Everyone likes to look back on their favourite memories and things that marked special occasions in their lives. In the past three years of my life, I traveled quite a bit, capturing many photos in a wide variety of countries, experiencing new places, and improving my photography skills along the way. There are many photographs that I've loved, among the thousands of shots that I took. Some though, stand out from even those, for a wide array of reasons (Mostly of personal significance).
If you've followed my blog or my Facebook page, you would have already seen these images around. They are, after all, my favourites. But if you have not, here's a look at the five photos, in no particular order:
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1 - Jökulsárlón Iceberg (July 2014)
This photo is a fairly recent one, taken on the family trip to Iceland last July. Iceland was a country that I had wanted to visit for the longest time, and Jökulsárlón was pretty much at the top of the list of places that I wanted to visit while I was there. On top of that, photographing icebergs on a beach was a (highly specific) experience that I had hoped to do since I first started taking photos. This shot is one of several iceberg long exposures that I captured while I was at Jökulsárlón, most which I loved. While it's not the best iceberg shot ever, it marked a fulfillment of a personal dream, which is why this photo is in this list.
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2 - Maho Beach Landing (April 2013)
If you have any interest in planes at all, it is almost certain that you would have heard of Maho Beach in St Maarten. If you were not, you would probably have seen similar images in travel magazines or websites. It is that well known a place. Ever since I first read about the place a long time ago on one of those websites, I had wondered what it would be like to be there to experience a plane coming in on that beach. In April 2013, I got my answer - incredibly loud, but amazing. The KLM Boeing 747s were the largest planes to serve the airport, and the following photo is my absolute favourite from that trip. Just looking at it recalls the very experience of being there, waiting patiently for the planes to come in (checking the time and daily plane listings frequently too). If there was a photo that could sum up an entire experience, it would be this one.
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3 - Fog Shrouded Islands (August 2013)
The significance of the next photo is somewhat similar to the previous one, primarily in how it reminds me of how it was like, being there at that time. The photo was taken while on a ferry en-route to Vancouver Island, Canada. Before we had boarded the ferry, I remember feeling a little down at how cloudy and dreary the weather was (Which was what it looked like from the mainland terminal). I was prepared to be disappointed with views on the ride over. But then, as we approached the smaller islands surrounding Vancouver Island, the below scene came up, and I was blown away by how surreal and mysterious everything looked. The photo's ability to invoke that sense of mystery and awe that I felt that day is why it's here in this list, rather than some of the more beautiful photos from that trip.
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4 - Dove Lake (February 2012)
This is the earliest shot that makes this list, and an HDR image to boot. I was in the midst of my HDR experimenting phase when it went on this trip to Tasmania, and this is one of the few that I was actually satisfied with. It's not a perfect HDR image by any means, but I love it for how it helped bring out (once again) the sense of being there. It helped that it captured a particular moment when the sun came out from behind clouds to light up Cradle Mountain and the storm clouds that were brewing on the other side. This photo was my absolute favourite for quite awhile. I have other photos which have surpassed this one now, but it was one of the first ones that had such a lasting impression on me.
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5 - Skipping Girl (December 2014)
From the earliest, we come to the is the most recent of my favourite five, and one that has shown up in a blog post only a few weeks earlier. This image of the girl skipping happily across the wet plaza was a very lucky (or well timed, depending on how you look at it) one. As you can see from the photo, the plaza reflected the clear blue skies very beautifully, so there were actually a lot of people wandering all over, getting photos. I had taken a number of shots before this, and there were people all over. When it got emptier at one point, I decided to line up another shot, so that I could get a photo with less people in it. The girl decided to skip across right at that point, and this happened. I don't think I have ever had another shot this perfectly timed, so I have not stopped being ridiculously happy at how much I love this photo. Which is somewhat the reason why it's in this list.
So there you have it, five of my favourite photos from all my travels these past three years. They may not be the best shots, but they are my favourites. It's not likely that I'd get to travel this much in so little time again, but I do hope to capture more photos that would surpass these. Only time will tell, I guess.
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Till the next time,
Raylen