Ten Best Photos of 2015
#10. On a warming day in March, I snapped this female cardinal in the Coral Bark Maple. I was itching to get out and start taking photographs after not doing anything in the Winter.
#9. The funny thing about this photo is that the three previous frames, the catcher had a glove on the runner, yet the runner still tries to claim he's safe. I photographed Le Moyne College vs. University of New Haven on the New Haven campus.
#8. We were in NYC visiting our niece and decided to take the Staten Island Ferry (a free ride) across the bay. On the way back, there were a couple of guys with this girl who were also taking photos. I had been watching them for a while, and when they asked her to pose on the railing, I nonchalantly pointed my camera in her direction and took this photo. Because I had the 70-200 on, I could reach out pretty far.
#7. This image captures the spirit of Cooper. He started out a very skittish 7 year old Golden and ended up being a very mellow dog. This photo was taken over the Summer when Valerie had Otis out for his walk and it was just Cooper and I were hanging out.
#6. One Summer evening the hummers were hitting the feeders pretty good. Of course, I grabbed the camera and fired off about 300 photos of three or four different hummingbirds at the feeders. I had the 70-200 and the 2X extender on. The 2X extender meant I was at 5.6, and I knew I was going to have to crank up the shutter speed. This photo was at 1250 ISO, 1/640th, and f/5.6. Fortunately it was on the 7D Mark II, so ISO 1250 was nothing.
#5. The "Angry Man". While in Acadia National Park, I stopped along the road to see if I could get some nice Black & Whites in the birch forest. I came across this tree and he looked like he was scowling at me.
#4. A bonfire at Le Moyne College during Family Weekend. This group was illuminated only by the light of the bonfire.
#3. Dogs are not cooperative, especially when you try to put things on their heads. I ended up taking about 420 photos with Otis in a Santa hat for our annual Christmas card. Out of 420, I got three good ones. I finally took his hat off and this was the first picture I snapped. I almost like it better than the Christmas card photo, but the Art Director denied it.
#2. I thought this was going to be my #1 photo this year. You can read all about it here (http://jeffhunter.squarespace.com/blog/2015/12/20/norwalk-river-valley-trail).
#1. I took over 1000 photos this night. When I culled them down to the top 100 or so, this one stood out at me immediately. Some times you just know when you have a great shot, and I knew immediately this was a great shot. Yes, I looked through the other 800, but this was still the best. The reason I think it's perfect is you can see the emotion on her face, the school logo is prominent in the picture, she is offset from the center of the frame just a little bit, and she stands out from the background. Other than a couple color tweaks, this is exactly how it came out of the camera.