My first attempt at a review of 2017 ended up being pretty wordy, with no images, so this post is intended to rectify that somewhat.

The trend this year, on twitter at least, seemed to be for photographers to share their #favouritefour images from 2017.  I quite like sharing my favourite images from the last year so thought I’d join in, but in a slightly longer format with some words accompanying the images (click for larger views).

1. Snowdon Summit

This was taken in the spring, on a weekend in Snowdonia.  We set off, on the Pyg track, in darkness at around 5am aiming to be on the summit not too long after sunrise.  As we climbed and the sun rose, it became apparent that the summit was shrouded in cloud.  As such, we didn’t rush, but made the most of the sunrise light over the Snowdon horseshoe during our ascent.  As we reached the point where the Pyg Track joins the Llanberis path, the cloud started to clear, giving us a fantastic view of the summit through the lifting cloud and a lone walker nearing the summit.  Perfect timing.

2. Bluebell Woodland

In May, I made a trip to Dockey Wood to shoot the bluebells.  I’ve been to this woodland many times, and taken a fair few images of the bluebell woodland, so was keen to try and come away with something different to past visits.  Exploring the woodland, looking for a composition whilst waiting for the sun to get high enough, I came across this scene, with the path winding into the trees near the edge of the wood.  This was one of my first trips out with my Nikon 45mm PC-E tilt-shift lens, so I was keen to put it to use here.  I spent a good 30 minutes in this spot, experimenting with where to put the plane of focus, and selecting the optimum aperture, settling on the above – f/4.8, with the plane of focus approximately in-line with the direction of the path.

3. From Great Intake

This was taken on a trip to the Lake District in early December.  It’s a fairly classic view from Great Intake, looking towards the Langdale Pikes, not long after sunrise.  I love this view, and this valley generally, so I’m happy to have been able to capture it in this way.  I really like how the tips of Side Pike are just caught in the sun light as a couple of my favourite images from last year were taken from that exact spot!

4. Snowy Copse

I wrote about this image briefly quite recently.  Taken on a brief wintery spell in mid December, an image I’ve been visualising for around 3 years, finally realised.

So that’s my favourite four images from 2017.  Pleasingly, two of them are local to me, whilst the other two are from national parks – that seems like a good ratio to aim for, with respect to trying to make the most of what I have locally, versus more distant destinations.  Hopefully, there will be plenty more to follow in 2018.  Happy New Year.