2024 was a good travel year for us including three major trips: Scotland/Ireland/Northern Ireland; Montana; and Atlantic Canada. Most of my favorite photos came from these three trips. I seemed to have been able to photograph all of my favorite subjects: sunrises and sunsets, moon rises and moonsets, other sky phenomenon, lighthouses, bothies and barns, castles, geysers, and waterfalls, We made over 30,000 images and saved 2,900. Herewith, are my 13 favorite photos of the year.

The Great North American Total Eclipse on April 8, 2024 from Lucas, TX. Our friends, Mark and Carolynn Christenson, live in the path of totality and were kind enough to let us stay with them for a few days. Carolynn made eclipse-inspired gift bags for everyone. Mary and her dressed up for the occasion and all three of their daughters were home from school to see the event. It was touch and go there for a while as we had high clouds blowing through. But in the end, I got the shot.

Moonset from Oro Valley, AZ. I try to shoot moon rise and moonset at least once a month and sometimes two days if the conditions and timing are right. The best time for either is when they are at the same time as sunset and sun rise. If we are not travelling, I photograph from my front yard which has a view of the Tortolita Mountains and plenty of Saguaros. This day we had some good clouds and it made for a nice composition.

Tsuchinshan-ATLAS Comet October 14, 2024 from Oro Valley, AZ. I also got lucky here as the weather conditions were ideal to see the comet. It appeared low in the western sky just after sunset. I was able to see it three nights and get a decent photo twice.

Dungarire Castle, Ireland. While in Ireland and Scotland, we photographed 21 castles. The best ones were on a lake or had some kind of moat for a reflection. This is a shot from just after sunrise with some nice side lighting. It was especially memorable because I fell while walking on some very slippery rocks along the lake and banged up my knee pretty badly. I have to say, it was worth it.

Kinard Beach, Ireland. We traveled with our friends Mark and Cat on this trip. Mark and I were able to photograph sunset several times at this location. This evening had the interesting cloud formation and the in-coming surf made some great patterns in the rocks on the beach. Way in the back of the photo, you can see the sea stack on this coastline.

The Giant’s Causeway, Northern Ireland. This is an UNESCO world heritage site. It consists of 40,000 interlocking basalt columns. During the day, it is very busy with 100s and 100s of people and impossible to get a photograph without a large crowd. We visited for sunrise and saw about ten people. At sunset, there were a few more, but less than twenty. I settled on this composition fairly early in the evening and just waited for something to happen…and it did.

Loch Shieladig Bothy, Scotland. While in Scotland we were guided by Dean Allan, a local photographer. We photographed sixteen bothies. There are dog kennel bothies, hiking bothies, and fishing bothies. This one was particularly interesting with the red roof AND, we had a spectacular sunset this evening.

The Blasdale/Porter Ranch Barn, Flathead Valley, MT. We photographed 21 barns in Montana. Some were beaten down relics like this one and most were working barns on family farms and ranches. We had scouted this barn the day before and I was glad we did. The next morning we arrived for sunrise in pitch black conditions and just waited. Our patience was rewarded with this colorful sky.

Old Faithful Geyser, Yellowstone National Park, WY. So this must be the most photographed geyser in the history of the world. It erupts about every 60-90 minutes. The viewing platform holds 100s of people. The parking lot looks like Disneyland and there are not one, not two, but three hotels surrounding it. And yet, you can still create a photo with personal expression. This was mid-day. The crowd is off to the left. The clouds were perfect. Because there is a slight rise in the geyser hill, you can’t see all the people on the opposite side of where I am standing.

Yellowstone Falls from Artist Point. I wrote a whole blog post about this morning. Click here for the full story. It was cold. It was foggy. It was crowded. But as predicted at exactly 9:45 AM, the rainbow created by the falls’ mist appeared as advertised. It lasted just 7 minutes and then it was over.

Peggy’s Cove Lighthouse, Nova Scotia, CAN. This light house is the most visited tourist attraction in Nova Scotia. It is just a 60 minutes bus ride from Halifax. The light house sits on a large granite outcrop that is about 100 yards long and 50 yards wide. There is a lot of room to roam. There is a very large parking lot and restaurant. I saw 1-7 buses at any given time and 100s of people crawling around the light house. The good news is that if you rent a house in-town for a couple of nights, as we did, you can get two sunsets and two sunrises with almost no people present. I walked around the lighthouse numerous times to find the best positions and compositions for sunrise and sunset. This was my favorite photo from a half dozen compositions.

Covehead Lighthouse, Price Edward Island, CAN. This light house was just a five minutes drive from our rental house in PEI. We were there during full moon and I figured we would be able to get the light house with a full moon rise. The fist night we missed it, but the second night, we nailed it.

Blue Rocks, Nova Scotia, CAN. We checked out this small town and harbor for sunset and liked what we saw, but the sky did not cooperate. We all agreed to get up early for sunrise the next morning. It did not start out very well with very overcast skies, but around 6:30 AM the sky turned purple, then pink, and then yellow. We had ten minutes of beautiful color.

Next week, Mary’s top photos from 2024. To see more of our photos from our trips this year, and to buy our photographs, please go to www.pamphotography.com and check out more of our photos on FLICKR.