My Top 10 Photos of 2024
2024 was full of new opportunities and challenges for me as a photographer. I had over 160 shoots throughout the year ranging from messing around with some buddies to large scale work for professional leagues. Of the over 250,000 images that I took this year, I have compiled a list of my favourite ten(ish) images. I included these images based on a few criteria including photojournalistic strength, meaningfulness/backstory, creativity and overall just cool shots. I also included a few honourable mentions because I couldn’t get the list down to just 10.
HM 1: Timezone (DB BABY)
20241020, 1/200, f/2.8, ISO 100
Canon R6M2, RF 15-35mm
This photo of my friend Darren (DB BABY) was one of my favourite portraits of the year. I very rarely use an on camera flash when working outside in the daylight, however we thought it would make for a cool look. I really like the colours in this one and it is a front runner to be an album cover for some of the music that he will be dropping.
HM 2: Curtains (Caden Taylor)
20241114, 1/200, f/2.8, ISO 160
Canon R6M2, RF 15-35mm
This was my favourite Petes photo that I took this year. With shooting so many games for the Petes I like to try new things and to keep things fun and fresh. This photo was made possible by taping a speedlite above the curtains that lay outside of the Petes dressing room and triggering the flash with a transmitter on my camera when I take the photo. The pop of colour from the curtains, the high contrast and the overall composition of the photo is what makes it a personal favourite. Taylor is also one of the young rising stars for the Petes and I hope this photo will be a nice one to look back on when his time with the team inevitably ends.
HM 3: The Chiu (Justin Chiu Stadium)
20240904, 1/80, f/1.7, ISO 800
DJI Mini 3 Pro
The first of four Trent Excalibur photos on this list, this shot of Justin Chiu stadium during a packed O-week lacrosse game was one of my personal favourite drone shots of the year. I don’t see many drone shots of Trent focusing on the stadium, so to be able to grab this one right at sunset was pretty cool. The O-week game is a tradition for Trent athletics and it was neat to integrate that into the shot as well.
10. Jeff and the Black Bears (Jeff Teat)
20241108, 1/200, f/2.8, ISO 200
Canon R6M2, RF 15-35mm
This shot of Jeff Teat of the Ottawa Black Bears was my favourite photo from the 2024 NLL Media Day. This was my third year shooting the media day for the league and I had some increased responsibilities in terms of overall planning and coverage for the event. This particular photo was taken at the TSN video set. I used the lighting there to capture some classic media day poses of the league’s top players. This photo stood above the others captured that day for me as it shows off arguably the NLL’s best player, and fellow Brampton, Ontario native, donning a clean home jersey for the league’s newest franchise. I also really like the contrast within the image and how well the colours pop.
9. Frozen Blur (Trent Men’s Curling)
20241123, 1/6, f/4.0, ISO 100
Canon R6M2, RF 15-35mm
Out of all of the photos I took this year, I think this is the coolest in terms of what I captured from a technical standpoint. I made it a point this year to try to get my images as close as possible to the final product in camera so that I had to do minimal editing in Lightroom (mostly exposure and level horizons), although I also wanted to experiment with things like slow shutter speeds and double exposures. Curling, being a very repetitive sport in terms of its main movements, allowed me to really line up my shots and let me try these long exposure photos. I think this photo is really unique because the two athletes on the right hand side are clearly blurred due to their movement not only down the ice but in sweeping as well. I got really lucky as the athlete on the left stayed perfectly still allowing him to remain tack sharp in the final image. I just think it’s a super interesting shot that almost looks fake, definitely one of the luckier shots of the year.
8. Kill The Lights (Brett Emmons)
20240216, 1/320, f/4.0, ISO 3200
Canon R6, RF 14-35mm
Another one of my goals for 2024 was to photograph more concerts. I like live music just like anybody else, and I wanted to use photography as a way to be able to see these awesome artists and take some cool shots of them performing. Of all of the concerts/artists I shot this year, this photo of Brett Emmons of The Glorious Sons was my favourite. The clear leading lines from the light in the top left, well lit subject, great contrast and almost holy vibe made this a clear favourite for me. It was also a really awesome concert.
7. High Flier (Torian Lee)
20240529, 1/200, f/4.0, ISO 100
Canon R6, EF 70-200mm
Next up we have possibly my “cleanest” photo of the year and maybe the coolest shoot of the year. This photo came from the Canada Basketball Men's u18 Media Day in Toronto. I secured this shoot only a few days before the set date and with little time to prepare it definitely had me a little stressed. This shoot had me dealing with the tallest athletes I’ve ever photographed, including one that stands at 7’9” and it forced me to make some adjustments to my normal set in order to accommodate. I was able to get a ton of great shots for Canada Basketball to use on their website, social media and marketing channels and I was super fortunate to work with them as my first national sport team. Between my set and the video set that they had set up at the other end of the gym, this one stood out as my favourite due to the pop of the colours and frozen action.
6. Pop (Andrew Eigner)
20240706, 1/1800, f/2.5, ISO 100
GoPro Hero 10 Black
This photo from the World Long Drive competition in Port Rowan was one of my riskier ones. Golf, as with other sports like curling or rowing, has that same repetitive movement however it can be incredibly dangerous and distracting to the athlete if you are standing in the wrong spot. I felt that this was a perfect time to utilize my GoPro that I bought a few years back to provide me with some cool angles while remaining discrete. I was triggering the GoPro with an app on my phone and it was very difficult to get the timing down as the app has quite the delay and swing is so quick. The stars aligned when a crackled sky, fun shirt, lighting and a “give it your all” game face met a well-timed follow through. Of the dozens of GoPro shots I took that weekend this one stood out the most. It was also one of the more unique events that I shot all year.
5. All Maul (Caleb Hickey, Cam Bubyn, Jordan Buck)
20240720, 1/2000, f/5.0, ISO 1000
Canon R6, EF 100-400mm
One of my more renaissance-esque photos of the year, this shot of three awesome players and buddies from the Peterborough Pagans men's rugby team is an instant favourite. The anger in the faces of Caleb (left) and Jordan (right) with the head of Cam (middle) poking through in the middle of a text-book maul is one of the more unique and lucky rugby photos that I think I will ever take. Teamwork, determination and power on full display complimented with great lighting and a straight-on, well-composed shot easily slotted this photo into my fifth favorite overall photo of the year and favourite in-game/action shot.
4. One (Dylan James)
20240904, 1/200, f/2.8, ISO 100
Canon R6M2, RF 15-35mm
One of my best shots compositionally, this candid photo of Trent star attackman Dylan James, perfectly showcases the Excalibur motto within the varsity change room before a regular season game. I’m a big fan of how clean the shot is overall, how the words lead right into Dylan, how the Excalibur “1EX” logo and green are prevalent and how the mess of the change room from his teammate’s gear nicely fills the foreground. This photo could have been higher up on the list if James was wearing his jersey which is coincidentally, you guessed it, number one. Despite that, this photo sits comfortably at number four for its ability to tell a nice short story and to show off both my style and the experience of a varsity athlete.
3. Try Line (Peterborough Pagans)
20240720, 1/1250, f/1.7, ISO 100
DJI Mini 3 Pro
For my best drone shot of the year and favourite minimalistic shot, I have this photo from the same game as photo #5 (All Maul), where the figures of five Pagans players stand on the try line moments before the other team attacks off of a scrum. I love how simple this shot is and how the shadows of the players and posts are clearly printed across the field. There’s not much more to say about this one other than that it was a shot that I had in mind for a while and I’m happy that I was able to pull it off.
2. Dialled (Tyler McDonald)
20240906, 1/200, f/2.8, ISO 250
Canon R6M2, RF 15-35mm
This photo of Ty, 2023 OUA Women’s Lacrosse Rookie of the Year, was easily my favourite media day shot of the year. This photo was of particular significance to me as it was the first big project that I undertook as head varsity photographer for Trent Excalibur. As an alumni and former Excalibur athlete, I take a lot of pride in photographing for the school and giving these athletes and their loved ones something to look back on during their short athletic careers here. I never got a ton of photography coverage at Trent so to be able to give back in this way means a lot to me. I also wanted to provide the athletes at Trent with a top class media day experience as historically it has been missing or lackluster. This photo comes from one of the three stations that I drew up and built and it focused on the athlete having a super locked in, game face. The hard contrast, tube lights and in-your-face focal length culminated to make some pretty cool photos in my opinion. Ty was particularly eager for this station and the clutch application of eye black on her part really brought it all together.
1. Victorious (Kitchener-Waterloo Collegiate and Vocational School Boys Rugby)
20240608, 1/2000, f/2.8, ISO 160
Canon R6M2, RF 15-35mm
For my favourite shot of the year, I have this one from the OFSAA Boys Rugby AAA final where two KWCVI athletes are brought to their knees, embracing each other in happiness as their team celebrates in the background after they capture the gold medal, via penalty kicks, in one of the greatest sporting events I have ever personally witnessed. I was hired to cover the entirety of the OFSAA boys rugby tournament in Peterborough between two locations and 16 teams. While great moments happened throughout the multi-day tournament, nothing compared to the barnburner final between local favourites Adam Scott and rugby powerhouse KWCVI. A back and fourth game was forced to overtime where both teams scored to keep it even and force a rare penalty shootout. Adam Scott devastatingly missed their final attempt and in doing so crowned Kitchener-Waterloo the champions. Throughout the last 10 minutes of regular time and all throughout overtime and kicks, I was brainstorming on where to stand to capture “the shot”. When Adam Scott had their backs against the wall I posted up in front of the KW players, knowing that they would erupt with a missed kick and that there would be nothing lost photography-wise if the kick was good. Fortunately for me and the camera, the two embracing KW players landed right in front of me, moments after the kick was sent wide, perfectly lit and full of raw emotion with their teammates celebrating in the background. Photo-journalistically this was my best photo of the year in my opinion and to capture it in such a cool setting easily slotted it in the number one spot for 2024.
That’s my list! Let me know if you would change the order of any of these shots or if I omitted a photo that should have been here. I had some good fun putting this list together and I hope to keep this list going for 2025 and onwards.