Our Favorite Photos From 2024!
Last year we reached a new high point in our travels. In the moment it never feels that way, but with the benefit of hindsight we’re able to reflect back on the year and see just how special it was. In a lot of ways the photographs we take mirror that feeling. When we’re in the flow and working, it’s hard to know how important those mementos will be to us in the future. Even as we reflect on them now months later, I suspect that their value to us will only increase. I think that feeling is what makes it so important for us to document our lives and part of why we get so much enjoyment out of it. Okay, enough waxing poetic, let’s look at some photos!
Owen’s Five Favorite Photos
Mamiya 7 | Kodak Gold 200
April 2024 | Mt Cook National Park, New Zealand
Our trip through New Zealand featured all kinds of different landscapes. Honestly, far more than I expected on such a relatively small island. Everywhere was crazy picturesque, but the Alps of New Zealand might have taken the cake for me. The way the light hits the landscape and the immense scale combined for vistas that looked like paintings. This area was home to some of my favorite hikes we did and seeing this photo really brings a flood of beautiful memories from our time as a whole in New Zealand. Plus, we don’t often have photos of the both of us and to capture it on film makes this one even sweeter.
Fujifilm X100VI
April 2024 | Saigon, Vietnam
In the spring we flew to Australia to begin a six week trip through Australia, New Zealand, and Vietnam. It was our longest international trip we had ever done and on top of that, it was a job (in New Zealand at least). Vietnam was the last leg of the trip and we were coming off a month of production so as we boarded our flights leaving New Zealand a huge wave of relief hit us. Vietnam was our vacation. Our victory lap after the biggest job of our lives. It was also a HUGE contrast in almost every way to where we were coming from. Saigon was intensely busy. People were everywhere. Traffic flowed through the streets like a flooding river and changed directions in ways that everyone in it seemed to understand, but I remained oblivious to. It was an overwhelming experience and a fantastic bookend to one of the best trips of our lives. Walking around Saigon I was playing around with our new X100IV and trying to get some shots with a slow shutter speed to capture the movement of the place. There were a LOT of misses, but I really liked how this one turned out.
Fujifilm X-H2 | 35mm F/1.4 R
May 2024 | Joshua Tree, CA
This year we saw the Aurora Borealis three separate times! And while the most magnificent display of the lights was when we were up in Alaska, there was something special about seeing them all the way down in Joshua Tree. Up to that point, this was the best we had seen them with our naked eyes (when we were up in Alaska in 2021, we only saw them through long exposures on the cameras). This particular evening we were packing up the truck to head out for the rest of the year. We were still packing at 11:00 PM and as we walked out to the truck the Aurora was glowing on the horizon. Rather than doing the responsible thing and continuing to pack, we dropped everything and ran up the hill, away from all the streetlights to see the Aurora in all its glory. MAK captured this photo while we were out in the dark for over an hour in awe of Mother Nature’s display. We see Aurora photos all the time, but I think she did a great job of capturing a unique perspective.
Fujifilm X-H2 | 16-55mm F/2.8 LM WR
July 2024 | Canadian Rockies, Alberta
This might be controversial, but I find the Canadian Rockies to be even more beautiful than the United States’. Case and point, this photo. The light beaming in through the clouds, the tiny people descending the ridge in the distance, and the crazy turquoise color of the water all make for a complete dream land. The hiking in this area was absolutely insane too. It was definitely one of the highlights of the summer we spent in Canada. MAK too, picked a photo from this area on an equally epic height. It always feels good to go out and do some hard and rewarding hikes and this part of the year was largely characterized by just that.
Fujifilm X-H2S | 50-140mm F/2.8 LM OIS WR
December | Fujikawaguchiko, Japan
Japan has loomed large on our bucket list for some time now. On our second trip to Asia this year, we spent a month in Japan and to say it was life-changing would not be an exaggeration. The culture, people, food and the land, it was all fantastic. We left inspired and to a degree that was previously unknown to us. There is something unique happening there and we want to experience it a whole lot more. One of the great symbols of Japan is Mount Fuji, or Fujisan. When standing in its shadow, it’s easy to see why. Fujisan reaches towards the sky in an otherwise relatively flat landscape. Its prominence is magnificent and commands the attention of all for miles and miles. While walking around a very busy park, I found a quiet spot to nestle the camera in some bushes and get this shot of MAK as she was admiring the scene around her. I love the layers and lines created with the bushes and the mountain. What a way to finish the year!
MAK’s Five Favorite Photos
Mamiya 7 | Kodak Gold 200
April 2024 | South Island, New Zealand
There are so few images of me on film, because I’m the one who is primarily shooting said film. When I look at this picture, all I can think is that this is how I want to be remembered. Plain and simple, this is who I am wrapped up into a single image. I love that it’s on film, obviously. It’s a beautifully shot and framed by Owen! Bravo! As a side note, for each series we film, I try to shoot a portrait of each of us to use to mark “who we were” at the time of filming. It’s also handy to have when promoting a series or when we need to send out headshots in relation to our work. This was my portrait from filming our series Applied Theory in New Zealand for XOverland. This image was shot on my Mamiya 7 using Kodak Gold 200 film.
Mamiya 7 | Kodak T-Max 100 (35mm film)
June 2024 | Yellowstone Area, Montana
This is yet another film photo that is evidence that I stepped outside of my comfort zone. For about 4 years now, I have carried around a 3D printed 35mm film conversion spool. For all of those years, it’s gone unused because I was too intimidated to use it. Allow me to explain: This 35mm conversion spool allows you to shoot 35mm film in a medium format camera. The reasons I’ve been so scared to use it are as follows:
I wasn’t sure I knew my camera enough to use it
Film is expensive and I didn’t want to waste film and development costs on something I wasn’t 100% confident would turn out
I was nervous about unloading it in a dark bag by feel, because you have to manually unload the film because you can’t wide it back up in the camera. Rolls of 35mm and rolls of 120mm film work totally differently
Generally didn’t trust myself
For whatever reason, while in Montana making our way north towards Canada for the summer, I decided it was time to try it. The roll turned out beautifully. I was able to run the roll through without an issue, the images are all lovely, and I LOVE the wide aspect ratio. The 35mm film is much narrower than my medium format’s aspect ratio, so a single image when shot this way is a pano. I am very drawn to film panos, I think they’re very cinematic which is what drew me to the 3D printed spool in the first place. It was so satisfying to finally use it and see that I can trust my film and camera knowledge to be more “experimental”. When I look at this image, aside from LOVING the delicious balance in this photo, I see progress in my photography. And in the end, that’s all I could ever ask for. This image was taken on my Mamiya 7 using 35mm Kodak T-Max 100.
Fujifilm X-H2 | 16-55mm F/2.8 LM WR
July 2024 | Canadian Rockies, Alberta
Plain and simple, I love the epic-ness of this image. This picture was taken while we were on the decent from Smutwood Peak. It was a long and strenuous trail with the most insane views of the Canadian Rockies. It was a pristine day, we had great company (our friend Brent who we met on our group trip to Peru) and we enjoyed every second of it. This view was one of the most striking we came across that day. This small rise in front of this towering granite peak was such a striking view. This image feels like it captured the essence of what it was to hike in the Canadian Rockies. I love the movement in this image, the grandeur and the memories attached to it. At our core, we’re adventure photographers and this feels like a prime example of how we like to shoot. Also, it’s a mighty fine example of the Fujifilm color science we’ve come to adore over the years.
Mamiya 7 | Cinestill 50D
November 2024 | Tokyo, Japan
This is one of the first film photos I took in Japan on Cinestill 50D…. Which is intended for daylight shooting but I didn’t have night balanced film on my person yet. I’ve had really great experiences with shooting 50D at night, so I figured, why not?! I love the way it treats the reds which is why I felt it would be a perfect substitute for Cinestill 800T. The reason this is one of my favorite photos of the year is that I remember the awe I felt seeing this Pagoda. It was my first pagoda in Japan, our first night out wandering around capturing whatever caught our eye so there are a lot of wonderful memories wrapped up in this evening photo walk. There are some obvious flaws, but in this case, I think they add to the image. The red blur on the right is from accidental X-ray exposure from my film being scanned at the airport. Opps. The light leak at the top is from being the last shot on the roll where the emission drops off the film. But for some reason, these flaws feel like they captured the spirit and true feeling of a pagoda. I love that the colors of the “accidents” here perfectly complement the color palette of the image. I’ve always been one to embrace flaws in my work because I enjoy the evidence of the process in which it was created. This photo feels like a prime example of that because I really enjoy the final result.
Mamiya 7 | Kodak Gold 200
November 2024 | Kyoto, Japan
I would not consider myself a street photographer in any way. Doesn’t mean I don’t like to dabble in it during our travels. I find taking pictures of unsuspecting people I do not know to be very intimidating, even though I love the results others get when they shoot this way. Over the years, I have thought extensively about why I feel so intimidated by this even though I would call myself a very socially comfortable person. From my understanding, particularly when I travel to other countries, I like to fade into the background. I like to observe but not really be seen. When you take pictures of people, you inherently draw attention to yourself and that’s exactly what I’m trying to avoid. Why on this occasion I decided to go for this image… I’m not quite sure. But I think I just saw this image in that moment. As soon as I took this picture, I knew I was going to love it. We were at the shrine that is know for it’s 10,000 torii gates. We were climbing our way to the top of the mountain under the gates and when reached a landing and at a small shrine, these men were roasting Mandarin oranges right on the sidewalk. The smell was so alluring. Caramelized orange. I loved that the sea of walking people moved around them as they worked and the energy it brought to the image. This was such an intimate scene amidst the chaos. As soon as I snapped the picture, the man rotating the oranges over the fire turned and smiled at me and handed me two oranges off the coals. They were divine and the gesture meant a lot to me. I like that this image was challenging for me to shoot as it required me to step outside of my comfort zone which is something I am always looking to do in every corner of my life, and the fact that I got a lovely image that I’m very proud of feels like icing on the cake. This image was taken on my Mamiya 7 on Kodak Gold film.
If you’d like to learn more about these photos and why we chose them as our favorites for the year you can check out this video over on Patreon. In it we discuss the memories associated with each image, and show some of our Lightroom settings as well!
An honorable mention for sure!
We sincerely hope you enjoyed taking a look at our favorite moments from 2024. Here’s hoping that 2025 will be even better! Thank you for taking the time to follow along our journey!
Love,
MAK & Owen