My favourite photos from 2024

Last year, I shared a blog featuring my favourite photos of 2023. It was fairly easy to put together since most of my favorites came from just one or two photography trips. However, 2024 was an exceptional year with great conditions, and I found it much harder to narrow down my selection. Out of the 100-200 photos I really liked, choosing a top 20 felt impossible. So, instead, I decided to impose some restrictions and only allow myself one image from any one trip. This means my favourite season (Bluebell season) won't dominate my top 20 as it might have otherwise, but as it's worked out there's a nice mix from throughout the year. I also included 21 photos. Go figure.

In 2024 I took 24,055 photos, a little bit lower than the previous year where I snapped a whopping 27,000 images. However, while in 2023 I 'only' edited 2800 of those photos, this year I polished 3,358 turds, the first indication that my keeper rate was a little bit better.

I also used my camera on 101 days, roughly one day in three. I captured foggy conditions on 46 of those days—nearly 50% for the Maths fans out there. Kudos to the Met office who continued to deliver the most accurate forecasts. Autumn was particularly rewarding, with several consecutive misty sessions. Even when it wasn’t foggy, there were stunning northern lights, beautiful sunrises, and dramatic skies.

My 24-120mm f/4 lens was still my most-used lens, but it stopped working in October. This gave my 24-70mm kit lens a chance to 'shine' again. During this period, I also bought a Nikon Z6iii. I should’ve returned it after realizing my Z7ii wasn’t the problem, but I couldn’t resist the better focus and LCD. Now my trusty Z7ii serves as a backup, though my bank account isn’t thrilled.

Lastly, a quick note: some of the images in this blog didn’t resize so well, and in real life they look a little better...

21 - Northern Soul

Northern Lights, in Somerset! It takes a lot to get me out with my camera at night but the promise of northern lights was enough to pique my interest, so me and photofriend Simon put our great brains together to find a suitable location to shoot them. Not being able to think of anything we went to the closest place possible, not really expecting much. As it turned out the display was one of the best for many a year, and it was a spectacular thing to witness, even if I had no idea how to capture it. It really felt like an 'event' - sharing a field with photographers and non-photographers alike, laughing, oo-ing and jumping up and down like hyperactive grasshoppers. Crappy photo but a special memory

20 - Fat Bottomed Girl

Getting lost in Savernake can have its benefits when you rediscover old trees like this one, perfectly positioned and backlit in the morning fog. I got lost quite a lot in 2024, and I've definitely improved this particular skill to near expert levels.

19 - Overpopulated Poppy Panorama

This field has been a good one to me in the past with various different crops over the years - this time around it was poppies. The secret got out pretty quick, so this shot certainly isn't original, but that doesn't take away from the scene. The lighting on this evening was nearly super epic, but a persistent cloud bank blocked the sun from reaching all the spots I wanted it to, so I went with a pano to make the most of what I had and hoped people wouldn't notice as much what I hadn't.

18 - 10,000 Spoons

I had my eye on this spot for years, but the autumn colors, fog, and my timing never aligned—until this year, when I finally captured the scene as I had imagined it. While I’m happy with the image, its significance has grown because the area was being actively logged as I took this photo. When I last checked, most of these trees were gone, making this possibly the last photo of them.

17 - Big metal trees

The cranes are a little like trees I guess! One of my favourite shoots of the year wiith my tall mate Rich in my old stomping ground. A lovely sunrise and a happy memory to go with it.

16 - When we grow up

With the weather remaining cold and the winds light I thought it might be worth trying Corfe castle to see if I could shoot it shrouded in lovely mist. Before my woodland obsession I had chased these conditions multiple times without success before finally getting something on about my 16th visit. Put off by these failures for some time, I wasn't really suprised to find only a haze at the ruin - enough to make an interesting photo, but not enough to hold my attention. Luckily, nearby Wareham forest still had some frost, and as it burned away it created some lovely low lying misty conditions. Yes please! I then fell in a hole, which was a bit inconvenient as this was a pre-work shoot and I had wet underpants all day. That's the lengths you have to go to to make it to my favourite images of the year...

15 - Wiltshire Chainsaw Massacre

Another scene from my local woodland that's no longer there and is being actively chopped down. This is where I found my passion for woodland photography after the COVID lockdowns, so I'm a bit gutted. What's particularly ironic (don't you think?) is that I'd always hoped to see light rays through this section, but never witnessed it, as that would need afternoon fog. Towards the middle of January 25 I drove by to finally witness this phenomenon here, but at the same time discovered it was being felled. I couldn't use the camera to record it as it would have been unsafe to enter, but I saw them, so that will have to do. Like rain on your wedding day.

14 - Light waves

A trip to Porthcawl with fellow photographer Ryan Seymour during one of the named storms at the end of 2024. The wind direction wasn't quite right to create the really dramatic waves, but the light at times was something else. Last time I was here I had the waves but not the light, so maybe 2025 will be the year I get the shot I've been chasing - but until then here's 2024's version.

13 - A place to reflect

It rained a lot at the end of 2022 and despite being off for a couple of weeks I didn't get out with my camera at all. When it finally stopped, me and Photofriend Simon were treated to a gloriously flooded water meadow that captured the reflection of the cathedral perfectly. After so long it was lovely to get out and catch up with my mate, and revisit one of my favourite child hood haunts - even if I did fall off a gate in front of some bemused walkers while entering a field I probably shouldn't have entered.

12 - Stupid fat hobbit

When Master Frodo was quested with returning the ring of power to heart of Mordor I had no hesitation in joining him, and captured this image at the start of the journey. I really want to delete that last sentence...

11 - New Horizons

One of my most entertaining trips of the year took place at Ayrmer Cove in Devon, shooting scenes entirely out of my comfort zone and getting soaking wet in the process (from the sea you perverts). Even more fun, I brought the wrong magnetic filter adaptor with me and spent the entire shoot trying to hold my filters in front of the lens to get the longer shutter speeds I wanted. Many a filter was dropped but credit to Kase, none smashed, which was a small bonus. If you like bad photoshop you'll love this image...

10 - Ghostface thriller

Earlier in the year me and Photofriend Simon had the pleasure of being introduced to Savernake by informed local legends Stephen Davis and Nathan Hollingsworth. Although I enjoy a foggy forest at any time of year, I couldn't help myself thinking how much better they would look in Autumn - those anciet dead oaks are famed for thier bushy fall foliage...

9 - Tuscanshire

A scene I return to each year in the hope that the crop is interesting, finally delivered in 2024! As ever, some more mist in the background would have improved this scene a little, but despite several revisits, this was the closest I could get to the image I had imagined. It's up a hill and sunrise is very early at this time of year so I think that's fair enough! One year this will be oil seed and then I will be very happy indeed!

8 - Feeling sketchy

The forecast said snow and I called horse s*@t, but nonetheless I thought I'd give it a go anyway, and knock me down with a feather did it snow! So much so that I had no chance of escaping with a jack knifed lorry blocking the road. I took this shot of a copse at the edge of the woodland and was very smug, until I walked back to the car and realised the lens had got covered with snow and blotches beyond my photoshop ability covered the image. Queue a walk back in the biting call to the copse to repeat the same images I thought I had nailed.

7 - More Bluebell

Despite my scouting it was my old favourite Biddcombe wood that delivered my first memorable Bluebell session of the year. On this occasion it was particularly special as I only arrived at around midday after a failed attempt elsewhere to find it was the only place in the area (perhaps even the world!!) that was experiencing thick mist. I snapped all of my old favourite compositions and nearly caught a very special Deer image, but as Deers tend to move faster than trees I didn't quite get it in focus ('quite' is being very generous...). I even remembered to capture a pano which is pretty rare for me!

6 - V for Victory

A scene I fell in love with a couple of years back that I kept forgetting to photograph whenever I revisited. I put this to rights this year and shot it several times, but I think it's the summer one I'll share, as I'm only allowed one image per shoot on this list and I would never cheat the system....

5 - Invaders from outer space

The opposite of the previous image on my list, I shoot this scene every time I visit, whether it's warranted or not. I think it looks like a squid or a space alien (or a squid like space alien perhaps) and with the light mist and not at all enhanced lighting creating an out of this world 'vibe', you could be being beamed up just by looking at it.

4 - Spice girls

A very small wood in the north of Somerset has been the source of some of my favourite images for a few years now, and this one from autumn 2024 is probably my best yet. The sun was rising behind the trees on the right and added just the right amount of atosphere to the scene (in my 'humble' opinion*). Sure, some of the leaves on the top of the image are a bit distracting, but I don't tend to carry secateurs with me in my camera bag and I am not 7 ft 8. *Can you be humble in a top 21 of your own images within a self published blog?

3 - Get Shorty

An absolutely fantastic session in Autumn at my favourite wood, with Lee Cooper (and others - everyone was out that day). I took a lot of images and I'm not even sure this is my favourite of the session, yet here it is at number 3 on my favourites list. I've said favourite quite a lot in this paragraph. The decision for including this one over the other images of the day is that I've just printed it and it looked nice - surely reason enough?

2 - Quantocks Airways

I broke my rules and included a second image from a session in North Somerset, but I absolutely loved both images and didn't want to exclude one in favour of the other. This one is very much my favourite though and in most other years would be my number 1. This wood is very hard to shoot, and without the mist is probably not worth bothering. With mist and light and autumn colour it is something else entireley. There was a lot of whooping on this day...

1 - Cheers Dad

I'm lucky enough to have a very special wood very close to my work that I chanced upon earlier in the year and had been scouting for a few weeks. But on a special anniversary I was granted some amazing conditions, on what was without doubt, my favourite photographic morning of all time. I don't normally get out on Saturdays, but good old Grandma helped me out with the boys, and although I didn't have as long as I'd have liked in the wood, I had long enough. I'm not a particularly spiritual person, but at times even I was thanking my old Dad for any part he might have played in helping me fill my Bluebell quota for the season and achieve my favourite photo of the year!

So what do you think? Do you agree with my choices or maybe you think I'm a bit weird about trees and you don't get it...you might not be wrong..

I bet you think it's too long.

My last blog got quite a bit of traction (...ahem) but this one is less spicy and more in keeping with the type of thing I normally do (self promoting and self centred ego peices- again with the irony!) so for any new reader I hope you enjoyed it.

See you out there! (in a friendly not creepy way)

Ah dammit, I forgot to add my joint favourite photo of the year - top blogging from me! Change all mention of 21 images to 22 and humour my sorry attempt to save face and not have to rewrite everything I've written so far,,,

Proper fog at Wistman's Wood and it was as glorious as I imagined. Of the many memorable shots I captured on this morning, this was probably the most unforgetable. After waiting so long for these conditions I was never going to forget this session...........