruneau River in Idaho was largely a float through a deep canyon of sheer basalt walls while the Middle Fork of the Salmon River offered plenty of thrilling whitewater. One woman in our group was rather reserved and didn’t talk much when we gathered a mealtime. I was surprised when she said that this was a bucket list trip for her. It was great fun to see her joy and glee as her raft ran one of the gnarly Class IV rapids on the river. From the look on guide Roscoe’s face, you can tell that he certainly loves his job. 

For the past two winters, we’ve spent the Christmas-New Years holidays in a little town on the Riviera Nayarit coast of Mexico. On one of my sunrise walks on the beach I noticed the lines and shapes in the sand caused by the receding tide. 

Hoping to photograph elk or moose, I drove down a dirt road in Grand Teton National Park. No big critters that morning, but I did see some river otters playing on the far side of the Snake River. And then I noticed the fog swirling around these trees and happily made a number of exposures of the scene. Maybe the moose will be there when I return this fall with Muench Workshops.

I finished my 2022 workshop schedule with another visit to Death Valley National Park. On a pre-workshop scouting day, I photographed this magnificent Joshua Tree with my newly Infrared converted Nikon Z7. I chose the 590nm SuperColor conversion from LifePixel.com because of the range of hues and tones possible with conversions in this wavelength. 

I’m looking forward to returning to Monument Valley in October to lead another Muench Workshops trip to this amazing place. Our Navajo guides take us up to Hunts Mesa for this incredible view of the sandstone towers and buttes in the valley. This year I’ll have the pleasure of co-leading this workshop with Matt Payne, host of the F-Stop Collaborate and Listen podcast.

Thanks very much for taking the time to view my photos. If you have a selection of your favorites from 2022, please post a link in the Comments.

Best wishes for health, happiness, love, peace, and prosperity in 2023!

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