Reflecting on 2022 - Photos
Yesterday I shared some reflections on a list of beautiful “looking back” questions for 2022. I noted that it was a sense of “bowing” to 2022. In addition, I wanted to share the photos that stood out to me as I looked back on my year in photography. These are all ones that connected with me as I looked back month-by-month.
January
This was the third in a series of four seasons photos from Cincinnati Nature Center. The first was a summer image in 2021 on a misty, foggy morning, then a beautiful golden morning in Autumn, and then this one after a good snowfall. What I remember about this moment was the “snow silence.” I love being out walking in the snow and the way that it muffles the sounds. Just a beautiful space to be in.
February
This is from the Manassas National Battlefield and wasn’t intended to be something that had deep meaning for me but it ended up that way. I was just intending to photograph my long shadow on my morning hike. I wrote about it here.
March
This photograph reflects a lot about the way that I do photography. I would love to say that I really plan things out of how I am going to set up my camera, where I’ll be, what I am trying to frame, etc. The reality is that it is far more just a “feel” for me. What feels like the way to do it in a specific place at a specific moment. In this case, I knew I wanted to be at the Bodie Island Lighthouse for sunrise, but it was just me moving around the property as the sun came up that led to this moment. What I love about it personally is how both the natural and human made light are connected in the panorama.
April
As a pastor, Easter is always one of the highlights of the year. As is tradition in most congregations, we had a BUNCH of flowers in the sanctuary for Easter morning. As I arrived early before the service, I just took some time in the sanctuary in the morning light coming through the stained glass. It was a simple yet holy moment. The stillness of the space, the aroma and sight of the flowers, the empty cross, and the colors of the stained glass. Even as I type this, I feel the beauty of that moment.
May
A month later and another worship space. This one, the chapel at Louisville Seminary where my wife graduated with her Doctor of Ministry degree this year. It was a long journey for her but I was (and still am) so proud of her for her persistence through the project and even more so for the amazing work that she did and the potential impact her dissertation may have in the needed racial work in the church and in our country. Like the moment at Easter, I was just so moved by the ways that these stained glass filled the sanctuary with holy light as they told the story of Jesus all around the space.
June
Another photo from the Cincinnati Nature Center. I remember walking with Scout that morning and there was something about the light at that moment that just illuminated spider webs all over the center. This photo doesn’t come close to reflecting the rainbow of colors that was shining from the web at that moment. One of the things that I feel God has stirred in me over the last decade or so is finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. Here it was exactly that. An ordinary spiderweb on an ordinary morning illuminated to show something extraordinary.
July
This one is not so much the photograph but how it connected with a friend. She saw my sharing of this on social media and it led her to do a small watercolor painting of the same which she later sent to me. Both are now framed together in my office. I love the way that the same beauty can be seen in two different ways in two different mediums. I wrote about this sunrise here back in July.
August
August was one of my least photographed months of the year. There’s a simple explanation for it - we were moving two of our kids to college that month and so it was a busy, full, beautiful, and emotionally powerful month. There were a lot of times I felt like this little snail - just moving very slowly. I was lucky to see this little snail while hiking at Cincinnati Nature Center (again). It fits my August.
September
Ok - so this is a bit weird. As I looked at my photos from September there was this photo and then two others from the same morning. This one, one of the same heron just before taking flight, and then an incredibly vivid and colorful sunrise. It was probably the most stunning sunrise I saw all year. But as I looked at all the photos from the month, this one resonated with me the most - the simplicity of it but also the activity in it. There’s movement, life, energy, but also a sense of thing being stripped down to essentials. Maybe there’s something in there for me about two of my kids heading out “taking flight” so to speak but also the movement into a new stage in our lives. If you want to see all three, click here.
October
This was one of the most stunning autumns I have ever seen and easily the most beautiful one we’ve had since we moved here. So many photos from October to choose from but this is the one that I kept returning to. Like the panorama with the lighthouse in February, this wasn’t a planned out photograph but just responding to the moment when it came. I love this little path when coming this direction because you walk out of this heavily wooded area that feels like a tunnel into a wide open area and this morning especially it gave this sense of expectation of what is “just around the corner.” I wrote about it in October here but in connection to gratitude as a small group I lead was reading through Diana Butler Bass’ book on gratitude. I’m still grateful for this moment and what it stirred within me.
November
A photo of a painting. I was in Detroit with for my annual gathering with my pastor friends and we went to the Van Gogh exhibit at the Detroit Art Museum. This wasn’t the “immersive” one but simply a collection of a lot of his paintings including this one. I don’t remember ever seeing a Van Gogh in person prior to this exhibit but what I loved was seeing the textures in the painting themselves. This one was especially beautiful as it was the closest one to his “Starry Night” painting (which was not on tour with this exhibit). I loved the combination of the realism of the foreground with the mystical sense of the sky and the far shore. I so wanted to just reach out and touch and feel the paintings (but I didn’t) just to get another experience of them. But just so beautiful.
December
And finally, one of the five images that I took with my phone this year rather than my DLSR. Nothing super fancy about this one. It is simply the reflection of some of our Christmas lights on the roof of our black car after a rainy night as Scout and I were heading out for a pre-sunrise walk. As I look at it now, it has a Van Gogh sense to it - you can see what it actually is (Christmas lights wrapped around a white railing) but there’s a mystical and un-real sense to the reflection. I wrote about this one also here.
I am grateful you made it through this lengthy post. I hope it spoke to you as it did with me.
Thank you so much for such a meaningful reflection on your year in photography. You have motivated me to begin my photography practice again. It has been too long. Could I also ask a question- what app do you use to store your photos throughout the year? Thanks