Lens-Artists,  My photography,  Themed galleries

Gallery: an impossible task

March 24, 2025 / 58 Comments

Which of my photographs is my favourite? The one I’m going to take tomorrow.

Imogen Cunningham, American photographer

Picking five favourite books is like picking the five body parts you’d most like not to lose.

Neil Gaiman

If you replace the word ‘books’ in that quote from Neil Gaiman with ‘photographs’ you will know exactly how I felt when I saw that Tina wants us to choose just five favourite shots for this week’s Lens Artists challenge. I have a similar reaction when people ask me which are my top three / five / ten places I’ve visited.

And the five photos I choose today won’t be the five I would choose tomorrow, nor are they the five I would have chosen yesterday. I guess what I’m trying to say is something Annie Leibovitz once said:

I don’t have a single favourite photograph. What means most to me is the body of my work. The accumulation of photographs over the years.

So these are not my five favourites, but five OF my favourites. In an effort to make the task slightly easier I’ve opted to select just one from five subject categories. But I promise you, I have had to resist incredibly hard the temptation to cheat and choose five in each of those categories! I’ve never been my best critic …

PEOPLE

Fisherman in Kochi, Kerala, India

I like this shot because of the serendipitous colour match between the man’s turban and his fishing net, and because of the texture and character in his face. I have many other favourite shots of people but this was the first photo I thought of when I saw Tina’s challenge. If I’m being hyper-critical I wouldn’t have cut off the top of his turban, but this was a snatched candid shot and overall I’m very happy with it.

LANDSCAPE

Glacier Grey, Torres del Paine National Park, Chile

I probably have more landscape photos in my archives than any other category, so this was a particularly difficult pick. In the end I opted for this one for several reasons. I like the way the blue of the glacier is emphasised by the almost monochrome tones of the mountains behind. And I have a fondness for going against convention by composing landscape shots in portrait format. In this instance I think the vertical framing works particularly well as it echoes the jagged lines of the ice.

BIRDS

Lilac-breasted Roller, Chobe National Park, Botswana

I’m not a true ‘birder’ but I do love the challenge of photographing birds. Unless you have a lot more patience than I possess, it’s difficult to capture them at rest. So I get a bit of a thrill when I pull it off, as here. Add to that the fact that this is one of my favourite birds to spot when we travel, plus the sculptural shape of the dead tree, and this particular shot had to make the final cut.

ANIMALS

Baboon, Chobe National Park, Botswana

This was possibly the hardest category to pick of all. I could have shared elephants aplenty, big cats ditto, or maybe some striking zebras. But thinking back to last week’s portrait challenge I remembered this, one of my more successful animal portraits. He was clearly as curious about me as I was about him, and seemingly keen to pose!

MISCELLANEOUS

Inverted view of the Town Hall Square from the old pharmacy, Tallinn, Estonia

Every now and then a shot presents itself when you weren’t particularly looking for it, and this is one of my favourite examples of that. Tallinn’s Town Hall Pharmacy is the oldest continuously operating pharmacy in Europe. As you might expect, it is lined with dark wood shelves with jars and bottles holding strange ingredients such as viper fat, dried toads and billy goat blood. But on the windowsill I found this beautifully coloured bottle with its contents refracting an inverted image of the brightly lit square outside and its stopper a matching smaller version.

58 Comments

  • kzmcb

    March 25, 2025 at 07:29 Reply

    I really like your choices, Sarah. You’re a good photographer and I think I’d we walked side by side we’d comment on the same things.

    • Sarah Wilkie

      March 25, 2025 at 09:26 Reply

      Thanks so much Karen 😊 It’s always interesting to go out with another photographer and see if you’re drawn to the same things or different ones. My husband and I tend to take quite different shots from each other!

  • Linda K

    March 25, 2025 at 01:36 Reply

    Gorgeous photos! I’m sure it was difficult to choose for each category and I love how you said 5 OF my favourite. Sometimes photos are just perfect because of what it captures and conveys to you alone and that’s what makes them special.

    • Sarah Wilkie

      March 25, 2025 at 09:23 Reply

      Thank you Linda 🙂 Yes, definitely five OF many favourites! It can be hard to separate the personal memories behind a photo from a more objective analysis of its qualities but I do try to do that.

  • Leanne Cole

    March 24, 2025 at 23:32 Reply

    These are wonderful Sarah, I like the quotes you said at the start too. I think my favourite images change yearly too. I really like that glacier image, I’ve never been close enough to one to get shots like that. Then again, I’ve only ever seen them in New Zealand. I do love the baboon, great photo.

    • Sarah Wilkie

      March 25, 2025 at 09:21 Reply

      I think my favourite images probably change weekly, if not daily! The visit to Glacier Grey in Chile was amazing – the boat took us really close then travelled the length of the glacier’s edge before turning and going back the other way so people on both sides of the boat got the same excellent views 🙂

  • Suzanne

    March 24, 2025 at 19:09 Reply

    Sarah, for me the best photographs are the ones that capture the most emotion whether that be personal or others. As in the bamboo where curiosity was the emotion. Wonderful images which are worth showing and discussing.

  • Marilyn Armstrong

    March 24, 2025 at 17:54 Reply

    All great pictures, but I’ll bet you have 50 move you love as much, but differently for other reasons. If you ask me for my top 10 BIRD pictures, I could come up with something, but probably would change my mind by tomorrow. I have more than 100,000 pictures and I also have a lot that I’ve forgotten. They might be terrific, but I take a lot of pictures, download them — and sometimes, I take more pictures and never get back to the ones from last week or last month.

    I can’t name my favorite books (sometimes I can name favorite series of books), but overall, I’ve read so many books I don’t remember more than half of them at all. Of the remainder, I remember a few very clearly and most others, some parts of them but often losing the subtleties or major plot points. I think by the time you are approaching 80 (Me??? Surely not!), there’s a lot of stuff packed into ones brains. One more thought and another disappears. No room. Can I get a brain-memory upgrade?

    • Sarah Wilkie

      March 24, 2025 at 21:15 Reply

      I’m with you on all of the above. These are five photos I was particularly pleased with and remain fond of, but I can’t claim I like them more than ANY others! And yes, it’s almost as hard to pick five favourite books (although if you’ve forgotten a book you can be sure it isn’t a favourite), films etc. etc. …

  • Heyjude

    March 24, 2025 at 16:55 Reply

    I wondered how you would tackle this one. With great style I’d say! All great photos, but I love the opening quotes! I’m not really sure I have favourites, though I do have favourite things I like to photograph. I am envious of your Lilac-breasted Roller as it is such a beautiful bird and I never even saw one during my Africa travels never mind get such a powerful shot.

    • Sarah Wilkie

      March 24, 2025 at 17:30 Reply

      Thank you Jude 😊 I felt those quotes really fitted the challenge. Normally I would only use one but on this occasion it seemed appropriate to use more! I love Lilac-breasted Rollers and have seen a few but this is easily the best shot I’ve managed to get of one.

  • Anonymous

    March 24, 2025 at 16:16 Reply

    Wow, Sarah! I also feel that choosing 5 categories from which to choose 5 photos was an excellent way to approach this challenge! They are all wonderful! As you know, I’m a huge fan of your photography and writing skills. But, if I had to choose one of these 5 photos as my favorite, it would have to be the Baboon! Those eyes just seem to plumb the depth of your soul. I once took a similar photo of a small monkey who seemed to me as if he is pleading for his freedom, and it haunts me still! (Sylvia)

    • Sarah Wilkie

      March 24, 2025 at 17:27 Reply

      Thanks so much Sylvia ☺️ I know what you mean about those eyes, but at least this baboon is a wild one, with no need to plead for his freedom. Maybe he wanted food, though feeding the wildlife in the national would be strictly prohibited of course.

  • Monkey's Tale

    March 24, 2025 at 15:17 Reply

    I can understand why it would a difficult task. I love all of these, but the one from the pharmacy in Tallinn is so unique and interesting, I think it’s my favourite of these. Maggie

  • Anne Sandler

    March 24, 2025 at 15:11 Reply

    Wow Sarah, you didn’t disappoint. I loved all of them: the artistic quality of the blue bottle, the color and composition of the glacier, the clarity of the bird, the expression of the baboon. Most of all, I loved the fisherman. You captured his soul.

  • Tina Schell

    March 24, 2025 at 13:02 Reply

    Well done Sarah! So glad you struggled, that was the point!!! Loved your solution to go with categories, brilliant! Of course all are marvelous but forced to choose I really loved the creativity of your blue bottle. It confirms my personal opinion that the best photographers see things many would just walk by. Also loved your quotes. You rose to the challenge and then some!

  • Sue

    March 24, 2025 at 12:12 Reply

    Oh, wow! you stepped up to this challenge brilliantly. I had some trouble until I decided to run with headings in much the way you did still not easy

  • the eternal traveller

    March 24, 2025 at 11:12 Reply

    It is really hard to choose favourite photos. When we went to Antarctica in November the resident photographer onboard the ship told us we should all select 10 photos per day to keep and delete the rest. Impossible task!

  • Vicki

    March 24, 2025 at 10:52 Reply

    A lovely selection to meet Tina’s challenge this week. Like you, I find it impossible to narrow it down, but I must say you did exceptionally well. Perhaps you’ve got the right idea in selecting 5 topics to start. Perhaps that narrows it down a bit as there are hundreds of topics to choose from, especially someone like yourself who travels a lot.

  • bushboy

    March 24, 2025 at 10:01 Reply

    So wonderful Sarah. The task was impossible especially when you have so many fabulous photos to choose from. I like the Roller and that Baboon has so much swag 😀
    Congratulations on staying with 5, I couldn’t, but then again I’m naughty 😁

  • restlessjo

    March 24, 2025 at 08:56 Reply

    Wow! Not one there that any of us wouldn’t be proud of, Sarah. Love the opener- what a character the man has! And I’ve never even heard of that bird, but what a beauty and a fabulous shot xx

  • margaret21

    March 24, 2025 at 08:34 Reply

    I was wondering how you would confront this challenge-and-a-half! It’s interesting that wih one exception, your choices have a blue theme. And no, I’m not going to pick a favorite from among your favourites. Can’t be done.

  • thehungrytravellers.blog

    March 24, 2025 at 08:31 Reply

    That’s a pretty special quintet, Sarah….and I get what you mean about changing opinions. Five favourite places visited? Impossible to answer. Liking the quite from Annie Liebovitz, that sums up the notion of trying to find favourite anything quite well.

    • Sarah Wilkie

      March 24, 2025 at 08:35 Reply

      Thank you Phil, I know you’d understand the way I feel about the ‘which is your favourite place you’ve visited?’ question 😀 Am I right in thinking you’re on your way home now?

      • thehungrytravellers.blog

        March 24, 2025 at 08:41 Reply

        Aha. Killing time at the airport hotel in Manila just now, then tomorrow morning the long journey home starts. Been so good. By the way, by coincidence, we got asked not one but two unusual variations on that question, on this very trip. 1), What have you hated on your travels, and 2) Where is the cheapest place you’ve been. Not been asked those before!

        • Sarah Wilkie

          March 24, 2025 at 08:56 Reply

          No, those are at least a bit different. The second should be possible to answer, since it’s not subjective, but I really couldn’t say for sure. As for hating, very little if anything, though of course there have been some things I really didn’t like (a Chinese wine with a dead snake floating in it, an aggressive local man in Cape Verde who pinched my bum in a market, breaking my foot in Marrakesh …)

          Safe travels, and hopefully catch up soon!

Do share your thoughts, I'd love to hear from you! And please include your name in case WP marks you 'anonymous' - thank you