So this is a first – my favorite image of 2016 is a brand new one that I am sharing in the countdown for the first time.  On the morning of Wednesday December 14th, I headed out of the house eager to capture aerial images of Marblehead with my new Phantom drone.  I had purchased the flying camera a week earlier and was just starting to get the hang of it but had not yet been able to shoot under great light.

On this morning, the conditions seemed promising and I headed out towards Abbot Hall.  I brought the phantom up along the east side of the building and then worked my way around until I found this scene exploding in front of my eyes (well, first person view on the iPad to be precise).  161 feet up in the air, the aerial view of historic downtown Marblehead was like a dream.  I was able to include Abbot Hall in the foreground with numerous landmarks below (Jeremiah Lee Mansion, St. Michaels, Grace Community Church, Old North Church) and Marblehead Light perfectly positioned across the water.  As a bonus, the morning light colored the steam from a nearby chimney in a golden glow and a single sailboat was moored within Marblehead Harbor.

There’s an old saying – Light Dawns on Marblehead – which roughly translates to that moment of clarity following utter befuddlement.  While I had captured a few aerial views of Marblehead in the week leading up to this morning, the scene before me was what I had envisioned and hoped for when I purchased the drone.  For the sheer awesomeness of the scene and its symbolism as a road forward creatively, ‘Light Dawns on Marblehead’ is my favorite image of 2016.

Look for a recap of the top 10 tomorrow and the annual New Years Day slideshow revisiting all 253 images shared in 2016 on the morning of January 1st.