My top ten photos for 2007
- At January 05, 2008
- By Neil Creek
- In Feature, Top Posts
18
2007 was a huge year for me photographically. I started Project 365, started making friends in the photography blog community, dramatically expanded my skills by reading the Strobist blog, and started feeling a whole lot more comfortable taking photos. This year was something of a turning point I feel, where I went from a photographer with everything to learn, to one with so many possibilities. It was also a very important year for setting up the groundwork for 2008, even though I didn’t know what was coming, but which now looks like it will be another turning point year.
As a retrospective of the year in photography, I’ve chosen my ten favourite photos for the year and listed them below, in chronological order, with a little discussion about each photo. I’ve chosen pictures that I feel were important for various reasons, such as what I learned in the process, how they made me feel and which made me most proud.
I hope you will enjoy them as much as I did taking them. Remember, you can click on any image for a larger view.
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Comet McWOW – 22nd January
Seeing this once-in-a-lifetime astronomical spectacular was incredibly moving and awe-inspiring. I had to express my emotions at the scene, and my mobile phone was handy… I was very happy with how my photos of the comet turned out. If you’d like to see a “real” astrophotographer’s photos of the comet, allow me to recommend to you my exceptionally gifted friend Phil Hart.
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Sunset on Lakes Entrance – 18th February
If I was to pick one photo of these ten as my favourite, it would be this. This sunset was truly one of the most magnificent I’ve ever seen. Everyone in the town stopped to watch the spectacle and I shot many dozens of photos, trying to capture the glorious warm golden light that flooded the river. This is also my most successful attempt at a High Dynamic Range photo. I took three exposures at different settings to try and capture a broader range of detail in the highlights and shadows, and manually merged them together in photoshop.
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Boathouse at Alfred Nicholas Memorial Gardens – 14th May
Relevant blog post
This cute little hut is part of a once private garden with a lake and beautiful trees, but which is now owned by the state parks authority. Although it is much photographed, I wanted to do something a little different and take a panorama of the scene. When I saw the mushrooms on the tree, I knew I had found my shot.
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Bubbles in Water – 26th June
Relevant blog post
This photo of air bubbles rising through water is a composite of three different photos. The bubbles are illuminated by a single flash with a coloured gel on the front. Several hundred shots were culled down to these three, to make an almost abstract collection of shiny, lumpy shapes. It would be hard to identify them if you didn’t know what they were.
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Arty Anna – 21st September
Relevant blog post
Anna was kind enough to pose for me as I practiced off-camera portrait lighting. While I was setting things up I shot a number of test shots simply to check how the flash settings looked in-camera. Naomi was chatting to Anna about the light in our room, and Anna glanced up. Right at this moment I half-heartedly snapped another test shot. This “reject” shot quickly became my favourite portrait of the year because of the slightly over-exposed lighting and the quirky smile that says so much about Anna’s personality.

Purple and Yellow Flower Macro – 20th October
Relevant blog post
Colour and form alone can make a great photo. This beautiful, strange flower grows in the garden of a friend in the country. When we visited, I spent a couple of hours taking photos, and this macro shot was my favourite.
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Fossil Shrimp – 25th November
Relevant blog post
I am especially proud of this photo, as it combines a number of specialist techniques and was very tricky to take. You can read more of the details in the linked blog entry. Beyond all the technical aspects of this photo, however, I think it’s simply a beautiful photo of an incredible slice of natural history. This shot was also very good for my blog as it was featured in a post on the Strobist blog, and attracted a great number of visitors here.
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Galaxy Rising – 4th December
Relevant blog post
I love astronomy, and taking great photos of the stars is always a challenge I enjoy. I especially like this one, because it gives you a context. With the house in the foreground, you can see exactly that this is a view of the sky from this location. The galaxy looks beautiful as it makes its way up the sky, over the house.
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A gentleman finds a doll – 10th December
Relevant blog post
I’m proud of this one because it was part of my first on-location shoot lit primarily by flash. I managed to successfully apply many of the principles and techniques I have recently learned from the Strobist blog. And I’m happy with the end result, as were the models, for whom I did the shoot.
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Colourful Ricordia Coral – 11th December
Relevant blog post
This photo is a lesson in processing. These fluffy soft corals look brownish to the eye, but when I was processing this macro photo in lightroom, I bumped the saturation a little and saw the hint of some colour in there. So I kept moving the slider further and further up the scale and these gorgeous colours appeared. Technically this photo isn’t a realistic representation of the coral, but it is beautiful, and those colours are actually in there, just very very subtle.
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Mel
my fav is the coral. It looks sci-fi.
Brian Auer
Great photos Neil! I’m always amazed at your aquarium shots!
Roger
Great shots Neil. Hard to pick a number one but I think it would be “a gentlement finds a doll” (love the fill in flash and the blue lighting) closely followed by the “bubbles in water” (very original).
PS. Thanks for the tips on New Years Eve fireworks. My shots are improving thanks to your help. Perhaps a special blog entry on shooting fireworks might be handy for readers!
Rafa
WOW is right. Awesome photo!
dawn
I think Galaxy rising is my favorite but it’s so hard to choose. There are really some outstanding shots here.
Henry
“Sunset on Lakes Entrance” was my fav among the batch…
czaj
all your pictures are great.. the one i like most is the “A gentleman finds a doll”. i feel that there is a story behind the photo.
Nature Photography
Some great shots there. I particularly like the Lakes Entrance one, a very well done HDR, not too overcooked like many HDRs.
Cheers,
Mark Gray
http://www.markgray.com.au
Trudy
These photos are fantastic! You inspire me to take up photography. I am always disappointed with the photos i take at parties because i am always chopping people’s heads out or if their heads are actually in the photo, they are always blurry.
Jim M. Goldstein
Wow Neil! Some great photos from the past year. I wish I could see the Milky Way as clearly as you can. Too much light pollution here in San Francisco. Again I’m very impressed with the photo choices for your best of. Great photos!
Jim M. Goldstein
Make that great photos from 2007 :) I can’t wait to see your best from 2008
Neil Creek
Thanks everyone :) Jim, just in case you missed it, these are my top 10 for 2007 :) I’m writing my 2008 top 10 right now! Stay tuned!
[Edit] Ahh you realised :)
Carol Hansen-Dix
Thank you for sharing these beautiful photos with us. I really connect with the macros. The idea that if you look often and deep enough, into the smallest worlds, you are going to be rewarded with sites such as the two you were given. Your work is inspirational to me. Inspiring me to look deeply for possible color within a seemingly drab subject and inspiring me to learn what to do to entice the color forward. I am new to photography and really appreciate the information that I get from you. I am having the time of my life learning the ropes. One of my greatest joys in life, now, is to go out on a virtual shooting spree!
Thomas Semesky
I like the comet McWOW photograph. Very original!
Mei Teng
I am inspired by your work here. Love the sunset, galaxy rising and flower macro.
Marland Miller
You did a great job with the sunset! How much time did you spend choosing the top 10? Maybe you already picked the best each week, month, etc.?
tazeen Hasan
Stunning sunset at Lake view. Perheps the most beautiful sunset i ‘ve ever seen and one has captured.
James Cole
Some beautiful images there. I particularly like the WOW next to MnNaught. Very creative. And the coloured water bubbles and coral proving what amazing things a splash of colour can do.
As for galaxy rising… Well I’m just jealous of that one. I’ve never quite mastered the art of photographing stars. Maybe that should be my next project…
All of the shots are great though and I really like your explanations for each one.
Clearly it’s taken me two and a half years to stumble across this post, but after seeing your work, consider me a new regular.
Thanks for sharing your work
James Cole
http://www.jcdaydream.com