2022 Review
2022 what a year! I made less images than I did in 2020 or 2021 but I feel the quality of these images took a significant step forward. Which is interesting because late summer and into early fall I felt that I had hit my first block, like things weren’t progressing or moving forward in the way that I had hoped, this fall seemed to open some new opportunities though. These images are generally organized by season, not necessarily the exact order they were shot. Seven out of the eleven images were made in Ohio. Four of them within five minutes of my house. Two on family vacations. Three in Ohio State Parks, three more in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It is interesting for me to break things like this down as I still pride myself on making the majority of my images in and around Ohio. Landscape photograph and Ohio aren’t two things you typically would pair together, but I continue searching for beauty in my home state. I tried to limit myself to only ten (ended up with eleven) images to really keep it to the photos that were the most important to me. Are they my best images of the year? Some of them are, some of them could be debated, but what can’t be debated is what they mean to me. I hope you enjoy my 2022 Year in Review Gallery.
2022 started with a flurry of images! On two separate occasions I was able to get out during the winter months and make a few of my favorite images of the year. First up was trip to Hocking Hills after a major snow storm. I was able to come away with a pair of images from Upper Falls and Cedar Falls unlike any I had been able to make before. It was amazing to be in the park with only a handful of other folks, mostly photographers, and soak in the silence of Hocking Hills. It is such a busy park on a typical day, this departure from the norm was so enjoyable. This trip was followed a few days later by a stop at my favorite local park, Highbanks Metro Park in Columbus, OH. Highbanks offers such a wide range of features, but I figured if there was any water left in the streams they would likely be frozen, and if I was lucky, there would be some great abstract features in the ice. Jackpot! The curving, sweeping lines and flowing shapes were a sight.
Upper Falls | Hocking Hills
This is arguably the most iconic location in all of Ohio. Upper Falls, found along the trail to Old Man’s Cave is one of the busiest locations in Hocking Hills. On this day, I literally had it to myself. Nobody else in sight! I took my time and was able to come away with an image that, maybe more-so than any other for me, feels like a postcard! Hocking Hills never disappoints, but if you can visit in the snow, make time to do so safely!
Cedar Falls | Hocking Hills
Cedar Falls is my favorite waterfall in Hocking Hills. The trail to get here is relatively easy and the peaceful walk along the stream. Normally there are 10-20 people at this spot, on this day there were 4, each with a camera in hand soaking in the beauty of Cedar Falls.
Ice Abstract | Highbanks Metro Park
I went to Highbanks in search of some winter snow and ice. I knew pretty much exactly where I wanted to go as I’ve been to the park a number of times. When I swept away the layer of snow it revealed these amazing patterns. At this point, I knew I had something that would be fun to play with, it was a matter of finding shapes and lines that could hold interest or held a bit of a metaphor in their shapes. This was my favorite from this series.
Spring brought me the opportunity to head off to the mountains. This was my first experience photographing in the busiest national park in the United States, Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Even though it has a well earned reputation of being crowded, I was able to get off the beaten path and find some solitude. My trip lead me to the top of Clingmans Dome, along the rivers and streams in the valleys, and out to Cades Cove. While I enjoyed it all, my time spent on the banks of the waterways will bring me back. Landscape photography in the Great Smoky Mountains is a goldmine and I cannot wait to return.
Emerald Arc | Great Smoky Mountains National Park
The twists and turns in the road along the valleys of Great Smoky Mountains National Park continually reveal something new. The fresh green colors of early spring were on display as the forests in the lower elevation began popping back to life. When I saw this tree, I couldn’t help but think it was reaching out to another.
Upstream | Great Smoky Mountains National Park
I spent a fair amount of time driving along the rivers and creeks that form at the base of these mountains. The rushing water, blooming Dogwoods, and emerging spring greens created the perfect harmony for this trip. This picture means something a little extra as it has been donated to two different organizations for silent auctions.
Emerald Isle | Dublin, OH
As soon as I spotted this little spot in the waterfall, I knew I had to figure out how to make this image work. While there is not a lot of complexity in smaller scenes, they are often a challenge to compose. Very small movements in the camera have large effects. It takes time and patience to get it looking how you want.
Summer vacation took us to the city to visit family and experience some of the great museums Chicago has to offer, specifically the Beluga Whales at the Shedd Aquarium. I went with no photographic expectations as that wasn’t really the point of the trip. I decided to only take one lens, my 28-75 and see what happened. I was really surprised how much I enjoyed the process of making this series of images featuring the towering buildings and reflections. You can read more about the whole series in a recent post I made (A Different Lens). I created a few restrictions to go along with the lens choice, everything would end up in a 1:1 format, I wanted to the set to be cohesive. I also decided they would all be black and white. I wanted the simplicity to emphasize the shapes, lines, and reflections found in each image.
City Reflections | Chicago, IL
A family vacation to the city brought about new challenges and new opportunities to explore photographically. The lines, patterns, and reflections were the star of the show here.
Between the spring and the fall I didn’t have a ton of opportunities for photographing landscapes or nature much at all. I felt like I was starting to slip a bit and things weren’t seeming to click like they had recently. It turns out, this may have been for the best. Fall provided me with a few opportunities, a short trip down to Hocking Hills again brought about a couple solid images, two of which you will see below. The lesson from that shoot was not to get too hung up on my initial plans. My idea was to shoot a bit more of a vista at Conkles Hillow, but about 10 other people beat me to the spot. Not wanting to disrupt their viewing experience, I decided to keep hiking, kicking myself the whole way for not getting there earlier. About 3/4 of the way through the hike I decided it was time to stop sulking and start looking. I’m happy I got out of that funk! This fall also lead to the creation of my favorite image of the year. Nothing special, nothing epic at all, a well known location for me in Highbanks Metro Park and a little vision brought me out of a creative dry spell.
Oak on the Water | Highbanks Metro Park, OH
I wrote a bit more extensively about this image, you can read more about that here. I had the idea for this image roughly a week earlier while hiking along this section of Highbanks Metro Park. I was a little bit early though, I needed the majority of the leaves to be below the water, with just a few resting on top. I came across this collection of six oak leaves floating together and it all clicked into place. A little bit of technical magic to get the image sharp and I’m really pleased with how it turned out.
Flash Mob | Hocking Hills, OH
I was attempting to compose an image of one of my favorite spots in Hocking Hills State Park and things just were not coming together for me. I took a pause and just soaked in the scene a bit. I was standing on a bridge that spanned what was now a dry creek, but beneath me there were all these leaves that had fallen. A little bit of creativity and some new knowledge about Photoshop lead to this image instead of just a pile of leaves.
Color Riot | Hocking Hills, OH
Just a few moments, that was all I had for this scene. The light was getting stronger and stronger as it came over the ridge and eventually it would wash out the background turning this already chaotic scene into a nightmare.
Falls End | Great Smoky Mountains National Park
A brief family getaway lead us to Asheville, NC for a chance to relax a bit and go somewhere new. We were about two weeks late for the fall color, but decided to hop over to Great Smoky Mountains National Park for a quick hike to break up the trip on the way down. Even though the leaves were off the trees they still provided some excellent pops of color within this scene.
View the Gallery
Thank you for taking a few minutes out of your busy life to look at some of my work from this year. I would love to hear your thoughts! Please reach out to me on my contact page, social media, you can find my links below, or leave me a message at the bottom of this page, If you have enjoyed this article and would like to see more of my work, please consider signing up for alerts with the form below.
2022…enjoying how far I have come, and looking forward to how much is left to come! Here is to an amazing 2023!
Thanks,
Dave
