This year is another one where, unsurprisingly, my top 10 is filled with personal images. The big difference this year is that 8 or my actual top 10 are not here. I can't publish them yet for a couple of different reasons. So this year my selection should be titled 'Craigs Top 10 Photos of 2023 that can be published right now'!

2023 was filled with overseas adventures, speaking at the Shutterhound conference in Las Vegas, and teaching the Style Lab Retreat in Iceland and the Unleashed Workshop in Arrowtown. Visits to Arrowtown and Australia with Charlotte, and Charlotte visiting me in Christchurch all to plan and create content for the Premium Membership. It's no surprise then, that a few of my top 10 are from the same shoots/locations as Charlotte's. But whatever overlap there is, I think they illustrate how different people see an image so differently. We notice it at the workshops too, give the same dog to 9 people in a single location and you see 9 totally different images as a result.

So let's do this, here are my top images from this year...

Canon EOS R5, Canon RF 70-200mm ƒ/2.8L IS USM @81mm, ISO 2000, 1/250 sec, ƒ/2.8, multiple image stitch.

I'm sure anyone who follows my business, Furtography, or our Unleashed adventures will be familiar with this guy, Benson. I think he's possibly the most photographed dog in New Zealand! It's always a lot of fun catching up with him and his mum Merran. This shoot was at the picturesque lake at St Bathans, Charlotte goes a little into the history of the place in her Top 10 of 2023 post.

The light was amazing and very strange, a purplish twilight that seemed to linger for ages, I loved the softness and how warm it still seemed, so I got Benson to sit on the jetty looking out over the water and towards the little light that remained and this was the result, I love the atmosphere in this shot. 

Fujifilm GFX 50s, Fujifilm GF 63mm ƒ/2.8 R WR, ISO 800, 1/250 sec, ƒ/2.8. Multiple image stitch.

Charlotte and I had a shoot with the very lovely Blitz at the river when she visited me in Christchurch back in February. Taken while filming our new mini-course 'Unleashing Light on Location', which will get a full release in the Premium Membership in April. The shoot started out pretty cloudy and we weren't sure if we'd be able to capture Charlotte's trademark backlit style of image or get a good sky for me to create a Dogorama® on the river bad, which is what we'd planned for this shoot. Fortunately, the clouds broke a little and we managed to do what we intended. The sunset sky turned out to be particularly epic and enabled me to create this Dogorama® filled with colour. Blitz's episode of 'Unleashing Light on Location' was quietly released a while back and is available in the Premium Membership now!

Canon EOS R5, Canon RF 70-200mm ƒ/2.8L IS USM @70mm, ISO 1250, 1/500 sec, ƒ/2.8. Multiple image stitch.

It couldn't be a round-up of 2023 without the inclusion of a couple of images from our INCREDIBLE trip to Iceland, we were there in September teaching the Style Lab Retreat with the wonderful Alicja Zmysłowska. It was my first time in Iceland and all I can say is WOW! The raw nature and the iconic scenery just blew my mind. This Dogorama® was taken at the well-known waterfall Skogafoss with the stunning Boli on modelling duties. Skogafoss is huge, you can feel the spray coming off of the falls several hundred metres away and the roar of the water crashing down was so powerful it was almost deafening.

Canon EOS R5, Canon RF 70-200mm ƒ/2.8L IS USM @172mm, ISO 640, 1/500 sec, ƒ/2.8.

Back in April, we hosted our second Unleashed Workshop in Arrowtown, this time taking full advantage of the gorgeous autumn colours throughout the region. After the workshop we had a few extra days to plan, yes, there was a strong planning theme happening in 2023, which is going to result in some awesome new content through 2024. Anyway, during those few days, we had to take advantage of the season for ourselves and I wanted to photograph a dog that fitted perfectly amongst all the warm autumnal tones. So when Ezlka's mum contacted me, I knew she was perfect. We headed back to this orchard in Cromwell, where Ezka kindly obliged while her mum gently scattered leaves. She had such a fantastic variety of expressions, that it was hard to choose just one favourite from this photoshoot!

We love Arrowtown so much, that we're teaching one last autumn workshop there in April 2024. We've got just 1 space left, find out the details here. 

Canon EOS R5, Canon RF 70-200mm ƒ/2.8L IS USM @70mm, ISO 800, 1/500 sec, ƒ/2.8.

Oh Grimm, what a handsome boy! Another photoshoot in the Otago region and another break from planning with Charlotte. This was taken just a few weeks ago at the end of November in Glenorchy, at the far end of Lake Wakatipu roughly an hour from Arrowtown. Grimm's mum, Mady, is a Furtography regular and along with Merran, Benson's mum, are some of my favourite people to work with. Mady (and Merran) always encourage me to embrace my creativity and are always willing to let me try new ideas out with them and their dogs, for which, I'm eternally grateful. I love this shot from our Lupin photoshoot because it showcases the location, with the flowers and the snow-capped peaks in the distance, perfectly.

For this shot Grimm was standing up on an old apple box so he doesn't disappear in the height of the lupins, this is not the only shot in my top 10 where a prop was used to elevate the dog...

Canon EOS R5, Canon RF 70-200mm ƒ/2.8L IS USM @163mm, ISO 640, 1/500 sec, ƒ/3.5.

That brings me to this image of my very own little monkey, Ralph sitting high(ish, it was a small tree) up in the cherry blossoms this spring. This was taken just a 3-minute walk from my house and we carried a little step ladder to elevate him on. You can catch a quick behind-the-scenes reel on my Instagram page here. This year has been such a whirlwind of adventures, it was only when I came to make my annual Ralph calendar (thanks for what has become a tradition for me now too Charlotte), that I realised I'd only done 2 proper photoshoots with him this year, the first being at sunrise on New Years Day, the other being this one, so I didn't have enough images to make a calendar this year. I won't repeat that mistake in 2024!

Fujifilm GFX 50s, Fujifilm GF 63mm ƒ/2.8 R WR, ISO 100, 1/8 sec, ƒ/11.

This is another shot from Iceland, Kvernufoss to be exact, a fantastic waterfall just a few minutes away from Skogafoss, in the image of Boli earlier. This was a very challenging shot technically, and is one I wanted to capture in Iceland if the models proved to be still enough! I was lucky to find 2 models who could hold a pose perfectly still long enough for me to capture a sharp image at a very slow shutter speed, that would allow for the water to blur. Adding to the difficulty level, I didn't have a tripod and had to handhold the camera. Nessie was such a good model, this was her second day with us at the retreat. We first met her at our first session at a glacier. Aside from managing to accomplish a pretty challenging shot, technically speaking, I love her pose and the way the light falls on her, as well as her silhouette just creeping into the smooth water falling from 30 metres above.

 

Fujifilm GFX 50s, Fujifilm GF 63mm ƒ/2.8 R WR, ISO 1600, 1/125 sec, ƒ/2.8. Multiple image stitch.

This is another shot from our adventures in Arrowtown, back in Cromwell for this one, this time in the old town. I've been finding myself enjoying twilight and low light situations recently, there's something about the light and the way colour can be pulled from this time of day I love. It does push the limits of the camera, especially when shooting natural light. So I've also found myself using the Icelight more often too. This is Remi, and big thanks again to Mady for bringing this cutie to model for us at the Unleashed Workshop.

Canon EOS R5, Canon RF 70-200mm ƒ/2.8L IS USM @111mm, ISO 100, 1/1250 sec, ƒ/2.8.

Who doesn't love a silhouette? When visiting Charlotte, we took some time out to head up to Bribie Island to photograph huskie Rider. There was a bushfire very nearby which did get a little worrying for a while there. But thankfully it was on the other side of the island and we were safe. It did cause a smoky hazy bright orange sky at sunset. I love this silhouette so much, just for the little bit of water that Rider is kicking up that is catching the light.

Canon EOS R5, Canon RF 70-200mm ƒ/2.8L IS USM @200mm, ISO 640, 1/500 sec, ƒ/2.8.

One final shot from Iceland, Tiina the giant schnauzer joined us at the very first glacier shoot and once I had grabbed a few shots with the icy blues behind her, I turned the camera away from the glacier viewpoint and shot her between giant mounds of black moraine, sandy debris and rocks left from the volcanic rocks and ask that has fallen during eruptions in times gone by. Low-key images always intrigue me and I am really happy with how this attempt at natural light low-key turned out.

So that's it, my top 10 (that I can publish now) from 2023. It's funny, 9 of these images I created whilst I was with Charlotte. I don't think that is a coincidence, we bring out the best in each other and definitely encourage and inspire each other to explore our creativity more. I am excited for all we have planned together in 2024 and beyond, to continue pushing the boundaries of our creative selves and see what magic we can bring forth for ourselves and for you lovely people, our fabulous Unleashed community.

What are your personal favourites? We’d love to see you share them in our Facebook community.

If you'd like to find out more about Craig Turner-Bullock, you can check out his About page here, or find out more about Unleashed Education here.