After seeing people sharing their best photos of 2020 on Twitter, blogs, Instagram… I decided I should have my own selection. My first idea was to choose one photo from each month of the year but… I chose 50 in total and I thought it was a good number, right?
A small disclaimer: my criteria involves technical specs here and there, but my final decision was based on good memories and how well the photos represent the year of 2020 for me. So rather than being “my best photos of 2020”, these are my favourites:
This first photo is so simple, yet it represents 2020 a lot to me. It was my first photo of the year and it was taken at a coffee shop near my home. That day, my husband and I walked for a while until we finally found an open place to have our breakfast. There we talked for about an hour about our plans for the year, which included investing all my time and resources in my store and some tech ventures together. On that day we were full of hope and expecting 2020 would be the best of our lives!
This one is from my birthday at AGO Bistro. We thought that could be a great new tradition for us. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, it will be closed by the time of my next birthday, on January 5th. Here’s my review of their brunch.
We celebrated our 4th anniversary at Bosk Restaurant and as a gift, they gave us this (literally) sweet honey pot. I wrote about that lovely evening here.
This photo represents January mornings perfectly.
I used to go to work in a co-working space once a week and sometimes we had furry sweet companies there. I miss working outside my home so much!
These churros from Rosalinda are the best I have had so far in Toronto. I wrote about this restaurant here.
Hubby enjoying the cold with Syrah, our dog. She loves winter!
Hubby documenting the frozen waters.
This photo is important because it was our last meal at a restaurant before the first lockdown. A few days after this photo, the Ontario government decided to close all public indoor spaces.
The first flowers of the year. I love to see this every year!
With everything closed we walked a lot during that time. I have nice photos of our afternoon “adventures”.
My dog waiting for my husband to come back from the grocery store. I find this photo precious.
It was time to adapt.
I love this photo because I took in on a weekend we went out for a walk and we could feel the weather warming up. At that time things seemed a little better, we were all waiting for the government to announce an easing on the restrictions. Indeed, we had good news a couple of days later.
It was the first time we had been able to enter Starbucks since the lockdown.
And our first coffee in the sun, as the weather was warming up.
That time of the year when there are tulips all over the city.
This year I got an electric scooter and hubby and I explored some parts of the city we usually don’t go to too often. This pier was one of the surprises we got while exploring the waterfront west.
I don’t need to justify why this photo is in my top 50, right?
Every year I look forward to the day they start to bring back the boats to the marine in front of our building. For us it’s like an unspoken summer start.
This year we renovated our patio, so we spent a lot of time there during summer. I showed my balcony renovations in this video.
This was our first brunch at a restaurant after they reopened the restaurants in Toronto. A different experience, for sure, but yet celebrated. Here’s my review of that brunch.
This year we used the balcony a lot and our Saturday dinners were the highlight!
And the dog enjoyed last summer too!
I like this photo because it was not planned. We’re walking on the waterfront and decided to stop by this pub and have a beer. It was special because it was the first time we could do that in a long time.
As my husband has been working from home this year, we adapted the balcony to work from there on sunny days. Good memories!
This year was the best year of my dog’s life, for sure. She had us both at home all the time and had a lot of afternoon fun walks.
That time of the year when the light is getting orange and you know Fall is coming.
With the gyms closed we usually went for running or walking every morning and we could see pretty sunrises. See? It’s just a matter of looking at the bright side!
At the end of the summer I was invited to visit the Cave Spring Vineyard. Here’s everything about that memorable afternoon.
As a photographer I can say my eyes are always wide open to register the moments. So I feel there’s always a time of the year when I can still see the colours on the flowers and yet see them deteriorating. Fall is coming.
This photo is not beautiful, but it made the cut because I took it on our last brunch of the year. It was in September. Right after that they announced the second Toronto lockdown.
My first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season!
Syrah is so afraid of water that it took a while to finally see her drinking water on a public fountain at the park. Now she loves it!
With no places to go, we’ve been enjoying the weekend coffees we got from the Loblaws near home. They always write sweet things on the coffee’s sleeves!
Colours of Fall in the city.
More colours.
Definitely the best year of her life!
I came back to my analog passion this past October and I can’t get enough of it. This photo was taken on a day I went to shoot the sunrise. It was magical.
Film photography has been making me rediscover old spots in Toronto.
Suddenly, it was about time to decorate the house for Christmas.
Since I decided to dedicate more time to photography I’ve been on long walks all over the city and it’s helping me to cope with this second lockdown.
Thanks to my long walks I took a lot of beautiful photos of the sunrise in Toronto.
And I could experiment with old subjects.
I love this photo I took with the Lomography Lady Grey 400 film. You can read about my experience with this film here.
Seriously, these “pandemic walks” are making me see old places with new eyes and I’m loving it.
Maybe I didn’t have as many oppportunities to take photos in new places and new food, but this year I was able to take so many photos of CN Tower, my favourite subject in Toronto.
I’m so in love with this photo. It’s on of my favourites of this year.
And this one is my favourite photo on film. Yes, I love to include geometric elements in photos!
2020, the year of my dog!
Every Monday, before anything else, I sit at my computer and edit my photos from last week. There are some Mondays when I don’t have too much to work on, but there are others when I have so many photos that I feel overwhelmed to choose the best ones to post on the blog. And those are the Mondays after a great week.
I realized when I enjoy a week or do exciting things, I have a lot of photos I love after all. So this amount of good photos has been my “happiness” thermometer for over 2 years now.
After scrolling through all of my photos this year I got convinced that I can’t complain about 2020. My plans didn’t work out as expected, especially with my store, but I have to acknowledge how blessed I am and only hope for a better 2021.
Having 50 photos I love was the proof I needed to know I did the best I could this year and I have so many others ahead to make my plans finally come true.
I hope this post has inspired you to look through your memories and look at this year with different eyes and find blessings hiding in all the negative vibes we were stuck in for the last months. I also hope this will inspire you to approach this new year differently and start to document the little joys in your life. Maybe on December 31st of 2021 you can make an album with the top 100 photos of the year. You just have to start now!
