A YEAR IN REVIEW in Pictures – 2020

This year especially has taught us that nothing in life is black and white, and like this image, it is black and white with all shades of in-betweens! Such is life!

They say hindsight is 20/20…oh what a tumultuous year it was! No one, in America or globally, was unaffected by the year. And neither was I!

I am presenting my year in review from the point of a photographer with some personal anecdotes. So please bear with me and please enjoy the photographs and be sure to make comments/feedbacks/relate your experiences. I really want to make my website/blogs a two-way communication. So please take time…and thanks in advance!

The year started out great with no hint of the disaster that we call the pandemic, in sight. I was even able to attend my grandsons 13th birthday party in February, 500 miles north of where I live. And never in my wildest imagination did I think that it would be a long time before I see my family in person. But then there were several milestones that I missed…the main one being my turning 70! My family had planned a gala event at a resort for a long weekend. Sadly, the celebrations will have to be put off till it is really safe. I just want to make it to that and many more of our family’s landmark events!

I went back to my photographs from Jan. 1, 2020 to Dec., 31, 2020 and picked the ones I thought I liked best and also representative of my style and genré.

My first picture of the year was a sunset with a train going by. This is Los Peñasquitos Lagoon, not too far from my home. It is one of my favorite spots.

Soon after we found out that the virus was here in San Diego, I went alone to Mt. Laguna with hopes of shooting the snow. People were already social distancing, even though we did not know about wearing masks. I was grateful that I was able to shoot here. And I was alone for the most part and definitely kept my distance from a few who came to enjoy the snow. I shot mainly from the road.

Later in the year with adhering to the call for wearing a mask and mostly staying home, I decided to shoot alone. Or if I did go with someone, it was only one or two of my regular photog partners driving separately, and with great caution of social distancing and wearing masks. With landscape photography, it is easy to comply and being outdoors is mostly safe. Here are some albums of my favorites.

MOON PHOTOGRAPHY

I have totally fallen ‘in love’ with shooting the moon. Previously, I would go to great lengths to shoot the full moon, but in the last year, have added the crescent moon. Being a landscape photographer, even though I have numerous close up shots of the moon in all its stages, I prefer to have some foreground in my moon shots. Last year I added a 100-400 lens so that I could shoot the moon much closer and even though I mostly shoot the moon some where in the middle of the focal length, I have enjoyed shooting at 400mm as well.

Moon rising over the skyline of San Diego, California, USA

Crescent moon sitting on top of the mountain as it went down behind it, near Santee, California, USA

Full Moon over Balboa Park in San Diego, California, USA

Shrouded Full Moon setting over the Saguaro cactus in Arizona, USA

Moon over the Saguaro National Park near
Tucson, Arizona, USA. This is one of my favorite photos as I drove all the way to Arizona just to shoot the full moon over the Saguaros!

Crescent moon as it sits atop the Christmas Tree at the tip of the pier

Crescent moon descending towards the horizon casting some beautiful moon beams on the water.

A wider look at the beautiful Scripps Pier decorated for Christmas and the crescent moon descending towards the horizon, La Jolla, California, USA.

I was thrilled to have captured the crescent moon complete with earth shine AND the two planets-
Jupiter and Saturn, Coronado, California, USA

Moon over the sand dunes, Glamis Sand Dunes located in Imperial County, California, USA

**This was the MOST POPULAR of all my photographs from 2020**! Shared on numerous websites both
Facebook and Instagram. Crescent moon setting over the Pacific in Torrey Pines, San Diego, California, USA.
**I believe it got a combined ‘likes’, ‘loves’, ‘ohhs & ahhs’ and comments and re-shared of almost 10K!**

ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY

ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY is one of my favorite genré of photography. I started shooting the stars about four years back and keep honing my skills every chance I get. Here are some samples of my work from 2020. Fortunately, I was still able to safely shoot these.

Eager sky watchers turned to the heavens as **Comet NEOWISE**, one of the brightest comets in a generation, started climbing ever higher among the evening stars.
A majority of comets fly through the solar system invisible to humans, usually too small and dim to be seen with the naked eye. The last frozen ice ball that gave us a big show was Hale-Bopp, a comet that was visible for nearly 18 months around its closest approach to Earth in 1997.
Officially designated C/2020 F3, Comet NEOWISE was discovered on March 27, 2020, and was visible for weeks only to committed comet viewers willing to wake up in the early pre-dawn hours.
“It’s the first time in 23 years that this is possible,” said Federica Spoto, an astronomer at the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. “You can watch it from your backyard and you don’t need a telescope.”

I woke up very early one morning and drove almost 80 miles east to capture the comet over the awesome mountainous landscape of Mt. Laguna, California, USA. The comet is smack in the center of the image…and you can even see a shooting star as well as a star burst!

Star trails over the ocean and the lifeguard tower at Torrey Pines Beach, San Diego, California, USA

A few of my astrophotography samples-Milky way over a church in Borrego Springs, abandoned vehicles in Motor Transport Museum in Campo, a waterfall in Green Valley in Cuyamaca, star trails over an abandoned fireplace in Escondido. All places in or around California, USA.
Lastly, the two planets-the brighter Jupiter and the lighter Saturn as they descended towards the horizon. This image is a composite of around 20 images to show the path of the two comets. This event was referred to as the **Jupiter-Saturn Conjunction. The two planets came closest to each other for the first time since 1623!** Conjunction happens ever 20 years, the last one being in 2000. Hope you were able to observe this celestial phenomenon at the end of 2020!

NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY

COVID 19 Shoots-Early in the year, I turned to my backyard to shooting birds, bees, and butterflies! I bought a new lens that enabled me to shoot from a distance. Here are a few from my backyard. Nature at its best!

For more of my bird photography please visit my Flickr page here: https://www.flickr.com/gp/weddingmandk/y69F7k

A VARIETY OF LANDSCAPES

Here are some of my other images taken from around San Diego County- Torrey Pines Beach (car trails from above the beach); a few from Cuyamaca State Park (the sunset over the bridge near Cuyamaca Lake, a blue heron lit up by the setting sun); Mount Laguna (sunrise); Poway (sunburst through the tree tunnel); and a sun-dog captured under this lamp near my home.

ARIZONA, USA

In October 2020, I ventured out to Arizona-Tucson and Sedona for about six days. I felt very safe staying in places where I had a safe entrance to my room and a kitchen. I did not have to go out to eat or even make my morning cappuccino- a must for me!

Pictures from Sedona, Arizona, and Tucson, Arizona. The church is **Mission San Xavier del Bac**, a historic Spanish Catholic Mission located about 10 miles south of downtown Tucson, on a Indian Reservation. The mission was founded in 1692 in the center of a centuries-old settlement of the Sobaipuri O’odham, a branch of the Akimel or River O’odham located along the banks of the Santa Cruz River. The mission was named for Francis Xavier, a Christian missionary and co-founder of the Jesuit Order in Europe.
About the **Saguaro**…The saguaro is a tree-like cactus species in the monotypic genus Carnegiea, that can grow to be over 12 meters tall. It is native to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, the Mexican state of Sonora, and the Whipple Mountains and Imperial County areas of California.

AROUND SAN DIEGO-MY HOME TOWN

Some photographs around San Diego-The Coronado Bridge all lit up, our beautiful Balboa Park and Hotel del Coronado decorated for Christmas(this was my 2021 New Years card!), and

IMPERIAL SAND DUNES-GLAMIS, BRAWLEY, CALIFORNIA

Now for my very last shoot of the year…I decided to drive 160 miles (2.45 hrs), one way to shoot at the Imperial San Dunes. I will definitely be going there again…such an amazing place. It was so much fun watching the dune buggies traversing the dunes. It is a part of the Algodones Dunes. Here is some information about the dunes of California:

The Algodones Dunes is a large erg (sand dune field) located in the southeastern portion of the U. S. state of California, near the border with Arizona and Mexican state of Baja California. The field is approximately 45 miles (72 km) long by 6 miles (9.7 km) wide and extends along a northwest-southeast line that correlates to the prevailing northerly and westerly wind directions. The name “Algodones Dunes” refers to the entire geographic feature, while the administrative designation for that portion managed by the Bureau of Land Management is the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area (sometimes called the Glamis Dunes). In 1966, Imperial Sand Hills was designated as a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service. The Algodones Dunes are split into many different sections and one of them is Glamis. Although the Arabic-derived Spanish word algodones translates to “cotton plants”, the origin of the toponym is unknown.

Starting their new life together…On Top of the World!

If you are reading this, you have hopefully gone through the page, read my ramblings and seen the photographs! And for that, I thank you sincerely! In the last ten month, not being able to visit with my kids and grandkids and their spouses, my extended family, and my dear friends, photography has been a blessing for me.

I hope 2021 keeps us ALL safe and healthy. This too shall pass and I send you my warmest wishes to everyone.

Kamala

P.S. I did have a successful year as far as sales of my photos and if you are interested in any of my work, please email me at kamalavenkatesh@yahoo.com.

You can see more of my photography from all over the US and many places around the world on my Flickr pages. Here is the URL: