I am definitely late to the game on this posting since it’s now mid-February, but it’s still something I want to try to do each year. I put it off because I was still vigorously processing pictures from Asia and I knew some would make the cut, especially Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

I don’t even think some of these are my most technically-sound images, but still my personal favorite twelve from 2013.

01. Piney Lake, Vail, CO 

02. Prasat Lolei, Siem Reap, Cambodia – I was honestly at 300 mm sniping this nun from a distance at Prasat Lolei. She was talking to a friend and just as I was snapping, she burst out laughing and looked right at me. Did I get made fun of by nuns? I don’t really care…

03. Kep, Cambodia – I don’t know why I love this one, but I do. I was at the sleepy market in Kep on a beautiful afternoon and about 20 monks were running around while on holiday. I wish this guy was looking left instead of right, but this was the only composition I could get – There was a 350lb woman in what might as well have been a mumu on the dock to his right and then when I moved to change composition, he got up and walked away. Oh well. I still like it.

04. The Royal Palace, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

05. Lao Chai, Sapa, Vietnam – I’ll give this the typical, “Pictures don’t do it justice.” They don’t. Sapa was absolutely incredible, I spent four days under the worst photography-light possible. I did what I could and ended up loving this one.

06. Blue Lake, Wolcott, CO – I took my brother up below Castle Peak with the dogs and some beers. Once I was able to keep the dogs out of the water, it turned into a real nice blue reflection from all the sediment they stirred up. Just another awesome Colorado summer night…

07. Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua – Just so cool.

08. La Fortuna Waterfall, La Fortuna, Costa Rica – This picture just seemed to sum up Costa Rica to me for some reason.

09. Prasat Ta Pohm, Siem Reap Cambodia – Part of the Angkor complex, I went to Prasat Ta Prohm for sunrise one morning to try to shoot without any crowds. I was dropped off in pitch black darkness on the opposite end of the temple than where I wanted to be. I wandered my way through the ruins with only a barely-functioning headlamp a vague idea of where I wanted to shoot in case some colors came with the sunrise. The day before, there had been one hundred other people in the courtyard in the afternoon, but that morning for sunrise, it was only me surrounded by the music of the jungle.

10. Arenal Volcano, La Fortuna, Costa Rica – I had never seen a place like Arenal Volcano and I loved the way this picture turned out with the very faint road leading towards the mountains.

11. Prasat Ta Prohm, Siem Reap, Cambodia – I don’t shoot much architecture and the morning light coming into this hallway was just awesome after sunrise at Prasat Ta Prohm.

12. Dead Horse Point State Park, Moab, UT – This trip ended up kind of being horrible, but for this moment, it was pretty awesome.

13+ Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia – And here’s where I cheat above the twelve images… Angkor Wat is just too amazing to pick just one. It was also twenty-thirteen anyway…