My Top 10 Photos for 2008

2008 was a hell of a year. It was dominated by Naomi’s string of terrible medical issues, one after another (she’s doing alright at the moment), which had a big impact on the time and motivation I had for photography. But that didn’t stop me from enjoying photography, and by the end of the year I had decided to pursue photography as my full-time career.

Last year, around this time, I wrote a post looking back over the year that had been and sharing my favourite photos. It has become one of the most popular posts on my blog. So here is my collection of the Top 10 Photos of 2008, in chronological order. I hope you enjoy them!

Ever in love with strobist techniques, I had a bit of fun down at the beach with some of my Manifest friends. At first they were confused why I was asking them to “jump” in the dark, but once they saw some of the results on the back of the camera, they really got into it!

Sometimes cliche, overly dramatic, Hollywood lighting effects can actually look pretty damned cool :) Matt visited one day and we had a lot of fun taking all kinds of over the top photos. This was my favourite by far, and reminds me of some 1930s detective movie.

Early in the year I had a lot of fun with a series of POV fisheye photographs, putting the camera in unusual places. One of my favourites, and most popular, was this one inside the washing machine. This image also made it into Strobist’s favourites on Flickr.

Our beloved cat Chibi has always been handsome in our eyes, but this particular photo of him showed the rest of the world what a good looking fellow he really is. Naomi has a print of this framed on her desk at work.

2008 really was a year of weddings, and I was the official photographer for three weddings of family and friends. This photo was taken at my sister-in-law’s wedding. After the ceremony we went outside for a few photos, and quickly took an outdoor table at a cafe. I had just enough time to drop my flash on a stand behind the party, squeeze off half a dozen shots, and make a run for it before we annoyed the cafe proprietor.

I love fisheye photos of the night sky, for example, my most popular photo on Flickr, and Galaxy Rising in 2007’s top 10. I’m particularly fond of this photo because of the charming country house in the foreground, the fact that the galaxy is nice and high in the sky, and the strobist techniques I successfully used to illuminate the house.

I’ve always loved photographing my friends in wonderful costumes as they attend anime conventions, but this year I went the extra mile and actually set up a studio on site. I took lots of photos I am proud of, but I chose this one for these reasons: the two shown here are two of my favourite and most skilled costumers, they’re also great friends, they look absolutely gorgeous, and Annie on the right provided the photo with some nice fan-service ;)

I participated in the Canon Photo5 competition in 2008, and although I didn’t make the finalists, I was very happy with the photos I submitted, especially this one. Annie, who appears in the previous image, and also in last year’s Top10 list, was the wonderful model for this photo. I feel that this image was a big success for me – a staged and produced photo (the first I have really attempted) that went from vision to result without undergoing any significant change.

This wedding, between two friends, was a lot of fun and I had a wonderful setting and great overcast light. I like this photo in particular, because the couple had forgotten about me entirely, and were lost in each others eyes. A print of this photo sits on the couple’s desk at home.

Finally, another wedding. This one was the most challenging one yet, due to the poor and unpredictable weather. In the end, the wild weather gave me this glorious sky, which I took advantage of as soon as I saw it. Once again I used strobist techniques to balance the exposure on the bridal party with the bright sky behind them. The dramatic photo really jumped out at me on the back of the camera, and I knew instantly that this was a special photo.