2021, Top Nine

It’s that time again, the Instagram top nine! I started doing this for the same reasons most people did: it’s a fun trend that lets you reflect on the previous year and showcase the highlights in true social media style without dwelling on any challenges. It’s also become a useful bookmarking tool for scrolling through my feed, and I also like to see how it compares with the previous year’s crop.

Instead of using a third-party tool to pull the nine images that received the most likes, I prefer to choose my own. If I showcase a selection of images, I care more about how they made me feel and what they represent in my journey than what a random collection of people, from close friends to complete strangers, think of them. But the real question is, what can I learn from them?

In 2021, I made a concerted effort to see new species and follow the pattern the seasons presented. Looking for otter pups in early summer, searching for black bears (Ursus americanus) fattening up for hibernation, and observing migratory owls in the fall were efforts that all paid off. I’m delighted with the species selection here, all within a few hours of my home in California.

Image quality was also important, but I didn’t agonize over it. I loved how the background softened behind that long-tailed weasel, but I didn’t let the super-high ISO bother me when I found a red fox sitting in the most scenic spot. I’ll be honest that my new camera handles ISO better than my previous one, and pairing that with Topaz DeNoise software helps, but I tried to be less precious about that.

Finally, I tried to include more of the environments in my shots. Sure, the peregrine falcon isolated on a blue sky was an exception, but not the rule. These horizontal crops don’t show some of these images as well as the vertical ones. Still, the Roosevelt elk (Cervus canadensis roosevelti), in particular, involved deliberately zooming back out to bring in the foreground and tree line. 

There’s always work to do, but these nine images make me happy, and really, that’s all that matters.