My Favorite Photos | Park City Photographer
So I totally sat down to compile a My Favorite Photos of 2014 post… and I stalled out. It’s like Sophie’s Choice over here. How can I pick my very favorites among all my little babies?! I kinda touched on this issue when I wrote earlier this year about which photos to use for branding on my website — i.e., what are the criteria for favorites, anyway? Prettiest light? Funnest clients? An exceptionally intimate moment? A shot that makes me laugh out loud? My most hard-won shots?
I remember working with Paul Nicklen, National Geographic photojournalist, several years ago on a book of his images. It was, I think, my very first week, and we were on a conference call with his editor in Washington DC, and the three of us were going through a pre-selected image collection to narrow down the final cut for the book. This photo from Paul’s National Geographic story about Atlantic salmon came up. Both the editor and myself were less than smitten. I can’t remember why she wasn’t gung-ho about it, but I didn’t think it was very ‘pretty’ or ‘interesting.’ Paul loved the shot and couldn’t believe we didn’t feel the same way. “Look at this perspective!” he flared. “I was underneath the net — look at the fisherman above, on the surface of the water, silhouetted by the daylight. That was not easy to get.”
And there it was. With those few words, he completely and forever change the way I look at images. Paul’s encouragement to consider the *how* behind that one photo flicked a switch that first put me onto the path of becoming a professional photographer myself. I began transcending from a mere photo appreciator to someone that could deconstruct an image into composition, light, angles, subjects, and meaning so I could learn — really learn — from shooters infinitely better than me. And, that photo that I didn’t deem ‘pretty’ enough? It had won Paul World Press Photo 1st Prize Nature in 2003. Those ‘hows’ behind the image are, actually, insanely important.
So, again, I ask: what are the criteria for favorite photos? From Paul I learned to look a bit deeper into an image. From experience I realized the intensely personal nature of one’s work, and I gained a sense of connection to my photography deeper than anything I could have ever imagined.
Anyway, perhaps soon-ish I’ll be able to compile a handful of my favorite photos from the year. But, for now? I’m pretty grateful that choosing my favorites feels nearly impossible — to me, that’s better than the alternative :).
This was, at one point, my view of the Yukon, Canada, when I worked for Paul.
