Todd Henson Photography

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Best Photos of 2020: My Favorites of the Year

Well, 2020 is almost over and what a year it’s been, eh? Certainly a unique one for most of us. I wonder how we’ll look back on these times 10 or 20 years from now. How much will we have forgotten, how quickly will we move on? Given time for reflection, and time to learn and understand, how will history judge us and what we’ve done and gone through? As the saying goes, only time will tell.

Now that we’ve thought about the future and how we’ll judge ourselves in the past, let’s try a little exercise. But we’ll keep it simple and focused. We’ll look back over the course of this single year and look at our photographic output. How well did we do? Did we produce anything of worth? And can we single out our 10 favorite images created this year?

This can be a difficult process, with some years more difficult than others. I like to limit myself to 10 images to force myself to think more critically about my work. Usually I’ve produced several thousand images over the course of 12 months, so narrowing in on just 10 favorites is not easy. But this year it was perhaps a little easier than others as I didn’t produce nearly as many images. One thing this has taught me is that I much prefer the difficulty of sorting through many, many images from a productive year than that of sorting threw fewer images from a year that felt unproductive and uninspired. But thankfully, I did feel some brief moments of inspiration this year, so my favorite photos will tend to cluster around those times.

I feel I’ve rambled on enough, so let’s get to the photography. Below are my favorite photographs created in 2020, ordered chronologically. Below each image is its title, a link to the post where I first shared it this year, the month I created the photograph, and in some cases a link to my online store where you can purchase the image on wall art or a variety of products. Click on any of the images for a larger view.

Flight of the Northern Pintail, January

Great Blue Stretching, January

Flowering Tree in Spring, March (available for purchase)

Resting on the Rail, September

Creekside in Autumn, September

Feasting on Fungus, October

Creekside in Autumn Redux, October

South Fork Quantico Creek, October 2020 (available for purchase)

Through the Woods Darkly, October

Crossing Powell’s Creek, November


How was your year and how did you feel about what you were able to create or accomplish? Let me know in the comments below.

I wish you all a Happy New Year!

And thank you for helping make this a better year than it would have been without you!!


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See this gallery in the original post