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My Top 10 Photos of 2018

Hi and a Happy new Year to everyone all over this wonderful planet of ours. I hope 2019 is going to be a great year for all of us.

To start 2019 I am going to write about my Top 10 Photos of 2018. I like to look back at the photographs that I have taken and pick out my favourite images of the year.

Regular readers will know that I specialise in architectural photography. In this article I am including some architectural work, and also some travel photography stuff and some completely different photography that I found myself doing at the end of 2018.

The 10 images are included in date order taken.

Ok – let's start with the first image.

Image number 1 is this circular staircase in a house in Dorset

Circular stair by Rick McEvoy Photography for Etchingham Morris Architecture Limited, Ringwood, Hampshire
Circular stair by Rick McEvoy Photography for Etchingham Morris Architecture Limited, Ringwood, Hampshire

Why do I like this image? Because it is something different. You don’t often get circular stairs on houses, certainly not in England.

And these stairs were constructed on this side of the house as part of a remodelling exercise.

The other reason I like this photo is because I remember squeezing myself right back against the wall, focussing a third into the scene (first window on the left) and then pressing the shutter and hoping.

I needed about 10 goes to get this image as I could not actually see the LCD screen or fit my head between the wall and my camera.

I did try shooting using my iPhone as a remote release, but I could not manage this as I was at the top of the stairs!

This image was processed in Lightroom with a small amount of cleaning up in Photoshop.

That is why this photo means something to me – it was the most difficult capture I have done in a long old time!

Camera settings

  • Canon 6D
  • Canon 17-40mm F4 L lens
  • Focal length 17mm
  • Handheld – due to being at the top of the stairs!
  • Aperture F16
  • Shutter speed (first image) 1/60th second
  • ISO 400

Dining room in an English Country House

Dining room in an English country house by Rick McEvoy Photography
Dining room in an English country house by Rick McEvoy Photography

I love the lovely rich colours in this photo taken in a classic English country residence. All the rooms were unique and packed full of traditional features, but for some reason this room was my favourite. It might be that it was the last room, and I only just managed to get this image as time with my client was running out.

I had no time to prepare for this shot – it was a case of set up my camera on my tripod, compose, focus, take the shot and I was out of there!

Would I have got a better shot with more time? Probably not!

This image was processed in Lightroom.

Camera settings

  • Canon 6D
  • Canon 17-40mm F4 L lens
  • Focal length 17mm
  • Manfrotto 190 Go tripod (I couldn’t get the shot with my bigger tripod)
  • Aperture F10
  • Shutter speed (first image) 1/25th second
  • ISO 100

London England Temple

London England Temple by architectural photographer Rick McEvoy
London England Temple by architectural photographer Rick McEvoy

I was driving back home following a meeting in London. Traffic was hideous, and I got diverted over and over trying to avoid all the horrendous traffic getting out of London.

And then I turned right and saw this building. I had no idea what it was at the time, but I pulled into the car park and got my camera out. This was too good an opportunity to miss.

I walked around the building enjoying the surprisingly quiet environment, and set up my camera for this shot, taken right next to one of the entrances.

The lovely colours made the scene for me – a lovely blue sky, white fluffy clouds and all that lovely vibrant green from the grass.

And this is why I always have my camera with me where I go – you just don’t know what you might come across.

This was a bracketed set of three images which I processed using Aurora HDR 2019.

Camera settings

  • Canon 6D
  • Canon 17-40mm F4 L lens
  • Focal length 17mm
  • Manfrotto 055 tripod
  • Aperture F8
  • Shutter speed (first image) 1/250th second
  • ISO 100

Cap Negret Hotel, Altea, Spain

This is the Cap Negret Hotel in Altea just after sunrise and long before any of the guests have risen for another day of Spanish sunshine. Hotel photography in Spain by Rick McEvoy photography
This is the Cap Negret Hotel in Altea just after sunrise and long before any of the guests have risen for another day of Spanish sunshine. Hotel photography in Spain by Rick McEvoy photography

I love sunrise. It is my favourite time of the day. I love being somewhere which is normally full of people all by myself, and watching a new day unfold.

The day before this pool area was packed full of happy holidaymakers, but at 5am there was no one to be seen – just me.

And I have to be honest with you here I was a bit cold. I had misjudged the temperatures in this part of Spain before sunrise in April. Having learned from the previous morning I wore three t-shirts to help keep me warm, and my old faithful red hat. It was enough for me to enjoy the sunrise.

This was long exposure stuff, 4, 1 and 15 seconds were the three shutter speeds used to take a bracketed set of images. The three images were processed using Aurora HDR 2019.

  • Camera settings
  • Canon 6D
  • Canon 17-40mm F4 L lens
  • Focal length 17mm
  • Manfrotto 190 Go tripod
  • Aperture F8
  • Shutter speed (first image) 4 seconds, second exposure 1 second, third exposure 15 seconds.
  • ISO 100

Sunrise at the Church of St Ilias, Pefkos, Rhodes

Sunrise contemplation on the Greek Island of Rhodes
Sunrise contemplation on the Greek Island of Rhodes

I didn’t know this person was here, I had been up on the top of the hill photographing sunrise no doubt chuntering away and talking to myself. I was about to climb back down to the car when I saw this person sat on top of the rocks – I took a quick photo and was off.

Thankfully I had the awareness to change the aperture to F22 to get that starburst effect on the sun.

Now I know some people think that this is a cliché but that was what the sun looked like to me – a big bright shiny thing in the sky.

Another image processed using Aurora HDR 2019.

Camera settings

  • Canon 6D
  • Canon 24-105mm F4 L lens
  • Focal length 80mm
  • Manfrotto 055 tripod
  • Aperture F8
  • Shutter speed (first image) 1/1000th second
  • ISO 100

Lights on the boats in the harbour, Lakka, Paxos.

A picture of the lights from the boats moored in the lovely harbour on arrival to the town of Lakka on the wonderful Greek Island of Paxos
A picture of the lights from the boats moored in the lovely harbour on arrival to the town of Lakka on the wonderful Greek Island of Paxos

Every morning I walked past this scene. The first time I tried to photograph the lights on the boats the problem I had was that the boats were bobbing too much, making the image much too blurry. Finally, I got a really calm morning with very little movement of the sea – enough for me to get this image with a 4 second exposure.

This is a single image capture processed in Lightroom only – and to be honest I did very little to this image in terms of processing.

Camera settings

  • Canon 6D
  • Canon 24-105mm F4 L lens
  • Focal length 24mm
  • Manfrotto 055 tripod
  • Aperture F8
  • Shutter speed 4 seconds
  • ISO 1600

Another sunrise photo on the Greek Island of Paxos

A stunning sunrise in Loggos on the Greek Island of Paxos by Travel Photographer Rick McEvoy
A stunning sunrise in Loggos on the Greek Island of Paxos by Travel Photographer Rick McEvoy

I planned this shot the day before. I went to Loggos in the hire car and walked around with the app that I use called The Photographers Ephemeris. This app on my iPhone shows me where the sun rises and sets, and with it I was able to work out where I needed to be, and at what time, to get the shot I wanted.

And this is image number one on my website Paxos Travel Guide.

And this is it!

The clouds were a bonus which I had not been blessed with on the other mornings I was out and about taking sunrise photos.

Another set of three images processed using Aurora HDR 2019.

Camera settings

  • Canon 6D
  • Canon 24-105mm F4 L lens
  • Focal length 24mm
  • Manfrotto 055 tripod
  • Aperture F22
  • Shutter speed (first image) 1/10th second
  • ISO 100

Picture of the Anemogiannis Monument, Gaios, Paxos

Anemogiannis Monument Gaios Paxos
Anemogiannis Monument Gaios Paxos

Taken shooting straight into the sun, something to be done with care I have to say.

I was photographing the sunrise from the hills overlooking Gaios, the capital of Paxos. Having done that, I went down into the town, parked up and walked along the front. I knew about this monument (good local knowledge), so headed over there to get this shot.

What I could not plan for was the couple sat at the foot of the monument, and the people who kept on appearing next to the monument posing for photos, all completely oblivious to me stood there trying to take photos!

Anyway, it’s not all about me is it – I waited patiently like a good boy and got this shot. I only had to remove one person in Photoshop having processed the three images using Lightroom and Aurora HDR.

Camera settings

  • Canon 6D
  • Canon 24-105mm F4 L lens
  • Focal length 84mm
  • Handheld
  • Aperture F22
  • Shutter speed (first image) 1/4000th second
  • ISO 400

And now for something completely different – product photography at home.

Table corner caps by Rick McEvoy product photographer in Dorset England
Table corner caps by Rick McEvoy product photographer in Dorset England

I photographed a table last year. And then my client sent me some different corner caps for me to photograph.

I had never done this before, so had to work this one out all by myself!

I started off photographing the caps using natural light and some paper formed to make some kind of neutral backdrop.

And the results were quite frankly rubbish.

So, I headed over to Amazon, and after a bit of research found a product photography tent for the princely sum of £10!

This is my Amazon affiliate link to the product in question.

And look at the result. I didn’t expect to achieve such great results so quickly or so cheaply.

The tent came with a strip of LED lights – I never use flash so this is all completely new to me but something I would recommend to anyone wanting to learn to photograph small things.

Camera settings

  • Canon 6D
  • Canon 24-105mm F4 L lens
  • Focal length 105m
  • Manfrotto 055 tripod
  • Aperture F16
  • Shutter speed 1/15th second
  • ISO 400

And here is the full set of corner caps.

Table corner caps by Rick McEvoy product photographer in Dorset England
Table corner caps by Rick McEvoy product photographer in Dorset England

Camera settings

  • Canon 6D
  • Canon 24-105mm F4 L lens
  • Focal length 84mm
  • Manfrotto 055 tripod
  • Aperture F16
  • Shutter speed 1/10th second
  • ISO 400

Summary

I hope that you have enjoyed seeing some of my photography work from 2018, and also my brief explanations of each image.

Please post any questions in the comments box below – I look forward to hearing from you.

Happy New Year, and I look forward to writing lots more stuff on Improve Photography in 2019.

15 thoughts on “My Top 10 Photos of 2018”

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