January 2, 2020.

For this week’s challenge, Patti Moed asks us to share our favorite photos of 2019. Coincidentally, I set aside a collection of photos that was to run in this week’s Travel Tuesday post. Gee, all I need to do is change the title and publication date, write a new introduction and conclusion and I’m done (except for what do I do now on Tuesday? >grin<) Patti’s post provides some basic guidelines, suggestions really, and she shares her favorites here.

For this challenge, I will start with our trip to Colorado this summer for our 2019 Family Reunion. In the opening photo, this view is a panorama captured at Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. You can view more images from the garden here.

The image above was captured on the Norwegian Star. It’s bridge has highly reflective window tinting. The curve of the frames coupled with straight glass panels provided several different views of Long Beach Harbor as we prepared for departure on a cruise through the Panama Canal.

Of course, I have to feature a black-and-white image as I enjoy discovering which of my color photos can actually be enhanced by a monochrome conversion. This is a view of the Mystery Castle in Phoenix, Arizona. We stopped there twice in 2019 to share the fascinating story of the creation of this unusual home with family and friends. You can read about this house and see more images here.

In 2019, I added a drone to my camera equipment. I’ve learned to fly it, have been licensed and and even now am certified to fly a drone on Civil Air Patrol missions. My first reason for a personal acquisition (as I could use CAP drones for practice), is that I want to gain the higher perspective for my personal landscape photography from as high as 400 feet above ground level (the FAA maximum for unmanned flight in my class of FAA license.) This view is of the Arkansas River near Howard, Colorado.

We completed two cruises in 2019 and as we awaited to disembark at Miami on the Carnival Magic, early in the morning we noticed the Celebrity Equinox returning to port. This shot is probably my favorite night image.

In July, Fargo hosted the USAF Thunderbirds for an airshow. It was a great opportunity to experiment with high shutter speeds and my 300 mm zoom lens paired with the Nikon D500 camera. More images captured at the Thunderbirds Performance are here.

At San Jose Del Cabo, this gentleman was busking for his living. I used some of the “artistic” filters in Photoshop Elements to customize the photo to make it a bit more “abstract”.  The concept came from a Lens-Artists Photo Challenge earlier this month. For the challenge, I found several photos taken over the years and modified them to give them a more abstract feel. You can view the other abstract images here.

Of course, I would be remiss in not including a favorite shot from the Arizona desert. After an arduous hike (for me) to the top of this Valley Vista Trail viewpoint, we got a spectacular view of the city of Buckeye and the Gila Mountains in the background. More views from this hike can be found here.

These images were displayed in no particular order, they are simply some of my favorites captured this year. In most browsers, you can click on an image to enlarge it for a better view.

Finally, I wish to thank you all for hanging around and sharing my travels and photography over these past nearly 7 years. I hope to be sharing my photography journeys for many more years. Thank you also to Patti and her teammates who spend time each week creating these photo challenges. I look forward to many more in the new year.

John Steiner