I'm sharing my best photos of 2024 with you in this blog post. It's actually really nice to look back on my photo adventures of the whole year, what I've done and where I've been. It brings back a lot of memories and I can proudly say that it was another awesome year. I also took a look back at my best photos of 2023 and I can say that I've captured the best photos of all time this year. I usually don't like to label myself or others, so to speak, but somehow I feel good inside and I see that I've made a slight leap forward. I've created a sort of order of importance for these photos, but in fact each photo is special in its own way. Let's start from the 10th place and move to the first.
10. Foggy Winterworld
I enjoyed winter at the beginning of 2024 to the fullest. Precisely because the previous winters have been mild in my opinion and I have not been able to get the real so called winter feeling. In terms of photography, I remember that in previous years I even had difficulties choosing winter photos for calendars. One January morning the thermometer showed about -15 degrees and I drove to a spring in Järva County. With strong minus degrees, the spring starts to steam and covers the surrounding trees with frost. Fresh snow had also fallen recently, which turned the entire environment into a complete winter wonderland. In this photo, I was waiting for the right moment when the ducks swimming on the spring would come to the right place. I was already starting to give up, but suddenly I saw how the ducks moved to the desired location. A small detail like that, in my opinion, adds a lot and makes the photo even more fairytale-like. I personally think that this is my best winter photo that I have ever captured.
9. Foggy Islands
A landscape in Läänemaa, that I visited several times in 2024. Both in the morning, at night and in the last light of the evening. Since the area is large, a lot was explored and a lot remained undiscovered. This photo was captured during a photo adventure in the early morning hours during sunrise. During this photo trip, I also filmed my adventures and you can watch the longer video on my Youtube channel. I like this photo precisely because it was foggy at the right time. Various trees and denser islands, so to speak, stood out from the fog and with all its depth and contrast, it also makes the photo more interesting.
8. Flowing Fog Patterns
Taken in mid-September in Põhja-Kõrvemaa. Since the morning promised fog and the full moon was shining in the sky, I went to the landscape the night before. At night, I photographed various compositions in the bog with the light of the full moon. Before morning, I managed to sleep for a few hours in the observation tower in the bog to be ready to take pictures at sunrise. Since at the end of 2023 I also bought a drone and immersed myself in this world, by September I had already seen various magical views with a drone. Something like what I saw that morning, however, was something out of this world. My eyes had never seen such a movement of fog from such a height before and I believe that the photo speaks for itself here, how special the moment was in the end.
7. Noctilucent Clouds
I had a relatively bad relationship with noctilucent clouds before this photo. The last time I captured them was in the summer of 2018. At that time, I was at the beginning of my photography journey and I honestly admit that I was not even aware that those were noctilucent clouds that I captured in the frame 😅. Time went on, I educated myself and gained more knowledge. In 2023, I was away from Estonia at the sweetest time and discovered the landscapes of Slovenia and missed capturing the noctilucent clouds again. But in the summer of 2024, everything changed. I headed out into nature again in the evening and spent the night near a bog in Põhja-Kõrvemaa. Before going to bed, I looked up at the sky again, hoping to see noctilucent clouds. Suddenly, I saw something and after about 30 minutes of waiting and checking, I decided to go to the bog. Because there were noctilucent clouds! I knew exactly where to go in the bog because I had discovered this area enough and became friends with those awesome clouds again. I caught the shot! What added to the emotion was that SIGMA had sent me a new night photography workhorse, the SIGMA 14mm F/1.4 DG DN | Art lens, with which I captured my first night photos.
6. Perfect Sea Patterns by Nature
In my opinion, this photo is a amazing example of why sometimes it's worth taking other paths and going and discovering new places. That's when nature gives and offers you memorable experiences and moments. I had looked out for a seaside spot where my partner and I went for a walk together during the day. I also wanted to explore the landscape a bit for photography purposes. The freezing temperatures were starting to pick up and the sea was calm, but still moving slightly. This whole combination eventually created ice chunks of different shapes and sizes on the sea, which then started to freeze together. The result was awesome sea patterns. One piece of ice, however, particularly stood out because it was a perfect circular piece of ice. I decided to go back to this spot in the evening at sunset, and the rest was just capturing the moment. This photo always makes me think that nature itself can also work very well and even perfectly. I believe that no human hand could shape such a perfect circular piece of ice there as the forces of nature themselves could on that day.
5. The Conductor
March arrived with a strong display of the Northern Lights. I had gathered information from various resources and was aware that the Northern Lights were coming, but I was a little late in driving out. I saw the first pillars of the Northern Lights from my car window as I was driving through Rummu. I knew that after a few kilometers there would be an open field where I could stop and take the first photos. I checked the Northern Lights charts and saw that there would be a calm period about 30-40 minutes, which gave me the opportunity to drive to the location where I finally captured this Northern Lights photo. I had been to that location once during the day, but had not thoroughly investigated what the photo opportunities would be. Once I arrived, I still had about 10-15 minutes to set up the shot. I experimented with different lenses and finally, when the Northern Lights started dancing in the sky, I decided to capture the photo with the 11mm F/2.8 fisheye lens. This is because it allowed for the entire arc of the Northern Lights and the tops of the pillars to be captured in one frame. In the end, this tree in the middle of the Northern Lights would be like a conductor making the northern lights dance. This is where the photo got its name.
4 and 3. Starry Sky and Lights in the End of the World
The photo project of the Kiipsaare lighthouse in Saaremaa had been waiting for its time for about 3 years. Since it is a location in Estonia where the night sky is one of the darkest, I wanted to take a longer night photography trip to the western part of Saaremaa. The whole adventure ended up being so awesome that I decided to choose two photos as my top photos. The final result in the first photo consists of 272 photos, which were later put together in post-processing. This is the result our human eye would see if we saw stripes behind the stars, which are created as a result of the Earth's rotation. I set the camera to take pictures independently for the night and I slept in a sleeping bag about 20 meters away on the beach sand.
The second photo was taken in collaboration with my friend Romet (Metaloodus). We had this idea before the photo trip, but on site we went with the flow and decided to see how things went. On the last night we did it. Romet climbed the tower and placed headlamps on different levels, which created light in the lighthouse. I quickly captured the photos with two different lenses from a distance. After about 10-15 minutes, the mission was accomplished. It was a really mystical and awesome sight when the Kiipsaare lighthouse started to shine in the middle of the night. With this last photo, it was good to wrap up the whole photo adventure and I have to admit that it was one of the most awesome experiences. Three nights and four days on the Harilaiu peninsula to capture nature and the starry sky.
2. August Charm
August is probably the time I've been looking forward to the most in recent years in terms of photography. The dark nights are coming back and you can take pictures of the starry sky and the Milky Way again. The northern lights season is also starting. Lower temperatures are happening and in connection with this, you can expect fabulous views with fog in the mornings. In addition, the heather is also starting to bloom, which paints some landscapes all colorful with its purple flowers. In August, however, there is another top event for night photographers, which is the Perseid meteor shower. This is exactly the event that I went to photograph at one location in Läänemaa this year. In fact, the photos in 9th and 5th place were also taken at that location. The process was standard. Find a few places during the day that have potential and go at night and take the photos. I found a photogenic single heather bush that matched the composition with the brilliant Milky Way at night. Everything also fell into place with the Perseids, and the cherry on the cake was a single tree that remained on the right side of the frame. In terms of difficulty, I can say that this is my most technical photo of 2024. This is not a single photo. The camera took pictures independently all night, where I then later picked out all the meteorites that appeared in the frame and put them together into one photo. What also makes this photo special for me is how much of the magic of August I have captured in one photo. The heather bush, the starry sky and the Milky Way and the Perseid meteor shower. That is exactly why this photo earned its 2nd place.
1. G5 Geomagnetic Storm and when Northern Lights History Was Made
G5 - This is exactly what the strongest magnetic storm is called. Such a storm hit us on the night 10th to the 11th of May. In other words, we saw the strongest northern lights in the last 20 years and the whole show went down in history. That night, many people in the world probably fulfilled their big dream and saw the northern lights with their own eyes. The northern lights were even seen in the Canary Islands. That night, I decided to go to a bog I knew in Põhja-Kõrvemaa to capture this whole spectacle. I knew that with such a strong northern lights, the show would also extend strongly into the southern sky and elsewhere. In this regard, I did not want to limit myself to one or two specific subjects. In the bog, I was able to walk around between the bog islands and choose the direction of shooting according to the northern lights. There were also several different and interesting bog islands in this bog, which gave different results and I was able to capture reflections as well. I had also rented a second camera body that only captured timelapse frames. Thousands of photos were captured during that night and the memory cards filled up quickly. I could add dozens of best photos here, all of which are different and special in their own way. This photo, however, in my opinion shows the best how many different colors could be seen at once, and the reflection that runs along the silhouette of the trees also makes the photo special. Awesome and definitely the most memorable experience of the whole year. It's great that I was able to experience this historical event firsthand and also capture the experiences in the frame. Thank you for reading the post! Feel free to write in the comments which photo is your favourite. 🙂
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