For various reasons, I shot a lot less in 2018. In fact, I published less than half the number of shots from 2017 to my Flickr stream. I hope to shoot a bit more in 2019, but as such, doing a "10 best" for 2018 doesn't make much sense to me, as it would amount to almost 25% of my published 2018 output...! However, I did manage a few shots that I'm especially proud of, so I would like to share them as well as a litte bit of backstory about each one:
#4:
Note that this isn't a Pentax shot, and - egads! - it was shot on full auto! But since late 2017, myself and my wife have got ourselves into cycling, and especially cycle touring. This culminated last September with a three-week exploration of Scotland, and this photo of my wife climbing out of Bridge of Balgie both encapsulates what was a fantastic moment for us, and is, IMHO, a decently nice cycling travel photo, a genre that is quite new to me...
#3:
Usually, long-legged green flies are fairly sensitive to flash. They don't necessarily fly off, but they'll suddenly move to a different area of the leaf they are perched on as soon as the flash fires. So I was especially happy when I encountered this one, who seemed moderately content to let me fire off a few frames before moving. It did move ever so slightly, so stacking the shots wasn't easy, but achieving this short focus stack, with a low perspective and a nice background, makes it one of my proudest shots of any year. IMHO, it nicely renders this tiny insect's majestic beauty and, for lack of a better term, its "long-legged-ness"..
#2:
In 2016, I had spotted and photographed a very peculiar and quite striking damselfly at the Montreal Botanical Garden. It was an (IMHO) amazing metallic red/purple color. I saw just the one single individual, and it remained a bit of a mystery. It appeared to be still teneral - a word used to describe adults that have recently molted into their adult form. During this stage, the colors of the insect can be different from those of an older adult. It's still unclear to me just how long this can last, but it can be as short as a few hours and certainly no more than a few days. It appeared that I had been lucky, but I wasn't sure just how lucky...
So in 2018, around the date of my 2016 observation, I managed to spend three long outings at the Montreal Botanical Garden, looking to see if I could spot and photograph these arresting insects again. And I did! I saw literally dozens, and managed quite a few good shots! My favorite of the bunch is the one above. Again, low perspective, a nice background, and, IMHO, a nice sense of three-dimensionality. (Went back a couple of weeks later, and saw none with that amazing red/purple. They had all assumed their
final coloration.)
#1:
Getting into macro, I've admired the work of quite a few amazing photographers. One of these is Edward Nurcoombe, aka
Eddie The Bugman. To me, Eddie's most fantastic shots are his damselfly portraits. I've been trying to get a similar shot for a looong time, and I've shot many damselfly portraits, but I could never quite get the angle required to get the "Eddie look". Well in 2018, a damselfly finally agreed to play ball with me! It was perched in a position that made it possible for me to get the angle needed, and my approach was slow enough (and it was calm enough) that it did not fly away. I remember a cyclist passing by as I was on my belly in the grass by the side of the path, and now I wonder what he made of that strange sight, but at the time I was just worried his passing would spook the insect! Thankfully, he was on the opposite side of the path, his passage didn't spook the damsel, and I carried on shooting. The shot above is the result, and I'm quite proud of it!
On a sadder note, Eddie The Bugman hasn't posted any new content to either Flickr or Twitter since 2015. He appears to have fallen off the Internet. I hope he's OK, and any news would be welcomed...