La Jolla

In October Kim and I got away for a quick little afternoon trip to explore this iconic beach, catch sunset and dinner for a little birthday celebration. Wow, was our sunset dramatic. I throughly enjoyed exploring the beach and enjoying all the nooks and crannies I discovered in the process. See more from La Jolla.

Idyllwild

Fall colors in Southern California can appear aloof, but if you’re patient and know where and when to look you can find it. At the beginning of the month I spent the day up in the San Jacinto Mountains looking for those elusive golden leaves and I was grateful to find them. See the fall foliage here.

San Gabriels After the Storm

Our recent spat of storms blanketed our local mountains with fresh coating of snow. So I ventured up the local hills to see how the San Gabriel Mountains look after the storm. I wasn’t disappointed by what I saw. You can see all the pictures here.

I hope you enjoy this collection of my fall work. I’d love to here what you favorites were.

One more bit of news as well. My annual Holiday Sale is now live on my Etsy shop. Now through December 2, 2025 you will save 25% off all orders (including my latest work in this gallery). As always custom orders are included in the sale.

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Why Mineral King?

I grew up hearing my mother’s fond memories of many childhood family vacations out to Mineral King. They stopped going because Disney planned to turn it into a resort back in the 60’s. Gratefully development fell through, and it’s now part of Sequoia National Park. I was always curious to check it out, but the timing never quite worked out to visit this secluded part of the Sierra Nevada.

Why Little Five Lakes?

Like Mineral King, I had heard many great stories about this little pocket of the High Sierra from friends and family. And again it was on my list of places I wanted to go for a long time, but the timing just never worked out. I did come close a couple of times, first while trekking the High Sierra Trail 16 years earlier, and a second time in 2020, we planned a trip to the area but had to cancel due to fire in the region.

The Trip

This part of the Sequoia National Park is beautiful, but it’s not for those looking for an easy entrance into the High Sierra. Over the four-day 29-mile trip our total ascent was 10,437 feet of elevation and another 10,428 of descent. Even our first day in Mineral King felt like anything you visit required either a climb or a descent. Little Five Lakes lived up to all the talk I had heard, I only wished we could have spent more time there, or at the neighboring Big Five Lakes. I was also pleasantly surprised by Lost Valley, our last stop on the trip, which personally I feared was going to be little more of a ravine before we climbed up Sawtooth Pass. Below you can see it was a nice pristine meadow to rest in before our final ascent of the trip.

Final Reflections

Overall a trip I thoroughly enjoyed. It felt so good to do a physically challenging trip again. If I were to do this again I would definitely train more to prep for all the climbs and descents. I thought I was ready for them, but the high altitude really took the wind out of me on this trip.

I hope you enjoyed this trip report.If you’d like to see the full trip gallery click on this link here. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about the trip or the photos.

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Our early morning meet-up at the Sandstone Peak parking lot was a visual treat; the morning fog was hugging the base of the mountains, as pictured above. After our meet-up, we drove down to the trailhead just off of PCH, and we savored the cool, misty start to our hike through the beautiful Sycamore Canyon trail and beach.

As we climbed out of Sycamore Canyon and clearing the clouds and fog we look over Santa Monica Mountain range on the Backbone Trail, and saw some lingering wild flowers. The drastic change from wet and gloomy to dry and sunny made you question if we were still near the beach. It was a great refresher trip remembering both the beauty of the mountains as well as the physical memory of climbing with pack.

You can see the full gallery from my trip here. And again stay tuned for my trip report from my backpack to Little Five Lakes.

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Layers Upon Layers

One thing I was eager to experience on this trip was being amongst the many layers of the Canyonlands region for sunrise and sunset, watching the changing light illuminate the landscape. On our second morning, we quickly lost the dramatic light as the clouds soon obscured the rising sun. That said, I was quite taken by this scene in the flat, even morning light, and it is one of my favorites from this year. But the view was still exquisite, as you can see in the image below.

Woodgrain

Our third night in Utah, we camped next to a fallen cottonwood tree. In the waning light of blue hour, I quickly set up my tripod and camera to get some detail photos. The varying textures and grains made it a treasure trove subject. This particular composition was a focus stack of nine shots.

Mudcracks

Five days before our trip to Utah, the region got some rain, and we got to see the beautiful after-effects. Mudflows and cracks in the washes were abundant, like the one pictured above. One serendipity I discovered while processing this image was faint animal tracks, which added a little extra detail to the composition. You can see more mudcrack images in the full gallery.

I hope you enjoyed these highlights from the trip. It was one for the memory books. If you’d like to see the full gallery click here.

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The photo is also the March image of my 2026 Photo Calendar. And if you’d like to see more of my work from Death Valley, you can visit my gallery here.

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If you want to see more from my Detail/Texture gallery on my site.

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Sea Anemone

I love exploring tide pools. You never know what you might discover. This particular anemone I stumbled across amongst some of the most jagged crags at the beach. It was in such a tight spot that I couldn’t squeeze my tripod in to take the picture. So I had to crank up my camera’s ISO, crouched down, and precariously straddled the crags on either side of it and try to hold really still while I took the shot. I was so thankful that Adobe’s noise reduction tools were able to clean up all the noise from the high ISO.

This image is also the January image of my 2026 Photo Calendar, which you can purchase here.

Seaweed at Golden Hour

Last light of the day on this crop of washed-up seaweed made it really glow. Literally 10 minutes later, that glorious sheen was gone. I was so grateful to be there for that fleeting moment, wandering back from my beach explorations. Easily one of my favorite images this year.

Like the image above, ‘Seaweed at Golden Hour’ is the July image of my 2026 Photo Calendar, which you can purchase here.

Seaweed in Tide Pool

Many times when I explore the local tide pools, I forget to break out my circular polarizer filter. I was so grateful I didn’t for this one. It was able to remove the surface glare on the water and see all that was going on below the surface. And one other fun fact about this image is that it sort of doubles as a self-portrait. That red glow throughout the photo is my red shirt, which I was wearing, reflecting off the water. When I noticed it in the photo, I tried moving out enough so you couldn’t see me, but it just didn’t have the glow that this version did.

I hope you enjoyed these photos. Which was your favorite? If you like to see more of my work from the beach, visit this gallery here.

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This particular sunrise was taken on my most recent backpacking trip two months ago in Sequoia National Park. My first physically challenging backpack in quite a while, 29 miles over four days with over 10K ascent and descent. It felt great to be pushed physically and to simply enjoy four days in nature.

To see more from my backpack, visit my trip gallery here.

Personal Update

A sunrise image also felt fitting to break the content drought here on the site. July also marked a new chapter of my professional life. Funnily enough, it begins where my previous chapter ended. I was hired back at Tyndale House Publishers, rejoining my old team at Rose Publishing. A year ago, I could not have predicted that, but I am very grateful to be working with them again.

Now that the cloud of job uncertainty is starting to lift, I am turning my attention back to my photography. My 2026 Photo Calendar will be up for sale very soon. Along with that will be posts on my recent trips and work over the past year, and updates to my Etsy shop. Last but not least, I will offer portrait sessions again this fall. So stay tuned for those announcements!

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Without further ado, here are my 10 favorite images I photographed and processed in 2024. Like usual, this list is in no particular order. If you prefer to skip the stories and see the gallery, click here.

Shifting

In October, I was so grateful to be invited to join a trip exploring Utah’s Canyonlands region. To our great fortune, five days prior to our trip a brief rainstorm passed through the region. I was in heaven exploring the mudflow textures in all the washes we encountered.

Of all the mudflow images I captured on that trip, this one stuck the most, seeing the change in state at hand. Maybe because it resonated with how I currently feel personally in this current season of many transitions. There have been a lot of changes to life in a short amount of time. Two years ago, I shifted from being a widowed single parent to now happily re-married, and now this past year’s ebb of professional uncertainty. It has been quite the emotional rollercoaster. That said, I am learning to be grateful for present moments like these that create opportunities for me to reflect on life. And remember that this, too shall pass.

Red Rock at Blue Hour

Anyone who bought my calendar for 2025 will recognize this image. Taken about a year ago, I knew once I saw this formation I wanted to linger here and watch how the sunset and blue hour light would illuminate this scene. I was so grateful that my patience paid off with this composition. I wrote more about this piece last year in this post.

Springtime, Vasquez Rocks

Last spring I revisited a family favorite. Our wet winter made this iconic desert location the lushest I have ever seen it. In recent years, my visits have been sporadic at best, usually just seeing it from the freeway on our way to the High Desert. And knowing how recognizable the location is, I haven’t been eager to explore it photographically. However, in recent years, I have been getting an urge to revisit the area with a camera and see if I could find something interesting on the park’s fringes. Bringing my camera along this spring on our family trip seemed like a good way to scratch that itch, and I was happy I did! You can see more about this post and Vasquez Rocks here.

Adorned #3

Last winter I was invited on a trip to the desert where we had a serendipitous moment. The sandstone in the area was adorned with a whitish-blue coating—like someone had brushed on blue sidewalk chalk throughout the region. The striking, at times subtle, contrasts of the blues paired with the red rock were incredible to behold in person and a pure joy to explore visually with my camera. You can see the whole series of photos from that trip here.

Winskill Stones at Sunset

Twenty-one years ago I ventured out internationally for the first time exploring the United Kingdom and loved every minute of it. As my photographic skills refined, I longed for another opportunity to visit and explore the English landscape with my camera. Well, this past summer, that opportunity came. Kim and I were able to take the kids traveling with her dad, who doubled as our local expert. We loved every moment of our wanderings.

One of our highlights was watching the summer solstice sunset pictured above in the Yorkshire Dales. We even got to interact with the locals! You can read more about our adventures in England in this post.

Misty Morning Meal, Nairobi National Park

As of this posting, I haven’t shared this image on social media, but I have shared this piece on my blog about our family trip to Kenya last summer. While I don’t claim to be a wildlife photographer or even aspire to be one, it is a blast to do occasionally. And this particular moment was one of the highlights. Our trip to Kenya was brief and we were there to serve, but the weekend we got to have the safari experience was once in a lifetime.

Morning in Canyonlands

On my fall trip to Utah, I was eager to be amongst the many layers of the Canyonlands region for sunrise and sunset to watch the changing light illuminate the landscape. On our second morning, we quickly lost the dramatic light as the clouds soon obscured the rising sun. That said, I was quite taken by this scene in the flat, even morning light, and it is one of my favorites from this year.

Jackals on the Trail

This is another photo from our family trip to Kenya. We saw an incredible number of wildlife on our day in Nairobi National Park, and this frozen moment with the jackals on the game trail was easily one of my favorite images from that day. The detail of their wet fur from the rain adds even more texture to the composition.

Cottonwood Decay

On the last night of our Utah trip, we camped next to a fallen cottonwood tree. In the waning light of blue hour, I quickly set up my tripod and camera to get some detailed photos. The varying textures and grains made it a treasure trove subject. This particular composition was a focus stack of nine shots.

The Slumbering Dragon Awakes

Last but definitely not least, this shot is from a trip to some of our local mountains at the end of the year. These exposed sycamore roots and the rock wedged between them made me think of a dragon sleeping in his horde of fallen leaves. Maybe my girls’ fascination with dragons is rubbing off on me.

Conclusion

I hope you have enjoyed this recap of my best photos of 2024. Thank you so much for investing the time to explore my recap. I am curious to hear which were your favorites! Here are my past recaps: 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015

Looking ahead to 2025, I currently don’t have any trip plans set, but as always, I’ll be looking for photographic opportunities as they arise.

The post 2024 Favorites in Retrospect appeared first on Dubland Media.

As for visiting England I always knew I would come back again sometime, I just didn’t think it would take two decades to return. Last year when Kim and I started to plan a family trip, we started to dream of the many places we could explore. She was so excited to show us the North Yorkshire region she had grown to love while visiting her dad when he lived in the Yorkshire Dales. It was an incredible two weeks with Kim’s dad as our personal tour guide. In the first week, we discovered the tranquil beauty of Northern England, and in the second we wandered London.

Rainy Morning in the Dales

I truly loved exploring the Yorkshire Dales. The rolling hills are sectioned off with dry limestone walls. The lush green terrain is such a contrast to what I am used to seeing in Southern California. It was fascinating seeing the public footpaths that spanned the region. I feel like I could have spent a month exploring the area and still wouldn’t have seen it all.

For most of our time in the Dales, it was unusually warm and sunny. I was getting concerned as our time was winding down, worried we wouldn’t get any interesting weather. Thankfully our fortune changed our second to last day, a nice misty morning to make the landscape look more interesting.

Stock Ghyll Force Waterfall

One of the highlights of my previous trip to the UK was discovering the Lake District. My interest was piqued when I heard it was a National Park, but it was nothing like my expectations. The term National Park made me think of uncut wilderness not touched by human development. Instead, I found a quaint countryside of picturesque farms and towns sprinkled amongst this group of lakes with distinct pockets of ruggedness. It opened my eyes to what a National Park could be, and I loved its charm.

Returning to England I instantly wanted to revisit this region, even if all we could do was a day trip. For our one day, we chose to visit Lake Windermere and had a magnificent time. That day was filled with wandering the little towns of Windermere and Ambleside. In the latter, we found a beautiful trail through a lush ravine to Stock Ghyll Force, a beautiful 70-foot waterfall pictured above. This was a wonderful highlight of our brief time in the Lake District.

If I get the opportunity, I will make a concerted effort to spend more time in the region.

Winskill Stones

To be perfectly honest the Yorkshire Dales was not my radar of places to visit until just recently. My interest grew after learning about the limestone pavement prominent in the region. These natural formations resemble large archaic cobblestones of limestone strewn all over the region. Our quest to find said pavement made for some memorable stories. The first attempt to photograph was thwarted by what looked like a fresh barbed-wire fence. On our trip home that evening, I had my first experience driving on the left side of the road! And wouldn’t you know I was instantly tested when I had to squeeze by a huge motorhome on a narrow one-lane road lined with limestone walls on each side.

The next night we were more successful, finding the scene above. Little did we know we were going to be entertained as we waited for sunset. Shortly after arriving, we found ourselves surrounded by a herd of sheep as a local farmer was training his border collie how to herd his flock. Thankfully Kim filmed the whole experience while I was setting up my camera for sunset, see below.

As gratifying as it was to capture the beautiful images on our trip, I will always cherish the wonderful memories we made as a family exploring England this past summer.

If you enjoyed these photos you’ll be happy to know they’re also in my brand-new 2025 Photo Calendar. You can also see more photos from our trip to England in this gallery here. In addition, like all the other photos featured in this year’s calendar, I am offering 20% off all prints, click here to visit my Etsy shop and get the deal.

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