Happy New Year! Once again I’m inviting you, my faithful blog readers, to help me choose my best photographs from the past year. I’ve posted 45 of my favorite images from 2023 below, in chronological order. After you look through these, please use the form at the bottom of this post to list your ten favorites.
Voting is closed! I’ll be posting the results soon.
You don’t have to list your ten favorites in any order; just pick up to ten images. (The numbers are in the captions underneath the photographs. Also, you can click on the images to see them larger.) Once the votes are in I’ll post the top ten or twelve on this blog.
As always, I reserve the right to override the votes if one of my favorites gets panned. But I’ve rarely had to exercise this power because my readers have excellent taste. 🙂
Thanks for your input — I appreciate your help!
Claudia and I did lots of traveling again this year. We made three trips to Death Valley, two journeys to the Olympic Peninsula, and we returned to some of our favorite spots in the redwoods, Oregon Coast, eastern Sierra, and, of course, Yosemite. Plus it was a good year for wildflowers here in California, so we spent some time in Anza-Borrego and the Coast Ranges of Central California photographing flowers in March and April. Lots of fun stuff, generating many great memories!
I hope 2023 brought you great memories as well, and Claudia and I wish you lots of joy and happiness in 2024. Happy New Year!
— Michael Frye
1. Sunrise light on sandhill cranes, San Joaquin Valley, California
2. Snow geese taking flight, San Joaquin Valley, California
3. Frosted cottonwood, Mono Lake, California
4. Sandhill cranes at sunrise, San Joaquin Valley, California
5. Dappled light, Death Valley NP, California
6. Clouds lit by the setting moon, Death Valley NP, California
7. Badlands at dawn, Death Valley NP, California
8. Cottonwood in snow, Zion NP, Utah
9. Snow and reflections in the Virgin River, Zion NP, Utah
10. Pool in a slot canyon, Nevada
11. Fingers of yellow, Coast Ranges, California
12. Mist and Bridalveil Fall, Yosemite NP, California
13. Desert candles above a flower-filled arroyo, Coast Ranges, California
14. Stream rivulets in salt flats, Death Valley NP, California
15. Rolling dunes, Death Valley NP, California
16. Dune design, Death Valley NP, California
17. Mud tiles in late-afternoon light, Death Valley NP, California
18. Star trails over sand dunes, Death Valley NP, California
19. Flower designs, Coast Ranges, California
20. Lichen-covered branches, Olympic NP, Washington
21. Sun setting in a temperate rainforest, Olympic NP, Washington
22. Evening light on lupines and oaks, Redwood NP, California
23. Trees and fog, northern California coast
24. Redwoods, ferns, and rhododendrons, northern California coast
25. Lenticular clouds at sunset, eastern Sierra Nevada, California
26. Melting ice on an alpine lake, Inyo NF, California
27. Mist and clouds with Sierra Point, Nevada Fall, and Vernal Fall, Yosemite NP, California
28. Sunbeams, Half Dome, and Nevada Fall from Glacier Point, Yosemite NP, California
29. White-lined sphinx moth and larkspur, Yosemite NP, California
30. Vine maples and big-leaf maples, autumn, Olympic NP, Washington
31. Vine maple and alders, autumn, Olympic NP, Washington
32. Sunset and sea stacks, Olympic NP, Washington
33. Sunset and creature burrows on a Washington beach
34. Swirling leaves, Inyo NF, California
35. Aspen trunks reflected in a creek, Inyo NF, California
36. Backlit redwoods and firs, northern California
37. Misty sunset on the Oregon Coast
38. Misty morning along the Oregon Coast
39. Crashing wave, Washington coast
40. Ice with reflections and prism effects, Yosemite NP, California
41. Sunset reflections, Lake Manly, Death Valley NP, California
42. Misty ridges after a rainstorm, Death Valley NP, California
43. Salt patterns and mountain reflections, Death Valley NP, California
44. Salt patterns and reflections, Death Valley NP, California
45. Mountains, salt flats, and reflections, Death Valley NP, California
Voting is closed! I’ll be posting the results soon.
Related Posts: My Top Photographs of 2022; My Top Photographs of 2021; My Top Photographs of 2020
Michael Frye is a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He is the author or principal photographer of The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite, Yosemite Meditations, Yosemite Meditations for Women, Yosemite Meditations for Adventurers, and Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters. He has also written three eBooks: Light & Land: Landscapes in the Digital Darkroom, Exposure for Outdoor Photography, and Landscapes in Lightroom: The Essential Step-by-Step Guide. Michael has written numerous magazine articles on the art and technique of photography, and his images have been published in over thirty countries around the world. Michael has lived either in or near Yosemite National Park since 1983, currently residing just outside the park in Mariposa, California.
I get to choose only 10?
I could never choose
They are all equally stunning.
Amazing job!
These are the kind of photos I dream of taking.
Your each photograph tells a wonderful story some are more than a story…as well as memory…
I love the flow of your photographs- the way the eye moves through the image. Always a treat to see your images of Yosemite and beyond.
Incredible images!
20,23,24,25,39
As always, so hard to pick only 10. Happy New Year!
Thank you Michael, very hard choices, all exceptional
“we’ll be giving away a print to one voter”
Wish I had the dimensions of that print
so I frame and hang it upon arrival.
You know the one I mean, don’t you, Michael.
How can I only pick 10? They’re all magnificent.
Oh, these are so beautiful! You’ve had a good year. It was fun to share part of it with you and Claudia. Hope you’re well.
All beautiful pics! Hard to decide! Happy New Year!
So beautiful! It was difficult to select just 10!
Thank you for the joy you bring to me in sharing your breathtaking photography of God’s amazing Creation. May you and your wife be blessed and have a Happy New Year.
Hey Micheal, It has been a while. Not shocked that you still have a great eye and great knowledge of the light. We have both been quite blessed.
with love and have a great 2024!
artie
Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
It has been awhile! Thought of you yesterday when I was trying some slow shutter speed images with birds in the Central Valley. Hope you’re doing well.
Thank you Michael!
It’s always difficult to pick just 10 of your outstanding photos. Happy New Year!
very cool photographs Michael. My vote is in and wish you as always the best. mARTin
I look forward to this New Year’s Eve tradition every year; your images never disappoint. Wishing you more magical views through your lens in 2024!
It was a pleasure meeting you and Claudia (CDub) in person as well as attending a Zoom seminar this year. As usual, you provide some tough choices with a limit of only 10. A fine way to wrap up the year!
Thanks John – it was a pleasure meeting you as well.
Happy New Year to all. Here’s to a wonderful 2024 filled with awe and splendor.
No one’s doing the ‘your-best-photos-from-…’ project anymore ?
Awesome collection and all the best for a new turn around the sun!
Cheers!
You’re probably thinking of Jim Goldstein’s blog project. He hasn’t done that for awhile now.
As always, your images inspire me to pick up my own camera and get out there. Great stuff Michael!
It is so difficult to choose just ten; they are all stunningly beautiful!
Once again, hard choices to make. I look forward to this annual tradition of making difficult decisions. It’s amazing to see the variety to choose from.
Happy 2024! Thank you for all the beautiful captures!
With so many wonderful images, you do make this difficult, but after much deliberation I did finally settle on 10. Happy New Year to you both, wishing you good health, joy, and many more adventures in nature. Here’s to 2024!
My wife and I are always looking forward to this. It has became our New Year’s Day tradition to check out your images from last year and select our favorites. You have a great selection again.
Happy New Year!
Hi Michael, you should let us pick 15 to 20 images as you hit far too many home runs in 2023. The extra travel definitely paid off. Great work once again.
Hi Michael, As always, very difficult to choose just 10! Happy New Year!
Agree hard to limit choices but easier with improved recording process. Wishing everybody a happy and healthy new year.
Hi Michael,
Great collection as always. Thank for offering us a chance to look at work.
Best wishes in the New Year!
Wonderful collection. It was very difficult to choose only 10. I think 15 would have been much easier. Happy 2024!!
Thanks for all the kind words everyone! I really appreciate all the comments.
Beautiful, lots of diversity in color and composition. Enjoy your more abstract images almost ICM.
Suggest you try to reduce candidate images to about 20.
Dennis
What an amazing group of images, Michael. They are so beautiful and diverse—just stunning. It makes me realize why I love landscape photography so much! Warm wishes to you and Claudia for the coming year!
Hi, Michael! Thank you for your wonderful photos! Wish you a very happy and healthy 2024 with lots of great light and photo opportunities!
Happy New Year! Another marvelous set of images.
Such an inspiring collection…Happy New Year!
Stunning images to savor! Thank you for this opportunity. Happy New Year to you and Claudia!
Wonderful images Michael. I always enjoy looking at them and trying to choose just 10. Really enjoyed the Redwoods and Washington State, having been lucky enough to visit them. Wishing you and Claudia a very Happy and healthy New Year.
Really tough to narrow the list to ten. Such a wide variety of styles, all good. The lichen covered branches was the most distinctive, for me.
So difficult to pick 10. All of them are outstanding. Happy New Year to you and Claudia
They are all beautiful and stunning! However, 3 the Frosted Cottonwood is my favorite. It reminds me of my all time favorite artist Ansel Adam’s. Simple but powerful and stunning! Less is more sometimes!
well they are lovely images..I’m partial to 24. It was a tough fight with 3,12,18,23,31 and 39. Must say I have followed your work over the years and love it thank you
I am glad that voting is closed! How to pick 10 would be so daunting that I’d withdraw from the contest. These _all_ are so beautiful in their ways, differing ways, inspiring, even. Thank you so very much for sharing them!
Thanks for the kind words Betsy!