Now that 2021 has ended, I thought I’d take a look back at my favorite images I created during the year, and give the back story behind each image.

Looking through all of my images from the past year was fun! Honestly it was difficult to get down to 12 - 1 for each month. But notice I said “favorite” and not “best”. I think “best” is really subjective and for me difficult to rate - especially when it comes to my own work. But picking favorites is fun because often its the story that goes along with the image that gets it into favorite status.

Bald Cypress Trees - January 2021

On January 2nd I met up with Doug Brand and Eric Wright on a misty, Winter day to shoot some images in Springfield, Ohio. These trees are located at Ferncliff Cemetery, and are over 100 years old. Bald Cypress is not normally found in Ohio, so having these in our backyard is a genuine treat. This image was shot on some SVEMA MZ-3 black and white film that has an ISO of 3 - yes, 3! I shot it with my Mamiya RB67 ProSD with a 220 back and some 135 adapters for a panoramic format. I love this film for its super low grain and great contrast. If you are interested in picking up some for yourself it can be found at the Film Photography Project Storee.

Into the Unknown - February 2021

I participated in the “Film February” contest earlier this year. The challenge was to shoot a roll of film, then send it to Andrew & Denae to have it developed and judged. 10 other Youtube creators also participated as judges, and each one got to pick their winner. I was happy to participate, and shocked when Dave Hancock picked my roll as his winner! To be honest it was hard for me to send a roll off to trust someone else to develop it and judged with no ability for me to edit the images. It put me out of my comfort zone and that is always a growth opportunity. This image, and the other 9 shots on the roll, were shot on a very foggy and rainy Winter day with my RB67 ProSD on Kodak T-Max 100.

Redhead Duck (male) - March 2021

I’ve been trying to get a good shot of a Redhead duck for awhile. They are super shy around humans and hard to get close to. I spent several mornings at Spring Lakes in Bellbrook, Ohio in early March trying to get some shots of the several that had made the pond their cold weather home. Finally on one of the days I got some great light and, after I had been laying on the cold, wet ground waiting, they finally forgot that I was there and came in closer. This male had just finished cleaning himself and had water droplets beading off of his feathers, and the water was lit up by the golden light coming from behind me. I managed to get a lot of great shots that day, and this one is my favorite.

Sunrise at Caesar Creek State Park - April 2021

In early April I once again met up with Doug Brand and Eric Wright before dawn at the main beach at Caesar Creek State Park. Armed with my Mamiya 645 Pro TL and some Ektar film, I took several shots as the sun came up. While we didn’t get any great cloud formations, we did get some nice color and reflections. After I developed and scanned this image, I flipped it so that the reflection is on top - I love the moodiness it creates, and every time I look at this image it reminds me of that quiet morning on the beach.

Prothonotary Warbler - May 2021

May is the big month for Spring Bird Migration, with many species of Warblers moving through the area. My go-to spot is Spring Valley’s Wildlife Area during this time, as it has everything migrating birds want - food, water, and shelter. A bonus is that in the early morning the sun is rising on the opposite side of the lake from where the birds like to hang out, so if there is good light, the birds are usually bathed in it. This tiny Prothonotary Warbler was singing his morning song on a small branch sticking up out of the water in the lake. Interesting fact - the Prothonotary Warbler got its name from the bright yellow robes worn by papal clerks, known as prothonotaries, in the Roman Catholic church.

Great Egret - June 2021

By June my bird photography is always in full-swing, with most of my other photography pursuits put on the back-burner. Ohio is a fantastic place for birds in late Spring with the large amount of migratory species still in the area, along with our usual residents. I love shooting Great Egrets, and this one let me get in very close as he was hunting for breakfast at Englewood MetroPark. I managed to get several great shots that morning, but this is my favorite with the calm water, reflection, pose, and light.

Abandoned Church and Graveyard - July 2021

Amongst all of my bird photography in July, I managed to get out a few times to do some landscape and waterfall work. On one of those outings with Eric Wright , we stopped at an abandoned church and graveyard - don’t ask the location because Eric swore me to secrecy, and made me drive us there blindfolded so that I can’t reveal the location (just kidding! Safety is paramount when I am out in the field - that’s why I just had him knock me over the head afterwards so that I couldn’t remember due to the concussion).

I brought the RB67 ProSD with a few different film stocks for this outing, along with my Infrared 720nm Nikon D2X. It was a very overcast day, with the scene having a lot of overgrowth, trees, and grass. Color and normal B&W film just wouldn’t give me good separation, so I used the Infrared set-up to capture this multi-shot panoramic image. Note that this is a great example of where Infrared shines, and also more importantly - you don’t need a bright sunny day, contrary to popular opinions regarding Infrared imagery.

Indigo Bunting - August 2021

The wildflowers are in full bloom in Ohio during the month of August, and this means a lot of great opportunities for bird, insect, and flower images. I’ve struggled over the years to get a good Indigo Bunting image, but finally nailed several good ones this year at a few different locations in the area. This one is my favorite, taken near the Smith House at Bill Yeck Park in Centerville, Ohio. The yellow coneflowers and deep blue of the Bunting make for some excellent color contrast. This image was the result of watching this birds behavior of moving back and forth between three different favorite spots, and positioning myself in a spot that had a good background and perch possibilities. A few feet to the right or left would not have given me the great yellow background.

Solitary Sandpiper - September 2021

In September I co-led an Audubon Society Birding Walk at Pearl’s Fen and Oakes Quarry near Fairborn, Ohio. I co-hosted 2 walks in 2021 as part of my Ohio Certified Volunteer Naturalist (OCVN) service requirements in addition to a lot of additional training and videos. While on the walk the group spotted a far-off sandpiper in one of the ponds at Oakes Quarry, but it was so far away I really couldn’t get a good ID even with my long lens and binoculars.

So the next morning I returned to Oakes before dawn, and made my way to the pond. There I crept in slowly and got on the ground, positioned just at the water’s edge with the sun coming up on my left. Eventually the Solitary Sandpiper made his way out of the reeds on the backside of the pond and came within a few feet of me while hunting for breakfast. I was able to get several great shots, to the point it was really hard to pick a favorite - this one is a result of a coin toss between two of them. This year I added 20 new bird species to my life list, and this Sandpiper was one of them.

This is also a great example of something I worked on in 2021 - getting low. The lower you can get and be on your subject’s plane, the better the image is, in my opinion. This holds true for just about anything - birds, bugs, kids, cats - you name it. The added advantage here with birds is that you really can blur the foreground and background, and put more of your focus area on your subject instead of only part of it when shooting from above at an angle.

American White Pelican - October 2021

October was a busy month for me - several trips to shoot fall colors and also a several day stay in Hocking Hills to just hike by myself and take images of anything that interested me. So you’d easily assume that my October image was some sort of landscape image from Hocking Hills, but not this year.

Early in the month I finally got my chance to get some great images of American White Pelicans on their migration stop-off at Grand Lake Saint Mary’s. There was a huge squadron of them there for several days and I was able to make my way out there early on a Saturday morning with some beautiful muted light and lots of Pelicans in fairly close. This was another case of having so many favorites from this session that it was hard to pick, but the one that stood out to me the most was this one with him making eye contact with me. Also - I was laying on the rocks with my lens just inches above the water. I really love the look this perspective gives that’s different than the many other shots I saw from others while the squadron was in town.

Misty Autumn Sunrise at Caesar Creek State Park - November 2021

Fall colors arrived late in 2021, at least they did in Ohio. In most areas they were really just getting at their peak the first week in November - a solid 3+ weeks later than normal.

Seeing the prediction the night before for some possible fog in the area, I planned a hike out at Caesar Creek State Park in the hopes of getting a little drama. Boy was I surprised. The fog and mist above the lake, combined with the rising sun striking the trees, was breath-taking. It only lasted for a short while as the sun burned off the fog rather quickly, but it was incredible while it lasted. I had with me my trusty Nikon N80 and some rolls of Kodak Portra, which was the perfect film to capture the warm, fall tones. My only regret was that I didn’t have any medium format gear with me to get some huge negatives of the scenes, but hey, the best camera is the one you have with you. And the cheap N80 is super light and portable, and usually comes with me on days when I just don’t want to lug a toddler-sized piece of equipment with me on a hike.

Shadows - December 2021

I mentioned in my last entry that I started participating in the weekly “Photo Club” challenge, where a prompt is given at 8am every Saturday, with at least one new image due the following Saturday by 8am. And it has to be shot on film. Can’t make the deadline? You fail the challenge and are no longer in the group. This is a super hard challenge, that I hope will keep my creativity stirring in 2022.

This image is from the 2 rolls I shot for the first challenge called “shadows”. I spent several hours in downtown Dayton on a morning with some great light, just looking for shadows. It was the first time in awhile that I used my Hasselblad 500C - I had forgotten what a joy that camera is to use. I think out of the 2 rolls I shot, I ended up with about 16 keepers out of the 24 frames I shot. That’s a pretty good hit ratio. I’m looking forward to this challenge and plan on keeping it up for all of 2022. Look for more posts on this from time to time.

OK, that’s it! My “favorites” from 2021. Thanks so much for reading!

What are some of your accomplishments or favorite images from 2021? What are you doing to stay challenged and creative in 2022? Please feel free to comment below.

Happy New Year!

Jeremy