Happy 2025! As an annual tradition, the Lens-Artists team will have everyone post their favorite photos of the previous year. I’ve been thinking of this challenge since the final Lens-Artists challenge of 2024 and I’ll tell you, it’s been a challenge.

I loved all the colors at the Tulip Festival, which I attended in April 2024. I hope you noticed that there are quite a bit of dark color flowers in the gallery. I love the darker-colors flowers because I feel they are unique from the usual red, orange, and yellow.

My favorite color is that lavender purple in the bottom photo. I like the darker purple, too, but not as much as that lighter purple. That color isn’t frequently found in nature, I don’t think, which it’s why I love it.

One of my favorite part of the festival was seeing the wonderful pairing of the flower colors, which is something I’m terrible at, whether it’s plants, clothes, or even yarns for my crochet project. I think color-pairing requires a special kind of talent even though some people can do unconsciously. I envy those people.

My second group comes from my scenic backway trip on 4th of July.

I first visited Bridal Veil Falls in autumn 2022 when the weather was cool and the leaves had all changed into beautiful shades of red, yellow, and orange. It was very different to see it in the height of summer when it’s 100-degrees (Fahrenheit) but viewing the falls from beneath a tree, you can instantaneously feel at least 5 degrees cooler.

I drove only 200 miles that day, started in Salt Lake City where I steered my car up Guardsman Pass – a well-known spot for landscape photographer. I’m sure you can see why by the first photo in the gallery – standing at the top, looking down at the ski lift and that curvy road in the distance. I love to photograph roads like that as you can see in the photo below that.

I want to say my third and final list of favorite photos are honorable mentions but they are not, they are just not grouped into any particular events. They are from the garden, from walks, my phone, and day trips with only one favorite.

I watched a YouTube video long ago. In the video, the guy was taking a photographic day trip. He called it “whimsical” when he put his camera on a tripod, picked up a handful of leaves, and tossed it in the air. Snap! The photo came out as raining leaves. I tried the same thing when I went to the park on that late November day but it did not work. So I resorted to holding a leaf in my hand.

I honestly did not know what would happen when I scattered an entire packet of shade-loving wildflower seeds on the ground in February 2024. I certainly wasn’t expecting to have a meadow-feel come late May. I loved it when it lasted, which wasn’t long. I am not planning on sowing any seeds in this spot this year, I’m somewhat hoping that the meadow had self-seeded itself but I guess we’ll see.

Finally, the Dill! 2024 was my second time to grow dill and it was perhaps the largest plant I’ve ever grown. It was like an upside-down umbrella over the other plants. I loved how different it looked compare to the other plants. I heard it’s a notorious self-seeder and hope it did self-seed before I pulled it out last year.