We didn’t want to start a family fight over who had gotten the Nr. 1 picture for this year, so we decided to split the story, favourite 5-his & hers ! Decide for yourself !

Here are my favourite photos for 2016. It was hard to choose since I had quite a few very nice pictures from our trips to Iceland, Zimbabwe and the Farn Islands (GB). Each of these trips was special in its own way. Have a look at the pictures yourself and enjoy.

5. WILD DOGS!

On the first morning on our Zim-Safari we experienced an extraordinary encounter with a pack of wild dogs, which I will never forget for my entire life .

We couldn’t believe when Humphrey our guide said: “quick get out of the jeep and position yourself on the road!”  This is exactly what we did and the wild dogs came very close, passed us with the “catch of the day” and I could take this picture of how nature works. “Eat and get eaten”

Give me a hand!

4. PRAGUE PANO

I knew from a former trip (2005) with Astrid that Prague was a very photogenic city. But this time I was at an SANS security training in Prague on my own. The training lasted for six days and was intense as it never finished before 19:00, so I had little time to take pictures in daylight. Usually I skipped dinner so I could rush into the city centre to find some nice spots for taking photos. I found a spot at the river where I set up my gear (Canon G16 and a Gorillapod  clamped to a rail) for a pano-scenery. I stitched 8 shots together to get the Karlsbridge with the castle in the background in to a single picture.

Prague Pano

3. ANGEL IN THE SKY

After Svalbard where we have seen puffins and immediately fell in love with them, we wanted to take more pictures of them. There are very few places in Europe where you can take pictures of them and one of them is the Farne Islands near Newcastle England. Our plan was to have two days on the islands for the birds. The first day we were very lucky with beautiful weather and we brought home lots of nice pictures. For the second day, we had booked a trip with a local photographer Kaleel Zibe. The weather got worse and worse and by 16:00 we had to leave the island due to rain. But before, I could take this beautiful picture of a tern in flight. Thanks to Kaleel who had lent me his “Nikon” flash for my Canon camera. This is an example of perfect co-operation of both brands to create a spectacular picture 😉

Farne-Island tern

2. MALA-MALA LEOPARD

As the Mana-Pools trip was Astrid’s 50th birthday holiday trip, she decided to spend some days in Mala-Mala on our way home. There, we were also very lucky, as we got upgraded to the Rattrays Camp. Best of all was that we had Peter our dear friend as ranger for the two of us the whole stay. He is a fantastic tracker and driver and provided us this time again with extraordinary photo opportunities.  He positioned the jeep in a perfect way so it was easy for me to take this beautiful shot of a leopard with a nice background. Thanks Peter 😉

Mala-Mala Leopard

1. ICE-BEACH SUNSET

Our trip to Iceland this year was another highlight of 2016. My goal was to take a picture of the “Aurora Borealis” (Northern-Light) which Astrid & Hougaard made possible at the night of my 50th birthday! But the most photogenic location was the ice-beach where the glacier Jökulsarlon meets the sea. I was able to take this photo at the first of our five visits to the beach. The day after I took this picture a snowstorm passed and totally changed the look of the beach.

Ice-beach sunset

So that are my favourite 5 pictures of 2016. Hope you like them too. Although I consider me being a landscape photographer, three out of the five pictures are animals. This is no contradiction as you usually find the most beautiful animals in the most beautiful landscapes. I also consider us very lucky and privileged to have such nice friends around the world and being able to travel to extraordinary place on this globe.

6. Bonus

I couldn’t end this blog without letting you see one of my most favourite object taking photos of. The moon is fascinating me since I was a little boy. Unfortunately, I was not able to take a picture of this year’s super moon due to bad weather conditions. But a few days later I could take this picture which I like very much.

Moon over our home

copyright text and photo : Juerg Bluemel for bluemelphoto.ch