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Jan 12, 2022
A Year in Review by Jamie Anderson
First a disclaimer... My '2021 - A Year in Review' photos are based on my own thoughts and opinions about my own photography that was actually taken in '21. It is not a "Bestsellers" list like I sometimes post. Bestseller lists are photos that everyone else has liked enough to make purchases. So, this is a collection of what I think are some of my best images of '21 and my reflections about them. Also, it's the first blog entry that I've even attempted to write since the late summer of 2020.
I have to admit, 2021 has been a struggle for me. Probably not as much as 2020. In 2020, I was trying to take care of my Dad as best I could. He was slowly passing away due to old age, heart problems, a minor stroke (if any stroke can be considered 'minor') and he was getting weaker by the month. Toward the end of 2020, we moved him and my Mom to assisted living where he passed away in December of that year. It was a bitter-sweat ending to a year of real struggles within my extended family along with the uncertainty created by the first waves of Covid-19, not to mention a final temporary "good-bye" to the man who raised me and taught me so many things and that I loved so dearly. So, I can't say that I, along with my photography, have not been effected in 2021.
Throughout the year, I found myself creating more black and whites like this photo of the Tybee Lighthouse in the Fog, taken in January of 2021. It was an area of photography that I challenged myself with trying to improve throughout the year.
And, I was content to stay at home and create Digital Fine Art pieces like "Tybee Stars in my Window", below. A Digital Fine Art piece is a work of art created in post processing from combinations of previous photos and is not intended to be a realistic photo, however, it is intended to be a work of art.
I do still get out in the field, in nature, to shoot. I love the sense of peace and tranquility of being "away from it all" and a I do love sharing the experience with other people, especially other nature photographers. Here's a couple of wildlife photos that I was able to capture early in the year. You'll see I didn't quite stay at home every day. I do volunteer with the Georgia Nature Photographers Association (GNPA) and lead monthly meetings and field trips for our Coastal Chapter. Below is an Osprey eating a fish that I watched it catch near Tybee Island. I captured it in January. Also, I was able to capture a male Hooded Merganser in late January at Harris Neck Wildlife Refuge. These are very skittish birds and will usually spook and fly way before you get anywhere close to them. I waited for this one to float downstream toward me and held my breath as he floated by and I was able to capture it at close range. I feared even the sound of my camera shutter would spook it.
Tybee Island is also a great place for sunrises. I took this photo in February and called it "Good Morning Tybee"! Ah, the dawning of a new day.
And, in this same general location on Tybee Island, but in the opposite direction and a day later, I was able to capture this sunset that I called "Tybee Light at Dusk".
In March on a beautiful spring night on my late father's birthday, I captured "Driftwood Beach at Night 2" on Jekyll Island, GA. This photo was honorably mentioned in the GNPA Double Vision contest by being selected in the state's top 24 and was displayed at the Chattahoochee Nature Center in Roswell, GA.
March can also be a fantastic month for birding in the Coastal Georgia area. I was able to capture these portraits of Great Egrets at Pinckney Island Wildlife Refuge and a Bald Eagle at Jekyll Island.
In a single night in April, I was able to capture these three Milky Way images. You can almost see the Milky Way moving from a more leftward lean to a more upright vertical position before it begins to fade out before sunrise in the last photo with the pier. If you are searching for tranquility, a few hours of stargazing at night at a beach with friends is a wonderful experience.
In May I was shooting at Oatland Island Wildlife Center, which houses animals that can't be released back into the wild. I was able to capture these wolves in some rare fleeting moments. One of the wolves started howling and the other wolf came over to seemingly check to see if it was OK. The wolf howl is a very enchanting sound. I would love to see and hear them in the wild one day. The wolves are healthy but were born in captivity and never learned to hunt on their own. They also have birds of prey (e.g. eagles, hawks, and owls), foxes, bobcats, deer, armadillos, and even a couple of buffalo at the wildlife center.
Also in May, I captured these shrimp boats in Darien, GA during a GNPA field trip that I was leading in the area. Here again, I was practicing my skills with black and white. I do love the shrimp boats and their reflections in the water in these scenes.
I did get one other photo of note near Darien, GA. This one below was taken at nearby Hofwyl-Broadfield plantation state historic site. I think it turned out great with the sun rays on the majestic oak with the shadows on the grounds. For some reason I never put it on my website until now...
In June I took a canoe trip up through the Ebeneezer Creek near Stilwell, GA. This trip will make you think that you ended up in the land of fairies and unicorns. It's an awesome paddle through an old cypress and tupelo tree swamp.
I even created a funny digital fine art piece with Gollum from The Hobbit. Isn't it precious? It's not the kind of thing that can be reprinted though. I'm sure there are copyrights on the Hobbit characters.
In July I ended up at Harris Neck Wildlife Refuge near South Newport, GA. This refuge is always a good place for wildlife viewing. I came away with a couple of good photographs and only put one on my website. I'm very tempted to put the other one on my website as well.
In August, a few friends and I went out to Tybee Island to try to capture the Perseid Meteor Shower. Trying to capture a shooting star or meteor can prove fleeting at times. You don't know when a shooting star will occur or where in the sky. Your camera can only capture a portion of the sky at any given time and by the time you see one, it will have disappeared before your finger can depress the shutter button. So, the only way to capture them is to setup your camera to take repeated 20-30 second exposures and hope that a shooting star occurs directly in front of your camera during one of your exposures. I was able to capture only one good one in the photo on the left below. On the right below is a combination of about 200 exposures creating what is called "Star Trails" as the movement of the stars (or rather the earth's rotation) is captured in all of the star's trails.
In September I helped with the GNPA Virtual Expo. Actually, only the last two days of the expo were virtual on zoom. The first four days were live field trips. The idea was that each GNPA Chapter would lead and host their own field trips thought the state. Our Coastal Chapter led trips to Tybee Island for night photography as well as trips to Cumberland Island, St. Simons Island, and Sapelo Island. My favorite photos that week came from Cumberland Island which I've always called "Georgia's most enchanting island".
And from St. Simon's Island and Sapelo Island I captured their iconic lighthouses. I took a lot of photos on all these island trips, but space and time will only permit so much.
In October I was able to do some more birding on Tybee Island and also toured nearby Fort Pulaski on Cockspur Island. It is no wonder that Tybee has become a very popular vacation destination and many come from the north to escape the cold and snow in the winter.
In late October I traveled up the road (Hwy 95) to the Audubon Beidler Forest near Harleyville, SC. This sanctuary houses the world's largest virgin cypress-tupelo tree swamp and encompasses 18,000 acres. The boardwalk access here allows for 1.5 miles of viewing different parts of the swamp.
In November I took a trip to another cypress tree swamp. George L. Smith State Park near Twin City contains a 412 acre Parish Mill Pond with plenty of cypress trees that turn amber this time of year. It is famous for it's Parish Mill which is a combo mill, covered bridge, and dam. Here it is shown in color and B&W.
In early December I did some bird photography at Lake Mayer in Savannah, GA. The lake now houses a great variety of bird wildlife and the city has done a wonderful job of planting trees to provide beautiful fall color, more shade, and more support for wildlife.
Also in early December, I captured this wonderful sunrise with these awesome swirls in the water. There was an incoming tide that was spilling into this inlet and the sea foam was swirling around in the water. I was able to capture it with a long 15 second exposure.
Also in December, I lead a group of Georgia Nature Photographers from the GNPA in an evening of shooting "Christmas in Savannah" at night. We hike up to the Forsyth Fountain from City Market and end up eating at the Little Duck Diner near Ellis Square.
I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog. It was almost a healing process for me writing it. If you have gotten this far in reading it, I really do appreciate you following my work. Please do leave a comment below. I'd love to hear from you!
Have a blessed 2022!
Thanks, Jamie
PS. I hope you have a chance to get out and experience the outdoor world and nature this year. It's not always about the photography.
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