It’s my favorite post of the year!  I know I say that every year, and there’s a bit of a “dad joke” there, but I sincerely mean it.  I always get so much enjoyment out of the process of choosing my favorite images from the year.  It’s just such a great time of reflection and remembering all the fun things we’ve done.

After a few years of slow down – the “Covid era” as it were – 2023 felt way more normal, which I’m personally grateful for.  The year started off with me going to Japan for a couple of weeks for work, which was very enjoyable.  Holly and I then went to Italy for the first time, and had an amazing time!  Both trips, as you will see, turned out to be very rewarding from a photography perspective, in addition to being a lot of fun.  We also took a couple trips to Tybee Island, once for our family vacation and another to watch our nephew get married.  Speaking of weddings, we also went to Middle Tennessee with the whole family to see my cousin get married; another sweet time together.  I took my annual trip out west to photograph the stars with my friend Mark (and to do work, of course), in addition to trips to Pittsburgh, Paris (France, not Tennessee), New York, and Seattle – whew!  Many of these trips I haven’t even gotten around to sharing images from yet because I’ve had some much content I’ve been wanting to share!

Perhaps the most meaningful trip to me personally, however, was the trip I took with some guys to Tijuana, Mexico – and this isn’t a trip that will be featured in Picture of the Week because there are no pictures I can really share, but I wanted to share a quick story.  Our church here has a good number of partnerships down in the Tijuana area, and every year they take people down for what they now refer to as “experiences”.  The goal is to snap you out of auto-pilot for a couple of days so that you can see and experience what God is doing in another part of the world.  One of the days we were there, we drove out to the city dump – it’s exactly what comes to your mind’s eye when I say that.  We went there to meet up with a guy our church works with, Pastor Julian, who left his normal life to move out to the dump so that he could minister to the 80 or so people who also live there.  Seriously, let that sink in for just a minute.  In our time there, we walked around the dump, meeting a few members his congregation, and hearing their stories. Let me leave it at saying that it was one of the most humbling experiences of my life, and I’d love to tell you more.  Just ask. 🙂

Here at home, Holly and I continued with the garden this year.  As has been our experience, we had successes and failures.  We were again successful with beans and okra, and moderately successful with some varieties of tomato.  I mentioned in last year’s post that I had planted two new muscadine vines, and while both got a little damaged from the hard freeze we had at the beginning of the year, they both survived, and one even made it to the length

From a photography perspective, I actually took more pictures in 2022 than I have any other year – ever!  Like last year, which was my previous high water mark, I have no idea how that happened.  I suppose I found a lot of inspiration everywhere I went.

Well with that, I’ve rambled enough.  Let’s get to the pictures!  Holly and I hope you all have a blessed New Year!

–Dan Thompson