As we close the book on 2024, I combed through my photo archives to find the most noteworthy captures of the year.
This blog post features my 24 favorite photos from 2024. I’ll open with a few beautiful landscape scenes. The first one features a rather eerie, golden fog over Lake Oconee in Georgia.
This next photo showcases the lush, serene lake shore of Shubenacadie Grand Lake in Oakfield, Nova Scotia.
This early morning low tide along Hillsborough Bay in Prince Edward Island was all dramatic skies and expansive sand flats.
Human-built structures often add interest and depth to a natural landscape. The weathered outbuilding and jumble of round hay bales in this farmer’s field in Newborn, Georgia are a case in point.
This charming lighthouse was partially hidden by the sand dunes in Covehead, Prince Edward Island.
An old weathered outbuilding at Shields-Ethridge Heritage Farm in Jefferson, Georgia may soon be hidden by invasive natural greenery.
Some natural settings can be enhanced with a few carefully-staged props such as this message-laden bottle caught in the perfect light of an early morning at the beach.
Here’s another example – a large soap bubble was carefully blown to float down to a coneflower’s petals.
Alternatively, natural elements can be arranged to carry the entire composition. Here a dried sunflower bloom creates a surprisingly Old Masters feel.
This array of vibrant hydrangea blossoms was spotted at the annual Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival in Douglasville, Georgia.
Rich, saturated colors in a multitude of shapes and forms were plentiful in Marian’s gardens last summer.
I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to delve into the world of vintage carousels this past year. See the previous blog post, Historic Carousels: Works of Art in Motion, for the full story. I took an astonishing number of photos so it was a definite challenge to narrow it down for this post. After much deliberation, I chose the next two photos―the first one features the Burlington Dentzel Carousel in Burlington, North Carolina and the second photo features the historic carousel at the Viennese Dream Christmas Market in Vienna, Austria.
Vienna was just one of the cities Marian and I visited on our recent European Christmas Market Tour. This next photo, also from Vienna, shows the enormous Christmas tree in front of iconic St. Stephen’s Cathedral.
Learning about the history of Germany’s handcrafted Christmas decorations and ornaments was a highlight of the trip. The army of traditional nutcrackers in this photo is the ideal reminder.
Beautiful architecture was another trip highlight. It’s impossible to show the breadth and depth of what we saw but this photo of the glittering Polish royal crown on the Crown Gate at Zwinger Palace in Dresden, Germany is a great representative. Be sure to check out Postcards from Germany #1, Postcards from Germany #2 and Postcards from Czechia and Austria for lots more photos.
A considerable amount of my time is spent experimenting with various arts, crafts and makers projects as well as photographing and writing about them. I’ve included three of my favorite “maker” photos from the year. First up, is a coaster made from cotton rope, which has been coiled and sewn into the shape of a sheep.
Next is a work in progress―an attempt to blend green and pink inks on a linocut block in preparation for printing.
This photo shows a small basket being crocheted from T-shirt yarn. This project was part of the FanningSparks January Maker Challenge for Earth-friendly projects.
This next photo is one of those “right place, right time” shots. We occasionally see Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) around Lake Oconee but seeing two of the majestic birds perched on a submerged tree stump eating their freshly caught dinner was extraordinary!
Spotting the below Nine-banded Armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) in our backyard in broad daylight was another stroke of luck. For those not familiar with this strange mammal, they are “nocturnal and spend their waking time burrowing or feeding … they use their sense of smell to track down … food… such as beetles, wasps, spiders, snails and white grubs” according to the National Wildlife Federation. “The term ‘armadillo’ means ‘little armored one’ in Spanish, and refers to the presence of bony, armor-like plates covering their body.”
Another more common, but considerably less intimidating, wild creature we often see searching for food in our backyard is the Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis). You can see the bird’s fresh catch in the photo below.
Birds are a constant source of entertainment around our property. Here a vibrant yellow Prothonotary Warbler(Protonotaria citrea) checks out a hand-crafted gourd birdhouse.
The final photo in this year’s roundup is of a Bottlenose Dolphin. As shared in the previous blog post, In Search of Wild Bottlenose Dolphins, my husband and I took a brief boat tour on the Broad Creek in South Carolina in the hopes of spotting dolphins. We were pleased to see a few in the distance and a couple closer to the boat. But after the tour, I spotted this dolphin swimming beside the wharf. I was thrilled to get such a close look!
As always, I used iNaturalist to record my observation and identify it properly. The iNaturalist community confirmed it was a Common Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncates). Recently, however, there was a flurry of activity on this observation as iNaturalist experts changed the classification. Interestingly, zoologists had recently decided to adjust the taxonomy for Common Bottlenose Dolphins by splitting off a subgroup, called Tamanend’s Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops erebennus). These dolphins are found almost exclusively in estuarine environments. As I reviewed the changes, I was delighted to see that my photo had been selected as the main photo for the iNaturalist species listing!
More Info
I hope you’ve enjoyed this roundup of my favorite photos from 2024. You may also like these blog posts from previous years.
. Top 23 Photos from 2023
. Top 22 Photos from 2022
. Top 21 Photos from 2021
. Top 20 Photos from 2020
. Top 19 Photos from 2019
Previous blog posts mentioned in today’s blog post include:
. Historic Carousels: Works of Art in Motion
. Postcards from Germany #1
. Postcards from Germany #2
. Postcards from Czechia and Austria
. In Search of Wild Bottlenose Dolphins
The following resources were consulted in writing this blog post:
. National Wildlife Organization listing for Nine-Banded Armadillo
. iNaturalist listing for Tamanend’s Bottlenose Dolphin.
Today’s Takeaways
Selecting your favorite photos at the end of the year can:
1. provide an opportunity to relive treasured moments
2. help you remember and appreciate your special experiences
3. help you focus on gratitude and positivity.
