This may not be my best image of 2019, but it is my favorite. This was the first shoot in which I took full advantage of my astro modified A7 III. It shows the Reds/Magentas of the nebulae in the northern Milky Way, revealing that it can be can nearly as interesting as our galaxy’s core. I shot this pano at the May workshop after I had “finished” shooting, and while I waited for everyone else to start packing up. Everything else I shot that night was meh…and that’s how it always seems to go.

This image was taken on March 31, 2019, along a stretch of the Dalton Highway north of Fairbanks, Alaska, nicknamed ‘The Enchanted Forest’. While I got many nice photos of the aurora while I was there, this is my favorite because the trees and snow provided a nice foreground to the curtains of auroral light overhead. It was taken with a Nikon D850 DSLR and the Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 lens, at 14mm, f/2.8, ISO 3200, 3 sec.

This is a shot of another surreal landscape, similar to Bisti, yet unique. It makes me feel like I am relaxing on a Martian landscape, listening to "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" by Pink Floyd - a very calming effect.

This is a composite shot taken in November at Skogafoss Falls in Iceland. It’s my favorite of 2019 because I’ve been trying to capture the northern lights for years, and I was finally able to do that on this trip. I used the technique Brad taught us by combining a long exposure foreground shot with a 20 second sky shot.

I chose this picture because even though this lighthouse in the Outer Banks has been shot many times I really liked the composition and the fact that it was without the Milky Way. It does have a funny story behind it, while I shot it I had no idea if I was staying in a remote beach house without a car alone with a serial murderer. (he wasn’t) So this shot also has a sense of fear to me.

The challenge of combining multiple techniques in both shooting and editing this image makes it the most complex image I’ve ever created. The beauty of the scene, the night spent under the stars with friends and the fond memories of my time spent in Utah easily makes this my favorite image of 2019.

This is a picture take on a tour in Armenia to the Garni Temple at night. The Garni temple was built in the first or second century and was destroyed by an earthquake in 1679. It was reconstructed in 1969-1975 by the Russians. Garni is the only remaining pagan temple in Armenia. On the tour we had 15 minutes to explore. In those 15 minutes, I pulled up starwalk 2, figured out where the milky way was and found it to be standing nearly vertical.

This star trail is a composite of 75 individual images I shot at Deam Lake State Recreation area in Borden, Indiana. I used a Nikon D7500 with a Rokinon 14mm lens and an intervalometer. I started off shooting with an ISO of 1600 for 15 seconds with an aperture of 2.8. As the sky got darker, I increased my ISO to 2000. The light pollution on the bottom right is the Louisville, Kentucky, metro area, including the towns of New Albany, Jeffersonville and Clarksville, Indiana. One of the reasons this image is among my favorites of 2019, my monochrome version of this image won 3rd place at this year's Kentucky State Fair. I enjoyed going to the fair and overhearing people talk about my image and trying to figure out how I created it. I have to give a special shoutout to Brad Goldpaint for teaching me how to create this. Thanks Brad!

This image was taken in late summer at Yellowstone National Park. It was really dark that night with the Milky Way vertical and bright in the sky, with Jupiter just above the horizon. When I processed the image, I was delighted to find that it captured geyser activity in the foreground. The vast night sky, the lake with reflections and the geysers made it my best of 2019.

It was such a surprise to climb down the hill and find these beautiful flowers in bloom. On top of that a meteor streaked through the scene when the moon was setting. It was a wonderful moment.