Paring down to just the Top 10 is hard! Who came up with this idea... 
But it was a fun exercise, and I managed to get it down to 10.
I will add a few back stories to the photos. I wasn't going to do that. I was going to keep it simple, but well.... most of you know that I love to write.
#1 - Northern Lights up at Split Rock Lighthouse along the North Shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota.
I was in Michigan Photographing with @TimMc fall colors. After we seperated I got the notice that there was a powerful Solar Storm and the Northern Lights could possibly be seen in the Northern States. The only problem in Michigan was it was cloudy and raining. I was already driving towards Minnesota, but had planned on stopping in Wisconsin for the night. But now I decided I would give it a go and see if was maybe clear enough along the North Shore drive in Minnesota to see the Northern Lights. Sure enough when I got to Split Rock, the sky was partially clear, so I quickly set up a camera. Having never shot the Aurora before I decided to just go with my normal Night sky camera settings since it was approaching 11pm by the time I had driven up there. I visually couldn't see the Aurora, but after taking a photo I jumped for joy in that the camera with the long exposure was picking them up. In the end I set up 3 different cameras to capture it, this was my main camera.
#2 - A Kaleidescope of Lightning - Blue Valley in Utah
I had been photographing with @Amy Nelson, out by Factory Butte and down in Blue Valley. After she had left I decided to go back out to Blue Valley so I could fly my new DJI Mini 2 drone again. When I got out there, sunset was fast approaching. I tried to fly the drone but it was super windy out, so I put it back away and saw there was lightning going off in this storm that was approaching. I couldn't tell which would reach me first, the Storm or the Sunset. The race was one. I set up 3 different cameras aimed in slightly different directions as the lightning was going off in multiple locations. As the storm got closer, the colors of the sunset got cooler and the lightning got more crazy. I estimate I probably saw several hundred lightning strikes and got many of them captured. Finally the storm reached me and the cameras and lenses were getting soaked with rain, I couldn't keep the lenses clear enough. With a flood warning already broadcasted on my phone, I left all 3 cameras on their tripods and put them in the back of my Jeep quickly and started driving back down Cow Duna Road to escape the storm. When I had gotten in front of the storm and out of the rain, I pulled off the road and set up the 3 cameras again facing towards the lightning and captured more until the storm caught up to me and I had to pack up and drive some more. I was able to stop one more time and set up before I decided it was wiser to get out off that road before it got too soaked and muddy and get back to Hwy 24. It was pretty muddy on the road by the time I got out, but 4x4 and good tires I was fine. That was my best lightning experience to date. This photo was from the 3rd time I stopped and set up.
#3 - A Bowl of Trix - Northfield, Minnesota
My Jeep has had issues a few times this year as it's approaching 300k miles on it. In this case it was leaking anti-freeze from some hidden place I could not find. So I was heading back to Colorado to my daughters. I was leaving before I had really captured some of the cool, peak fall colors in Minnesota. The Upper Midwest is my Poor Man's Vermont. It can be so colorful there. I had this vision of a shot I had wanted to capture with the new DJI Mini 2 drone, but I had yet to capture it on that trip as there was still a lot of green and the fall colors were maybe at 50%. Well, as I was driving back I passed through the town of Northfield and saw that the movie theater there was playing the new (at the time) Marvel movie Shang-Chi. If you know me, you know I love the Marvel movies, often seeing them 6 or 7 times in the movie theaters. As I drove past the movie theater and was heading out of town, I quickly looked to see when it was playing next just for grins. I found out it was starting in like 5 mins. So a quick ticket purchase on my Fandango App, and a U-Turn and I was in the theater eating popcorn and having an awesome time! When the movie was over and I was leaving, I pulled out getting ready to turn on the highway to head out of town when I noticed a little hillside with some color on it and the moon was right behind it. So I thought what the heck, it's almost sunset, I have maybe 10 minutes before it sets, let me drive across there and see if I can quickly get some drone shots. Well I did, and once I got the drone up and over the hill, all of a sudden what looked like a bowl of trix appeared on my screen. I was ecstatic! Here I thought I wasn't going to be able capture a view like this, but a serendipitous choice to see a movie, led me to then seeing this hill side. It's funny how sometimes one choice can open up a previously passed by or unseen choice that is a treasure!
#4 - Devil's Island - Apostle Island National Park in Wisconsin
#5 - Orion Nebula
#6 - Reaching for the Light - My Granddaughter Addy who is a dancer and a gymnast
#7 - Jackson Lake, Colorado
I went out to Jackson Lake which is about an hour from my daughters. It's a Dark Sky Site. So I had set up to shoot some Deep Space Astro and some Milky Way over the lake. There was some nice clouds drifting in and out. At one point I turned around to look behind me when I saw this view. I loved the glow along the horizon and the stars peaking above. So I grabbed one of my cameras I hadn't been using and quickly set it up and shot this. Very much Serendipity, but it turned out to be one of my favorites. Probably about 10 or 15 minutes after this shot, the clouds covered up the sky to the West and this view was gone.
#8 - Infrared - 590nm - Santuario de Chamayo in New Mexico
#9 - Cauldron of the Eclipse
This was from one of our Eclipses earlier in the year. I was in Southern California, in what must be Bortle 20 skies.... So much light pollution, but we can still see the moon at least. So I setup a couple of cameras next to the garage with my lawn chair for a long night of shooting the Lunar Eclipse. Well, about part way through it the marine layer rolled in and started to cover up the moon. Before it got too heavy, the moon was doing it's best to shine through. The look I got from it was so awesome, I liked it better then the eclipse itself, which you can see at this point part of the moon is disappearing. Sometimes the conditions are not what we had hoped for, but often if we stick it out, we can be rewarded with a special prize, an image while different is perhaps even better then we had initially looked to capture.
#10 - Windsor, Colorado
On this day I was going to leave my daughter and grandkids in Colorado and start driving back to California for Christmas. But first, several of the Grandkids had Christmas recitals at their schools. I didn't want to miss that, but I still wanted to get on the road. So I had my Jeep all packed up and ready to go, and I went to the kids Christmas presentations. There was 2 of them to go to. By the time I finished with the second one, it was getting later, somewhere around 4pm if I recall. Earlier in the day my A/C stopped working, (my Jeep is having lot's of issues as I mentioned) and I thought it could be a fuse perhaps. Now its in the 20's, and so the A/C you would think wouldn't be that important, but after all I still have my Minnesota blood and I like my A/C to work. So on the way to the I-25 to head out to California, I swung by an Autozone to grab a Fuse Kit so I could try a new fuse to see if it changed anything. Well it didn't... but the extra delay brought me right to sunset. I heard some geese fly overhead, and then saw when I looked up the beginning of some nice colors in the clouds. I didn't want to try and do any photography in the AutoZone parking lot, and I recalled that there were some lakes nearby to where I had stopped (This was an area I have only passed through a couple of times). A quick look at the map, and sure enough, there was a lake about a mile a way. I drove there quickly as the sky kept getting more colorful. I got there, jumped out with my 150-600mm on one camera for the geese and a 24-120mm to shoot the sunset across the lake. I ran down by the lake and set up the camera with the 24-120mm on the tripod and started taking photos of the sunset. I kept my eye open, and my ears and no more geese flew over. But the sunset in front of me made me not care, all I had to do was deal with the camera and the 150-600mm hanging off my neck.... Well, this was one of those sunsets that just lasted forever. I thought I was in Alaska for a minute. It seriously lasted close to an hour. Had I known, I would have set up a Timelapse. Anyway, I got some awesome shots, not a single shot of the geese, which was okay since I don't shoot birds that much anyway, the landscape images are by bread and butter... So now as I pack up, it's well into being dark and I decide it's way to late to be heading out, I drive back to my daughters, unload my gear, and very happy I was able to capture this insane sunset! And in the end, I stayed a few more days, caught another Christmas musical the kids were in and for $400 got my Jeep repaired, so it was back in working condition before once again getting on the road to California.
But it was a fun exercise, and I managed to get it down to 10.
I will add a few back stories to the photos. I wasn't going to do that. I was going to keep it simple, but well.... most of you know that I love to write.
#1 - Northern Lights up at Split Rock Lighthouse along the North Shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota.
I was in Michigan Photographing with @TimMc fall colors. After we seperated I got the notice that there was a powerful Solar Storm and the Northern Lights could possibly be seen in the Northern States. The only problem in Michigan was it was cloudy and raining. I was already driving towards Minnesota, but had planned on stopping in Wisconsin for the night. But now I decided I would give it a go and see if was maybe clear enough along the North Shore drive in Minnesota to see the Northern Lights. Sure enough when I got to Split Rock, the sky was partially clear, so I quickly set up a camera. Having never shot the Aurora before I decided to just go with my normal Night sky camera settings since it was approaching 11pm by the time I had driven up there. I visually couldn't see the Aurora, but after taking a photo I jumped for joy in that the camera with the long exposure was picking them up. In the end I set up 3 different cameras to capture it, this was my main camera.
#2 - A Kaleidescope of Lightning - Blue Valley in Utah
I had been photographing with @Amy Nelson, out by Factory Butte and down in Blue Valley. After she had left I decided to go back out to Blue Valley so I could fly my new DJI Mini 2 drone again. When I got out there, sunset was fast approaching. I tried to fly the drone but it was super windy out, so I put it back away and saw there was lightning going off in this storm that was approaching. I couldn't tell which would reach me first, the Storm or the Sunset. The race was one. I set up 3 different cameras aimed in slightly different directions as the lightning was going off in multiple locations. As the storm got closer, the colors of the sunset got cooler and the lightning got more crazy. I estimate I probably saw several hundred lightning strikes and got many of them captured. Finally the storm reached me and the cameras and lenses were getting soaked with rain, I couldn't keep the lenses clear enough. With a flood warning already broadcasted on my phone, I left all 3 cameras on their tripods and put them in the back of my Jeep quickly and started driving back down Cow Duna Road to escape the storm. When I had gotten in front of the storm and out of the rain, I pulled off the road and set up the 3 cameras again facing towards the lightning and captured more until the storm caught up to me and I had to pack up and drive some more. I was able to stop one more time and set up before I decided it was wiser to get out off that road before it got too soaked and muddy and get back to Hwy 24. It was pretty muddy on the road by the time I got out, but 4x4 and good tires I was fine. That was my best lightning experience to date. This photo was from the 3rd time I stopped and set up.
#3 - A Bowl of Trix - Northfield, Minnesota
My Jeep has had issues a few times this year as it's approaching 300k miles on it. In this case it was leaking anti-freeze from some hidden place I could not find. So I was heading back to Colorado to my daughters. I was leaving before I had really captured some of the cool, peak fall colors in Minnesota. The Upper Midwest is my Poor Man's Vermont. It can be so colorful there. I had this vision of a shot I had wanted to capture with the new DJI Mini 2 drone, but I had yet to capture it on that trip as there was still a lot of green and the fall colors were maybe at 50%. Well, as I was driving back I passed through the town of Northfield and saw that the movie theater there was playing the new (at the time) Marvel movie Shang-Chi. If you know me, you know I love the Marvel movies, often seeing them 6 or 7 times in the movie theaters. As I drove past the movie theater and was heading out of town, I quickly looked to see when it was playing next just for grins. I found out it was starting in like 5 mins. So a quick ticket purchase on my Fandango App, and a U-Turn and I was in the theater eating popcorn and having an awesome time!
When the movie was over and I was leaving, I pulled out getting ready to turn on the highway to head out of town when I noticed a little hillside with some color on it and the moon was right behind it. So I thought what the heck, it's almost sunset, I have maybe 10 minutes before it sets, let me drive across there and see if I can quickly get some drone shots. Well I did, and once I got the drone up and over the hill, all of a sudden what looked like a bowl of trix appeared on my screen. I was ecstatic! Here I thought I wasn't going to be able capture a view like this, but a serendipitous choice to see a movie, led me to then seeing this hill side. It's funny how sometimes one choice can open up a previously passed by or unseen choice that is a treasure!#4 - Devil's Island - Apostle Island National Park in Wisconsin
#5 - Orion Nebula
#6 - Reaching for the Light - My Granddaughter Addy who is a dancer and a gymnast
#7 - Jackson Lake, Colorado
I went out to Jackson Lake which is about an hour from my daughters. It's a Dark Sky Site. So I had set up to shoot some Deep Space Astro and some Milky Way over the lake. There was some nice clouds drifting in and out. At one point I turned around to look behind me when I saw this view. I loved the glow along the horizon and the stars peaking above. So I grabbed one of my cameras I hadn't been using and quickly set it up and shot this. Very much Serendipity, but it turned out to be one of my favorites. Probably about 10 or 15 minutes after this shot, the clouds covered up the sky to the West and this view was gone.
#8 - Infrared - 590nm - Santuario de Chamayo in New Mexico
#9 - Cauldron of the Eclipse
This was from one of our Eclipses earlier in the year. I was in Southern California, in what must be Bortle 20 skies....
So much light pollution, but we can still see the moon at least. So I setup a couple of cameras next to the garage with my lawn chair for a long night of shooting the Lunar Eclipse. Well, about part way through it the marine layer rolled in and started to cover up the moon. Before it got too heavy, the moon was doing it's best to shine through. The look I got from it was so awesome, I liked it better then the eclipse itself, which you can see at this point part of the moon is disappearing. Sometimes the conditions are not what we had hoped for, but often if we stick it out, we can be rewarded with a special prize, an image while different is perhaps even better then we had initially looked to capture.#10 - Windsor, Colorado
On this day I was going to leave my daughter and grandkids in Colorado and start driving back to California for Christmas. But first, several of the Grandkids had Christmas recitals at their schools. I didn't want to miss that, but I still wanted to get on the road. So I had my Jeep all packed up and ready to go, and I went to the kids Christmas presentations. There was 2 of them to go to. By the time I finished with the second one, it was getting later, somewhere around 4pm if I recall. Earlier in the day my A/C stopped working, (my Jeep is having lot's of issues as I mentioned) and I thought it could be a fuse perhaps. Now its in the 20's, and so the A/C you would think wouldn't be that important, but after all I still have my Minnesota blood and I like my A/C to work.
So on the way to the I-25 to head out to California, I swung by an Autozone to grab a Fuse Kit so I could try a new fuse to see if it changed anything. Well it didn't... but the extra delay brought me right to sunset. I heard some geese fly overhead, and then saw when I looked up the beginning of some nice colors in the clouds. I didn't want to try and do any photography in the AutoZone parking lot, and I recalled that there were some lakes nearby to where I had stopped (This was an area I have only passed through a couple of times). A quick look at the map, and sure enough, there was a lake about a mile a way. I drove there quickly as the sky kept getting more colorful. I got there, jumped out with my 150-600mm on one camera for the geese and a 24-120mm to shoot the sunset across the lake. I ran down by the lake and set up the camera with the 24-120mm on the tripod and started taking photos of the sunset. I kept my eye open, and my ears and no more geese flew over. But the sunset in front of me made me not care, all I had to do was deal with the camera and the 150-600mm hanging off my neck.... Well, this was one of those sunsets that just lasted forever. I thought I was in Alaska for a minute. It seriously lasted close to an hour. Had I known, I would have set up a Timelapse. Anyway, I got some awesome shots, not a single shot of the geese, which was okay since I don't shoot birds that much anyway, the landscape images are by bread and butter... So now as I pack up, it's well into being dark and I decide it's way to late to be heading out, I drive back to my daughters, unload my gear, and very happy I was able to capture this insane sunset! And in the end, I stayed a few more days, caught another Christmas musical the kids were in and for $400 got my Jeep repaired, so it was back in working condition before once again getting on the road to California.
