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 2024 below, in chronological order. After you look through these, please use the form at the bottom of this post to list your ten favorites.
The voting deadline is midnight Pacific Time this Saturday, January 4th. Voting has closed.
You don’t have to list your ten favorites in any order; just pick up to ten images. Once the votes are in I’ll post the top ten or twelve on this blog. (The number for each photo is in the caption underneath the photograph. Also, you can click on the images to see them larger.)
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 a lot of traveling again this year. We returned to some of our favorite places, like Death Valley, the redwoods, and the Oregon Coast, plus our local haunts in Yosemite and the eastern Sierra. But we also drove to Arkansas for the solar eclipse (stopping in New Mexico along the way), visited the Tetons and Yellowstone twice, and made a spur-of-the-moment journey to Glacier National Park in Montana to photograph the spectacular auroral event in October. And back in May I was able to raft down the Grand Canyon again. Lots of fun stuff, generating many great memories!
I hope 2024 brought you great memories as well, and Claudia and I wish you lots of joy and happiness in 2025. Happy New Year!
— Michael Frye
1. Light and mist on Washington Column, Yosemite NP, California
2. Trees and waves of fog, Yosemite NP, California
3. Fog and tree patterns, Yosemite NP, California
4. Half Dome above a fog layer at sunrise, Yosemite NP, California
5. Bald eagle in flight, San Joaquin Valley, California
6. Snow falling from oaks, Yosemite NP, California
7. Badlands, reflections, and salt formations, Death Valley NP, California
8. Dunes in a sandstorm at sunrise, Death Valley NP, California
9. Dunes in a sandstorm, Death Valley NP, California
10. Pines, mist, and Lower Cathedral Rock, Yosemite NP, California
11. Sand clouds, White Sands NP, New Mexico
12. Hoodoos, stars, and clouds, New Mexico
13. Dogwoods, mist, and Bridalveil Fall, Yosemite NP, California
14. Dappled light above the Colorado River, Grand Canyon NP, Arizona
15. Misty evening light along the Oregon Coast
16. Grizzly 399 and her 18-month-old cub, Grand Teton NP, Wyoming
17. The Teton Range from Jackson Lake at sunrise, Grand Teton NP, Wyoming
18. Moose feeding in a pond, Grand Teton NP, Wyoming
19. Sunbeams over Negit Island, Mono Lake, California
20. Sunset clouds, Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite NP, California
21. Tufa formations at sunrise, Mono Lake, California
22. Aurora, Perseid meteors, and lodgepole pine, August 11-12, Yosemite NP, California
23. Steamboat Geyser, Yellowstone NP, Wyoming
24. Aurora above St. Mary Lake, Glacier NP, Montana
25. Aurora reflected in Swiftcurrent Lake, Glacier NP, Montana
26. Aurora with bonsai tree, Glacier NP, Montana
27. Sunlight breaking through fog, Mono Lake, California
28. Moon, Venus, and sea stacks at sunset, Oregon Coast
29. Sunlight on the Pacific Ocean, Oregon Coast
30. Crashing wave on a foggy morning, Oregon Coast
31. Sunlight breaking through clouds and fog, Oregon Coast
32. Sun setting behind a small tree, Oregon Coast
33. Breaking wave, Oregon Coast
34. Wave splash at sunset, Oregon Coast
35. Short-eared owl, Washington
36. Great egret in fog, San Joaquin Valley, California
37. Ice fingers, Yosemite NP, California
38. Moon, Half Dome, and cottonwood trees, Yosemite NP, California
39. Clearing storm, El Capitan, Yosemite NP, California
40. Fog and sunbeams, Sierra Nevada foothills, California
41. Leaping crane, San Joaquin Valley, California
42. Sugar pine in snow, Yosemite NP, California
43. Yosemite Valley at dusk with stars and Jupiter, Yosemite NP, California
44. Sun, oaks, and sunbeams, Yosemite NP, California
45. Oaks and sunbeams, Yosemite NP, California
Voting has closed!
Related Posts: My Top Photographs of 2023; My Top Photographs of 2022; My Top Photographs of 2021
Michael Frye is a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He lives near Yosemite National Park in California, but travels extensively to photograph natural landscapes in the American West and throughout the world.
Michael uses light, weather, and design to make photographs that capture the mood of the landscape, and convey the beauty, power, and mystery of nature. His work has received numerous awards, including the North American Nature Photography Association’s 2023 award for Fine Art in Nature Photography. Michael’s photographs have appeared in publications around the world, and he’s the author and/or principal photographer of several books, including Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters, and The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite.
Michael loves to share his knowledge of photography through articles, books, workshops, online courses, and his blog. He’s taught over 200 workshops focused on landscape photography, night photography, digital image processing, and printing.
A wonderful collection of images! Thank you for sharing.
Another banner year, Michael! I had twelve favorites this year it was harder to narrow it down to just 10 but, I did!
Really hard choices! Such wonderful variety!
38. Hands down.
399 … R.I.P.
So sad about 399. I’m glad I got to see her while she was still with us.
Heart breaking 💔
Loss.
Does anyone know if her cub survived on its own?
Another banner year for you again. Excellent and hard pics to choose from .Hope 2025 is even better!
Tough to choose. Reinforces the old adage of “f16 and showing up”.
Thanks for sharing your creative genius.
Your work is inspiring! Thank you for showcasing Nature’s beauty in such a magical way.
It is so difficult to choose. Your photos are all so beautiful. Good luck picking your favourites!! Happy New Year!
It pays to get out and about!
That was hard to do as they are all top 10 photographs. Saw what looks like the same moose we saw at the Tetons a few years ago. At the time the moose was feeding a baby which was fun to watch.
I knew I was in trouble when I had 10 favorite images only half way through your listing! Beautiful, ethereal work, the kind of landscape photography to emulate and learn from in trying to develop ones’ skills and style. Thank you for sharing.
Michael, these are wonderful. What an amazing portfolio. I can see why you want help! Wishing you the very best for the coming year.
Another great year of photography.
What a challenge to be given on New Years Day but also what a great start to a new year that they represent. For me, I think that ordering them was even more difficult than wittling down the favorites to ten. An envious collection Michael.
That was a touch choice!
Always a joy to see your work, Michael. Your pix trigger so many memories of my own humble rambles!
Thanks very much for all the kind words everyone! I really appreciate all the comments.
A perfect way to bring in the new year!
A lot of amazing shots, a lot of tough choices.
Thank you for sending these wonderful images Michael. It’s always fun to see how the votes compare to my selections. Happy new Year!
Gorgeous photos—all of them. Thank you for showing us how it’s done 🙂
Happy New Year!
Michael, the images are all spectacular. It was so very hard to choose, but your black and white image of the moon and Half Dome is incredibly gorgeous.
Great collection of images! Best to you and Claudia for the New Year.
My favorite end of the year tradition. Thank you for sharing your beautiful and inspirational collection.
I always look forward to this end-of-the year event! It took me a LONG time to make a final submission because I had such a hard time choosing too many favorites and trying to decide which ones to eliminate in order to end up with ten! Your photography is awesome! I hope to one day be able to attend one of your workshops! Best wishes to you and Claudia for a very happy new year!
This is always my favorite thing to do on New Year’s Eve. Thanks for keeping your tradition alive, Michael!
Every year I wonder if you ever take the choices your fans make and view them per the individual voting in addition to viewing the cumulative favorites. I always find myself wondering what each of your voters personal favorite galleries would look like.
There are so many ways to choose: absolute favorites, via texture, subject matter, color, or by an eclectic overarching portfolio selection. I was tempted to go the portfolio route but just chose my favorites. My nod to diversity was leaving out 2 of the aurora photos and a few of the night images. … hard for a dedicated night photographer!
Wishing you and Claudia outstanding adventures in 2025!
A great collection Michael! Such a delight to watch your pictures. Thank you for posting them.
Best wishes to you and Claudia in 2025!
Michael,
This is an amazing portfolio. So hard to select just ten as the best. Thank you for sharing these. Happy New Year!
Dear Michael,
So many beautiful images that are very hard to pick the top 10. Thanks for sharing! Happy New Year!
Impossible to pick only 10. Amazing images. Brought back many memories of 2024. Looking forward to making more in 2025. Inspiring!
FUN!!!
I always look forward to seeing the photographs you have made on your travels with Claudia. They take my breath away! Who can pick only 10? I think it gets harder every year. I just have to go with my first reaction. As always, thank you sharing your journey with us.
Another wonderfully inspiring year Michael. Thanks for posting and look forward to 2025’s posts! Happy New Year to all.
Great selection, Michael. I wish you and Claudia a very Happy New Year!
I too really look forward to this wonderful tradition, although it’s always so difficult to narrow it down to only 10! I just went with my strongest 1st impressions, one’s that literally took my breath away, and tried not to pick ones that were too similar. I found I was really drawn to a lot of the B&W images this year. Best wishes to you and Claudia for the New Year!
I’m pretty solid on my first three picks… the other 7 picks could change every day… What great images!
A very diverse collection this year. All wonderful, as usual. Those aurora shots are once in a lifetime – so excited to see them. Thank you so much for sharing your work and stories!
Beautiful photos. A real challenge to select just 10 favorites!!! May 2025 bring good health and more great photography!!!
Amazing collection. I had to resist voting for number 12, 10 times, but I did behave and vote only once for each photo.
Have a very Happy and Productive New Year
These are all lovely, Michael. What a good year you have had! Happy New Year to you and Claudia
What a beautiful and diverse body of work again this year, Michael. Thanks for sharing it all and Happy New Year!
I picked 10. 39, 40,41 and 43 were excellent too (as were all of those)!
What an amazing year you had. So hard to pick only 10. I hope you and Claudia have a Happy New Year.
26,41, and 45 stand out to me. (Yes I filled out the form too!) Thanks for sharing.
As always, a very difficult task to select just 10! Thank you, Michael, for letting us have the chance to vote!
Michael, wonderful photos again, so difficult to pick just 10. Great variety and loved the wildlife ones, especially 399. So sad she is no longer with us. Wishing you and Claudia a very Happy New Year
I look forward to this post every year! What a great collection, and as others have said it’s almost impossible to choose only 10. Wishing a great 2025 to you and Claudia!
Greetings Michael,
ALL the images are great from my chair! Really hard to choose, and I chose more on content than on how challenging I figured making the photos was for you. FYI … Mary and I watched the movie “Kodachrome” this week. I really liked it, and the aspect of a great photographer made us think of you and our trip in 2006. I believe you have earned a place along side of Ansel Adams – whose books I have most all. I’m REALLY looking forward to seeing the Top Ten!!
Best Regards,
Ellis Stewart
Really hard to choose this year, just a superb collection of photos.
Might as well ask me to fly by flapping my arms as to pick out the best of these
Incredible, thank you so much for inspiring me with your photos and bringing calm to my email life <3
So many lovely photos to choose from. I am sure if I picked tomorrow my list would change.
I really enjoy this New Year tradition! Absolutely fabulous images and thank you for sharing. What a great year and Happy 2025 to you and Claudia!
Happy New Year to you and Claudia! Thank you for sharing this stunning collection of images! My family just returned from Yosemite, and we loved your superb work in the entry to the Mountain Room Restaurant at Yosemite Lodge.
Happy New Year to you and Claudia. I really like voting every year for your favourite and beautiful photographs. It has become a tradition!
I am looking forward to see more of your work in the future.
I really love your photography! All of the pictures were marvelous….but some just really pulled me in!!
To keep it short WOW.
What an impossible task, Michael! I know, too, that tomorrow I’d probably choose differently. It’s just impossible for me to select ten … but being the good (but humble … hah!) person that I am I did it anyway.
Bravo to you!
I really enjoy and look forward to this event every year! Just like pretty much everyone else commenting, I had a hard time getting down to just 10! I really appreciated the variety of images you provided – grand landscapes, wildlife, intimate scenes, crashing waves and northern lights! Thank you for sharing 🙂
A wonderful set of images for 2024. Enjoyed trying to pick the top 10 for the first time. My very best for 2025 to Claudia and you!
Oh Michael, you continue to blow me away. This year i voted quickly, without deliberation — just voted for any one that hit me with a “WOW”. Which partly means, I selected images with content I love, and love how you portrayed. (I have a long history with the Oregon Coast…). But there is not one in this collection that doesn’t rate as “Best of 2025”. I would so much love to meet you again in a field workshop!
I’m a wildlife photographer (and equine) not a landscape photographer, and yet I have learned a great deal of useful information from you over the years. Your landscape work is enchanting. I so much enjoy and admire your images. Wishing you a happy, healthy New Year!!!
As usual, all stunning. This time, I voted with the idea of “what and why is this one so magical?” I want to study them more, with these in mind. Still learning, still hopefully, improving. Good luck! BTW I attended a lecture many years ago at Fresno State where you presented on either Lightroom or Photoshop, and what you could do with them, as part of an artist week during the summer. It changed my photographic life, as I knew nothing about these before.
Only 10 from so many riches? My bet is that I would pick a diffeent set in a month or so, they are all so breathtaking. Thanks for sharing. Always a pleasure to see the beauty that you have captured throughout the year.
What an incredible year Michael! I’m so glad we got to spend many of these moments with you and Claudia! Hope to see you many more times in 2025!
Fabulous images yet again
Thanks for sharing all these great pxs Michael and I’m a big
Yosemite fan too, having been there 16 times, thanks to all
my NASA Launches at Vandenberg AFB. Also, the process is
very easy and fun trying to decide between all your winners!
Looking forward to your 2025 captures, NASA Jim
#38, as good as Ansel!
Your” eye” is amazing.I look forward to this every year
You definitely did not make this an easy choice, especially because of the wide variety of images. All of them in their own way had “Wow” factors and I could see why you are proud enough of them to submit to us. It will be interesting to see what the “winner” is given how subjective I believe voting on picture favorites are with a crowd. Thank you for sharing. I love the fact that you are willing to do so. BTW, I will be spending 3 days in Yosemite in mid May. I hope I get an opportunity to capture something special then.
All are amazing images…thanks for sharing and hope to take one of your classes again!
As always, an amazing collections of photographs. All winners! I can’t wait to see your favorites. I’ve taken a several year hiatus from photography (except for travel pictures with my family “on the run”). However, I’ve consistently followed your work and lessons from your regular emails. I plan to start up again and will sign up for workshops, including another of yours. Thanks again for your inspiration. Happy New Year to you and Claudia.
This was very hard Michael, every image was gorgeous! All beautifully done.
Some of the nominees convey a palpable sense of being there and are simply fabulous. Some scenes feel magical. You really nailed the eyes of the owl” sharp under magnification. The moose is quite humorous, an enviable shot. The detail and contrast in the tree branches is delightful
Overall, lots of variety.
A great collection, any of which I would have been proud to take! Most of my picks contained colors and/or atmospherics that struck me, with a boost to those places I have been.
Sitting down with my 15 year old daughter to jointly make our selection, she informed me that putting her through the exercise of eliminating any of the thirty other worthy choices was a form of child abuse. Bravo! Have any more?
Michael –
As said numerous times – all beautiful images! Of course, so hard to indeed vote – It was 19 favorites then down to 12, then 11 and finally, gasp – 10!
Happy New Year to you and Claudia and I’ll look forward to seeing you at a next Out of Chicago !
Mary Ellen Kaschub
Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful and inspirational art.
Thank you for this wonderful tradition! You so beautifully captured so many magical moments through your photography. Wishing you and Claudia a happy new year!
Such a beautifully diverse set of images – what a year! Thank you for sharing them. Happy New Year!
Michael, all of your images are superb, You’re an inspiration to all!
Michael, ALL of your images are stunning, Picking only 10 was definitely a challenge!
Wow – what a year Michael. You and Claudia sure took some fabulous trips and how fortunate you were to see the Aurora in Glacier Nat’l Park. The photos from there were simply stellar. I had to travel all the way to Norway to see them – can really appreciate what you captured in those photos. So enjoy seeing your fine work!
Paul
So grateful, Michael, for your passion and gifts, and sharing your vision of Nature’s beauty and power through your photography. This annual challenge is the best of my day today and I’m honored to have participated. It definitely wasn’t a quick pick, as each photo is a jewel and it was very difficult to skip over or deselect any! May another beautiful year of health, creativity, exploration and wonder be ahead for you and Claudia. Love to you both.
They are all so beautiful, it was very hard to choose. Finally I narrowed it down, but had to leave out a lot of fantastic photos. You do really wonderful work Michael.
All of the photos are great! It was hard to choose again 🙂
Great Job Michael