What's your favorite photo you've ever taken?

[mirror wall]

Forgive the awkward grammar, I was trying to avoid using the word "best". I'm wondering which one leaps to mind when you're asked what your favorite is. I know my favorite isn't my best by a long shot, but it makes me happiest. Here it is:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/toicent/1443037464/" title="Bats swarm at noon over downtown Abidjan, CdI by xergunit, on Flickr"><img src="" width="1280" height="960" alt="Bats swarm at noon over downtown Abidjan, CdI" /></a>

I took this at high noon in downtown Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire. It portrays not birds but rather huge fruit bats swarming in a blue sky. The colors, magically, are straight out of the camera with no post processing whatsoever. I still have no idea how that happened and it's one of the reasons I love it-- I'll probably never produce another like it.

So what is your favorite and why?

Also, I'm new to this group having finally after years of reading DU made a donation. So hi!

[Mira]

1. Welcome ! And I cannot answer your question.

I'm all new to the photography forum myself. What took you to the Ivory Coast?
I can't answer your question, because I love my pictures so much I have a new favorite every day depending on subject matter, or how I feel.
I entered the fall photo contest, and had like 15 favorites, and could not decide which to submit, so I all but threw a dart......

Bet you have no answers because it's too hard a question.

I am seeing some photos here that make my jaw drop.

[Celebration]

2. love your picture, especially the colors

I'm new here as well. I had no idea that there were bats that were out at noon.

I'll say that the most memorable photograph I took was one that I lost. It was a picture of family members waterskiing at dusk. I was in about the sixth grade and it was probably a Kodak Brownie camera, and definitely black and white. The reason I remember it is because my father (and mother) praised it highly.

Funny the things that you remember. It was just an ordinary snapshot.

My childhood was sort of filled by my dad's minor hobby of photography. That is probably one reason I decided to get at least slightly more serious about it, if only to keep myself occupied at the Tennessee River while my husband fishes. This is not my favorite picture, but here is the Duck River Bottoms of the Tennessee River--nice setting!



Then, there is so much wildlife there I really need a better camera.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

3. interesting. and different question

I suppose my favorite should be the one which made me the most money, but it's not, and I can't even find a tearsheet of one of ad campaigns it was in right now, for that matter, the original chrome is mia too...


so, how about my first above-the-fold front-page spot news photo?
without further ado, we take you back into the silver-halide past of tri-x pushed to 1600 in D76 a Nikon F2 (could be the F3, I got one that year sometime) and the wonderful 85 f2 lens of a chilly night in Topeka, Kansas in 1981

[Celebration]

6. YIKES n/t

[Blue_In_AK]

4. I have quite a few that I like

but for personal reasons I think this may be my favorite. Number 1 daughter and number 3 grandson. :loveya:

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

5. ah, that one is great

you know, I have a great photo of my first daughter I need to scan, which I had forgotten when I posted that grisly gray beast above.

[chitty]

7. This one captured his personality perfectly!

It's not the best, but it is one of my favs.

[Shipwack]

8. My favorite shot, if not best...

It's not a good shot from a technical standpoint, and I have better pictures of him, but this picture of my (then 5 year old) son being supremely proud of his plant growing skills still warms my heart

[livvy]

9. I guess it would be this one. Big pic warning.

It really captures the essence of one of my bouvs, and he looked so puurty, all spiffied up for the dog show we were at. He loved his tent, and he loved going to the shows. (He's also taken retirement very seriously..."We don't need no frickin' grooming!") Sorry it's so big.



I really like this one too. I've posted it before here, but every time I look at it, I'm reminded what an outstanding Vice-President we have elected.

[mth44sc]

10. here are a couple

most likely they been posted here before - for which I hang my head and beg for your forgiveness...

[regnaD kciN]

11. Well, since mth44sc has chosen TWO photos...

...I'll feel free to pick three of mine. (I post these with the understanding that my "favorite photos" are subject to change without notice.)










Interestingly, all are from this past August.

[mth44sc]

12. and all of them

are simple wonderful!

WOW!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

13. Here's two of mine:

Mt. Shasta:


The perfect wave:


These two are priceless to me...

[Mira]

18. The perfect wave makes my jaw drop and stay arrested.

We must think alike about water and the transparency of waves, so hard to capture in photo or painting.
Getting around in the photography forum is making me feel smaller and smaller about my own photos.
But, I will post them nevertheless as soon as I get my bearings here.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

20. My dear Mira!

You have a considerable talent, sweetie!

That wave pic is lovely, I agree, but it happened not through my own skill, but just as a very random lucky chance!

I doubt I'll ever get another one like it...

Thank you nonetheless for your praise...

You have a considerable gift, and don't ever forget that!

:hug:

[Mira]

21. Thank you for saying this at a time I felt so outclassed. Still getting my bearings.

[Mira]

23. Here's one of mine for you - because you have been so welcoming to me :)

[CaliforniaPeggy]

24. Thank you, my dear Mira!

This is stunning!

I see no reason for you to feel outclassed here, sweetie...

Your work is wonderful!

:hug:

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

25. mira....that is a great shot

everyone has their own eye, how boring it would be otherwise

keep it up, I love your stuff

[MissHoneychurch]

14. Three of my favorites

One of my first tries with b/w photography. I also developed it myself


Washington, DC


Savannah, GA

[Robb]

15. Toughie. I'll do two, too:

[DS1]

29. That firefighter shot reeks of awesome

and the second is really nice, too

[Robb]

30. Thanks. It was a lucky day

on several counts. First, somehow I got exposures and speeds right the entire time I was there. Not one shot ruined for technical reasons, so I had a whole bunch to play with for composition's sake.

Second, it was a training, and the chief took a likin' to me for some reason. I got ungodly close thanks to him. Too close, once or twice. He was yelling stuff in my ear like, "Get ready, it's really gonna go up now!! This'll be great!!" :D

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

16. I guess this would have to be one of my better sunrises of '06...

[priller]

17. Wow, really hard to pick

And what constitutes a favorite changes over time. Here are a few I like:

[bridgit]

19. I don't have access to it anymore but it was a B&W snap with a pregnant woman I knew...

naked on a low white shag carpet (that dates it right there), smiling, demure/tasteful, with her one year old toddling & goobering round-about her legs playing with some Kodak film strips I laid out. Kodak bought it, gave me a grant...and that was my door into photojournalism

[Tindalos]

22. I don't know about "ever" but this is my favourite so far.

This man lives on Granville Island, or under the nearby overpass. He and the birds live
on the food out of this dumpster.

[DS1]

26. Probably one of these

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

27. both with the new glass, huh?

interesting.

[DS1]

28. Both with the 17-40mm on a full frame 5D

Same as this one, which actually my boss took trying out my 5D the day I got it ( I took my lens in to work because I was excited to get the body) that night

this is totally unprocessed, right out the camera in jpg 'auto' mode



it was really that colorful that night!