Introduction

2023 is slowly coming to an end and what a year it has been! I would definitely say that it has been the best year for me as a landscape photographer so far.

I wanted to go through 12 of my absolute favorite photos that I took this year and briefly go behind the scenes, tell you a few words about how they came to be. It’s a great way to reflect on this year and learn from what worked and how these images came to life.

Winter at Hermitage

A scene lost in time from the wonderful Hermitage hunting lodge in the Deer park near Copenhagen. This is perhaps one of my most frequented locations and the one where I always get amazing results. However, this day was special. Snow is very rare in Denmark but in the beginning of the year we had snow that lasted for a few weeks so I went here with a purpose of photographing this castle surrounded by a blanket of snow.

However, I never expected to get two horse riders come down the path and make for such an amazing focal point. I had to think really fast and reposition myself so that they were in the bottom left of the frame and I also aimed to have them well separated against the white background. I really think the riders are what makes this image special and gives it a feeling of being taken from a time long forgotten.

2. Fanal Family

My biggest dream when returning to Madeira was to get foggy conditions in Fanal forest and capture an image such as this one. And my wish did come true after returning here 2 times but not without challenges. The foggy conditions came towards the end of the day and only lasted about 1 hour so I really had to move fast.

This composition came to me while I was actually looking to find another tree I had spotted a few days before. But the fog adding all the separation made these characters stand out to me right away as a little family with the father being the main and biggest tree in the frame. I had to position myself carefully to leave room for each of the trees to shine and I think this image turned out beautifully.

3. Aurora borealis in Denmark

My most epic northern light hunt in Denmark to date. What a night this was! It is SO rare that northern lights become so strong in Denmark but this night was absolutely mindblowing. The conditions looked promising during the evening and as I was watching the stats develop I decided it was worth a shot going out despite not being 100% confident that it would work out. Arriving on the north coast, we started slowly seeing the lights on the horizon but it took around 2 hours of waiting before this show really came on. Suddenly I saw the lights get stronger with the naked eye and I could even clearly see their reflection in the water! I had to once again react fast and set my camera to interval shooting while running into the scene and standing as still as possible to come out sharp.

The show was this strong for no more than 5 minutes before it retracted to mostly towards the horizon. But for those 5 minutes, it was insane. The storm was a G4 and one of the strongest in the last 70 years. It goes to show how important it is to go out there and try despite not always being 100% confident things will work out.

4. Wild garlic forest

May is an absolute dream for landscape photography as all the flowers are in bloom and finally this year I was able to photograph wild garlic which has been on my wishlist for many years.

I have to credit where credit is due to my husband who found this forest after quite a bit of research. We went to scout it in early May when the garlic hadn’t bloomed yet and I found this tree which I thought looked really gnarly and twisted. I returned a few weeks later with Mads on a mission to photograph the garlic and we were met with the most amazing display. I made a point in going down low to exclude a big portion of the sky which was distracting but also exclude as many of the surrounding trees as possible. I really like how this turned out, simple and immersive with a gorgeous bed of garlic. It is a representative spring image for me.

5. Timeless Bliss

Summer can be one of the hardest seasons to photograph due to lack of atmosphere, very strong sun and really early sunrises. But on a gorgeous morning in June, everything came together. I went out of bed at 3:30 AM on a rather limited forecast of fog so I had little hope of getting something. But once I arrived at the location, I could see the potential right away.

As I was walking past to go to another spot, I noticed the sun was rising just enough to create these incredible light beams through the branches of this tree, which also had a perfectly straight canopy aligning the bottom of the other trees. As I set up to capture this scene, a small bird jumped right onto the branch on the right and admired the wonders in front of us. I had to reach really fast in changing my settings and started hammering off photos as the bird started flying and jumping around from one branch to another.

The bird was there for perhaps only 30 seconds, then it was gone. Such a fleeting and yet unforgettable moment that made this image possible. This one is maybe my favorite of the favorite images of this year and one I am really proud of.

6. Oak in Heather

This summer I really wanted to capture some heather images as it is one of the most wonderful displays of color that time of year. Unfortunately in the part of Denmark where I live, heather is quite scarce. Despite it, I knew this spot had some heather from previous visits and so I went to give it a shot. Initially I was aiming to get some compositions of lone trees surrounded by the beautiful flowers but I found this short oak tree somewhere hidden away from the main path while exploring.

I knew I had to find a more intimate composition and so I did what I normally do when I want to include less and focus on the main subject. I went low, trying to get as much of the heather in frame as possible and create some beautiful layers towards the tree. I have to admit when I took this image I didn’t think it would be good. But despite this being taken in flat light and in the middle of the day, it goes to show how much composition counts. I truly enjoy how this turned out and it makes me want to definitely chase more heather landscapes in 2024.

7. Quiraing in Bloom

Bonnie Scotland…what a trip this was! This image is definitely my favorite from the trip and despite having faced many challenges in Scotland (you can read more about what I learned on that trip here), I am very happy how this one turned out.

There is so much to photograph at this location and I’m sure that most of you recognize this vista right away. But to me, what makes this stand out is the foreground. I really wanted to create some foreground interest since there was a big empty space between me and the subject mountains in the background. I walked for a while trying different compositions but when I found this patch of wild heather which grew right on the edge, I knew it would work. I think it creates a beautiful diagonal line and gives this image much more pop than just the classic vista. Can’t wait to be back at this location in even more epic conditions!

8. Enchanted Oak

The second favorite image of 2023 from the same morning. Isn’t that something…? This is taken on the same morning as “Timeless Bliss” mentioned above, just an hour or so later. I was already packing up my gear ready to head back to the car when I passed this tree and saw these heavenly looking sunbeams coming down like rain.

I was in complete awe seeing this scene and although I wish I could say that I worked hard to compose this image, this scene was just laid out in front of me. All I had to do was capture its beauty…and wow was it something special! Sometimes capturing a special moment is 99% about being there in the right place at the right time.

9. Foggy Poppy

Another summer image which came to be from me discovering a small little scene by chance while I was heading towards another place. This morning started out really chaotic because the lake I had originally gone to had absolutely no fog. I had a backup plan which I started driving towards when I passed this beautiful poppy field in the middle of nowhere as I was driving through the countryside.

I could immediately see from the car that it had potential due to the flowers having this beautiful dew on them also having spotted this lone tree in the back. I stopped the car on the side of the road, took out my camera and started composing the image with the tree in the back. The issue was that the flowers were further away from me and I wanted them to appear bigger but without me stomping over them. I decided to take a zoomed in version of the foreground and a wider shot for the background in order to do a focal length blend in post. This is why editing is so important and having the knowledge and vision of what is possible in the field. I am stoked over how this turned out and it was also really loved by many of you guys which made me so happy!

10. Sunrise at Ponta de São Lourenço

Another image from beautiful Madeira had to make it to the list. And that is because this morning was absolutely gorgeous. We had really tricky and unpredictable weather during our trip in February and this morning was one of the few times when I knew I could get a good sunrise.

I decided to go back to a location I knew was pointing right towards the east and I had already seen this viewpoint from the hike we’d done a few days before. As the sun started to come up there was a perfectly thin cloud layer which allowed for the contour of the sun to be perfectly visible and easy to expose for. I pulled out my long lens and zoomed in while hunting for my composition. As I panned across the scene I saw these 2 people up on the peak admiring the sunrise and decided to use them as a balancing subject and for scale. And the result hopefully gives you a feeling of how dramatic and big this place is.

11. Ethereal Woodland

My absolute favorite scene from one of Denmark’s highest points called “The heaven mountain” or Himmelbjerget in Danish. If you follow me on Instagram you’ve probably seen a few images from this outing in Jutland which resulted in so many amazing photos due to the incredible day-long mood and atmosphere we had.

This particular image is special to me precisely due to the atmosphere. As the fog was rolling in and out through the canopy, I observed the beautiful layers and contrast of the pines against the deciduous trees. I was aiming to photograph these beautiful layers and I knew that there was a chance for the sun to beam through the clouds a little bit so I waited. And I was rewarded with this beautiful soft light hitting the pine trees accentuating them even more against the autumn colors. I also made sure to keep a lower temperature of the rest of the image to emphasize the light which I think gives this photo so much mood and dynamism with a perfectly ethereal character.

12. Octopus Tree

Last but not least, my 12th favorite image of this year is also one I captured in Jutland of this tree which I named “The Octopus”. I actually had my eye on this tree last year when I came to visit Jutland on another occasion and dreamt of perhaps one day catching it in the proper atmosphere.

And incredibly so, the perfect light and mood happened right as we decided to take a stop past here on our way to another place. I could see the valley filling up with fog while the sun was coming out and I started running around like a headless chicken trying to compose the image before the light was gone. Despite there being a fence in this image, I feel it provides a beautiful leading line and it is a rather good looking, natural fence which doesn’t deter from the subject too much. It almost looks like the tree is ready to escape and make its way out of the enclosure to me. I wanted to place the branches so that they look as much like an octopus as possible, as I saw it in the field and also give this tree a feeling of movement as I saw it when I stood right next to it. Epic!

Thank you, 2023! You’ve been amazing.

2023 has been an incredible year of photography to me and I feel like I’ve grown so much as I also put in more work and made sure to be there at the right time, when it mattered. I hope that by sharing these images and the stories behind taking them, you might get inspired to look back at your 2023 to find your favorite photos and think about why they are special to you.

Photography will always be very personal and I can only be so grateful to have you guys share this journey with me and appreciate my work. I look forward to 2024 and I hope it will be just as good of a photography year, if not even better. Thank you 2023, it’s been a blast!

With love,

Alexandra

It’s a wrap! My favorite photos of 2023 explained