Around this time every year people start posting their top 9 most liked Instagram posts. The top most liked post doesn't mean they are the best photos, they are the ones that have struck a chord on your hand held device. Up above are the PhotoCPL top 9.
#1
Straight off the bat this one messes with the concept of the best, I mean I fricken love it, Mackenzie Bowden oozes style and panache, but the reason its number 1 is because Mac colabbed it on Insty, so his likes from his profile are pooled in too. Classy turn but aye.
#2
Again a bit of a distort, although I almost don't want to point it out because Al Sander's bottom turn here is everything good, a great Piha surfer on a solid wave, kind of within a line up....BUT it was the leading image in a post that had 4 more images in it... so was Al's THE shot? Did the other four images help push the likes up?
#3
The post only cost 7K to make!!! Of course Ange and I didn't get the Troopy resprayed for an Insty moment. The old girl's paint was failing, it's 25 years old, it was over due. But I have to say very stoked so many people liked this post. The Troopy is pretty mint now.
#4
East coast peelers posted during a swell event, it's kind of a cheap trick, even although the wave is only in the 3-4 ft range, we all love Eastcoast swells. The funny thing is, if I post a couple of 3 foot west coast waves peeling down a bank, meehhh. Maybe because it's less of a rarity?
#5
This sequence of Luke Cederman is mad. Frothed I got to capture the uber talented Raglan surfer going through a nearly daily ritual.
Warren Hawke also used the main image in his book NZ Surf Windows
#6
No hedging on this one; one of the best barrel sequences of my career as a waterphotographer. It's technically near on perfect, sharpness and exposure etc. From a surfing point of view a heaving tube with Napes right in the driver's seat. Here's the whole sequence, I don't know which is the best frame.
#7
Who doesn't love a dreamy 4 wave line up of Wharikiriki. This older line up was posted because it is a full page in NZ Surf Windows as part of a feature about Ahipara and the changes the breaks have and are going through. It was the hardest feature to write for me. But I was able to reach out to locals and local iwi to hopefully convey a balanced perspective on one of our national surfing treasures.
#8
Another sequence, on a small summer's day out west, quite frankly the days I froth to surf, but choose to swim instead.
It paid off, Bill Byers landing more images in NZ Surf Windows
#9
Luke Cederman makes the top 9 twice...wellllll he had a little help; this post was another of those multiple image posts. Love that it's well over head surf.
It's certainly true that I also like these images too. Are they all my favourites of 2022, no. There are images from 2022 that where more commercially successful, like the use of this image in Auckland Hospital, which is the third PhotoCPL image/mural for ADHB, AND there's a fourth going in next year.
This post could go on for days, me splitting hairs over what photos of 2022 were best and what best means. 2022 was another strange year, still Covid affected, lingering injuries hampering shooting and surfing, regardless it was a good year. Warren Hawke created a book that I had the honour of publishing and contributing too...you may have noticed it has been mentioned a few times. Making a surf book is an all consuming project, it's taxing, but if you get it right, its also rewarding, hopefully financially too, but adding just a little more documentation to our Kiwi surfing community. It's not something Warren or I take lightly. Anyways... 2022- you where weird.
And that's it for me, see ya next year.