My Best Shots 2010

I purchased my Flickr account Jan 2, 2010. It has now been the first whole year for me of posting a picture in Flickr every day. It’s nice to look back and see which ones of my pictures have been the most popular. Before I started showing my pictures in public I didn’t even know they were any good, so it’s been a wonderful surprise to see that other people also like them.

Against the Evening Sky — Strings of Pearls

Arctic Sun, Strings of Pearls, After the Storm, Rainy Day and Honeysuckle are images that were all shot in my back yard. Our house is on a high cliff and that is why we get beautiful exceptional light every now and then, especially after rain or in the evening. I shot Arctic Sun after a long walk in the forest where there was no light at all because the sun was so low just to notice that there was the most beautiful sun set right in our back yard. That piece of ice in the picture was stuck on a cherry tree brach and it made the perfect contrast to the warm color from the sun.

Strings of Pearls is a vine against the evening sky and the same vine you can also see in After the Storm and Rainy Day. Those are all pictures that have come straight from the camera and have amazed me with the colors and details. Honeysuckle is also one of the vines that grows in my back yard. The black and white picture of one of its blossoms was taken in an early summer morning when the first rays of the sun touch only the tips of its petals. Honeysuckle has a very strong, sweet smell and for me that picture always bring that smell into mind.

Two of the most surprising pictures to be in the top ten for me are Stripes and Bluekeh. I shot Stripes in my trip to Denmark where my students and I visited Danfoss world, which is a science park for kids and young people. The Stripes are benches in an auditorium and they caught my attention because of the light that came from the side window. In Bluekeh you can see self-picked blueberries that I took out of the freezer to give to the kids with their porridge. Bluekeh is the only image in this top ten that I have altered, the original color of the berries was much redder and didn’t look that appealing.

Winter Night's Dream — Winter Night’s Dream

The rest of the images in my top ten are pictures that define most of the art that I do. Winter pictures from the countryside near my grandfather’s house in 63°N and in 63°N II, leaf details in Autumn Lights and snow crystals in Winter Night’s Dream are often seen in my work. The black and white landscape with my favorite creek in Bleak Creek II is also something that I like to shoot quite often.

The most popular shot by far in 2010 was my self portrait. It has been viewed 719 times in Flickr alone and 41 people have marked it as their favorite. Also, as is the case with many good shots, it came about accidentally. I had been at the beach all day with my kids, and was enjoying sitting inside in the shade and looking at the evening sky when I realized that I was all striped from the blinds in the window and started snapping pictures of myself just by holding the camera in front of me. In this particular picture I’ve closed my eyes just for awhile to help them relax because the bright light was making my eyes water. I didn’t think much of it until I came home from that trip and uploaded the pictures into my computer and realized that it did actually look kind of interesting and decided to upload it into Flickr. That ended up being a very busy day so I didn’t have a chance to follow up on how it’s doing, and I was really surprised when I opened my computer in the evening and saw that it was on the front page in Flickr.

I also have my own personal favorites among last year shots. Whispering Wind, Slipping Away and Shadowed Woman are images that I came out exactly the way I wanted without luck, gimmicks or post processing. They are also images that I liked already when I shot them and I have continued liking them all these months.

Shooting them has given me a great sense of achieving something that I didn’t quite know existed, so that after hearing the click from the shutter and looking at the screen, I could feel the blood escaping my limbs and I could only sigh ‘wow’. These are the pictures that make me happy about what I do regardless of the feedback I get from others. However, I do need the feedback and enjoy it enormously, without it I wouldn’t know what to do with most of my pictures, so thank you very much for all of you who have taken the time to look at my image and comment on them. To view a mosaic of the top ten images click here.