This is my favorite image of 2023 because it is the best meteor shower image that I have ever taken. Lake Irene in Rocky Mountain National Park provided an ideal foreground for the Perseid Meteors on August 12-13, 2023. This image is a composite of 48 exposures taken over a four hour period.

I chose this image as it's my first (what I consider) successful tracked deep sky image. It is a composite image; the sky was taken prior to moonrise, while the foreground was taken after the moon rose close to midnight. It's in the Mesquite Sand Dunes in Death Valley, CA - one of my happy places.

I captured this image in June during a very hot weekend in Joshua Tree National Park. It was my first attempt at taking an image during blue hour and blending with an image of the Milky Way taken a few hours later. I like the result but it was a lot of work in PS to figure out the blending, and I still have much to learn. It was another spectacular night under the stars!

Aurora Borealis - where the sky paints its own masterpiece! In February of 2023 my husband and I spent seven days chasing the dancing colors while vacationing in Alaska. This was our first time traveling the Dalton Highway, going well above the Arctic Circle…a phenomenal experience! It was COLD (-20 °F to -30 °F, at night), but the night skies above the Brooks Mountain Range just exploded with color. Of the many images I captured during our trip, this is one of my favorites - I love the colors, the shapes, the textures and the memories it brings to mind!

This is my favorite for two reasons: it was the first time I ever saw hoodoos, and after three workshops with Brad, this the first photo I actually finished editing.

This is the Mongla Stupa in the Khumbu Region of Nepal. This is my 2019 favorite because I took it while my husband and I were on a 15 day trek from Lukla to Gokyo. The trip included summiting Gokyo Ri (17575 ft) at sunrise to view Mt Everest. We had hoped for many nights of astrophotography but this was the only clear night. We were lucky enough to be staying in the tea house right above this stupa. It was a magical trip that I will never forget.

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 image was taken at 13,000ft at my favorite run out and shoot spot because I have clear skies (mostly). I had planned of shooting the Milky Way arching over a star gazing castle ruins at the summit (14,000), unfortunately someone else had made plans to shoot selfies with their car headlights. After patiently waiting for half an hour for them to finish my shot was spoiled. So, I decided to head back down a little ways to this beautiful location and try my luck, it payed off! I took this shot just in time. Had I arrived slightly earlier the reflection would have been perfect; the wind kicked in while I was setting up. Instead of getting a reflection I got the storm clouds rising! To be able to shoot at 14,000ft is great! Watching the thunder and lightning storm all around below you is amazing, this shot captures both, the drive home in the down pour not so amazing. I decided to pack it up after this pano because I felt like I was being watched! While editing the photos I discovered that I was! To the right of the image in-between the mountains there was a herd of big horned sheep (they didn’t survive the edit).