The other half of avoiding a family fight over who had gotten the Nr. 1 picture for this year, our favourite 5-his & hers ! Decide for yourself which is your favourite photo !

Here’s my favourite photos for 2016. It wasn’t too hard to choose since I didn’t get to travel much after quitting my job and opening the new practise. But there were a couple of  highlights, sensational highlights I must say. We both turned 50 and each picked a very special trip. So it wasn’t the quantity this year, but there was definitely quality !

5. PUFFINS

They are the cutest birds ever, and after seeing a few in Svalbard we took a trip to a famous bird island in Norway to see more of thenm close up. We didn’t see any ! So I was seriously afraid to do another puffin trip and be disappointed again. Not this time ! There were hundreds, no thousands of them on the Farne Islands (GB). It is quite a challenge to capture them in flight, they are so fast, but we got better and better. This was one of the first pictures I took, starting with the “sitting ducks”. It really looks as if they are having a chat or maybe even a family fight…

Do you want to talk about it ?

4. HEART

Another picture from our Farne Island trip. When not photographing puffins or terns, we concentrated on the beautiful landscape and all the castles around here. We photographed Bamburgh Castle from closer by, found out there were some nice rock formations and, on the one not cloudy evening, set out for a sunset shot. This particular group of seaweeds not only contrasted nicely with green algea in the water, but from this one angle, and with a little imagination, looks like a heart.

Heart of weeds

3. WALKING WITH ELEPHANTS

This was my birthday trip. Jürg got a cold birthday trip, I wanted a warm one. We spent 5 days in Mana Pools, Zimbabwe, one of the few parks where you are allowed to leave your car and walk about. We walked with a group of elephants, photographing them as they lifted their trunks to pick figs from the upper branches of the trees, sometimes they even got up on their hind legs, like in a circus ! The most humbling moment was when we sat under one of the trees and waited for the elephant to arrive. He came, mock charged us, backed up, came again and then decided we were there first, and not moving at all (which was the very hard part) and continued eating. It was very cool and exiting till I put down my wide angle lens, and noticed he was maybe 15m in front of us and huge….. almost had a heart attack, and most definitely a very high pulse and even higher blood pressure at that moment. We are so small, we are nothing. This is their territory and we should be so grateful they let us be there with them.

Reaching for the figs

2. ICE BEACH

I asked Jürg if he wanted a warm or cold holiday, meaning Myanmar or Iceland. He looked at the Iceland pictures and took about 20 seconds to decide. So Iceland it was. I expected it to be dull, empty and barren… how wrong I was ! It is so sensational that I am already planning our next trip there. Before we went I expected the highlight would be either the ice beach or the ice cave. They were both sensational, but the beach is my absolute favourite, it changes every day, new ice,  different light, a true photographers playground. Can’t wait to get back there !

Ice beach sunrise

1. SUNDOWNER SETTING

Back to Mana Pools where we camped right on the banks of the mighty Zambezi River. One day we had set up for sundowners right at the waterside and everybody was busy photographing the sunset. I looked back and found our sundowner setting quite as remarkable as the setting sun in the other direction. The last rays of light lit up the tree trunk and with a 30 second exposure the whole scene gets a dreamy setting. Would like to go back and sit right there and enjoy the view every time I look at his photo, which is quite often because I have a big canvas print in my room at work. Because I never tire of this tranquil “I want to be there” feeling this is my Nr. 1 for this year.

Happy birthday sundowner setting

So that’s my favourite 5. Hope you like them too. I must hereby apologise for the fact that I, having stated I am a wildlife fan, have this year picked more landscape than animal or people photos. You see, the problem is that after our trip with Hougaard to Iceland….

I am starting to develop a soft spot for landscapes. And the wide angle lens is, as of now, officially my favourite toy !

copyright text and photo : Astrid Bluemel for bluemelphoto.ch