Favorites of the Year: 2011 Edition

For the past handful of years Jim M. Goldstein has posted an absolutely huge list of "best of the year" blog posts from people around the world.  This will be my third year submitting a post for the list [ If you missed the past ones, check out year one and year two. ].  I look forward to participating in this, and going through the list when he posts it.  ( The 2011 list is posted. )

And now to the pictures.  If you'd prefer to just look at them as a set and not read my ramblings hit up the flickr set.

I consider this picture one of my best in the last few years. There are a number of reasons why. I like the composition, the green and orange, the drizzle dancing off the pavement, the people, and that I got completely soaked making it. As I brought this through post-production I sat and stared at it like in an idiot. Its rare I do that. I also made a large print of it, which is also quite rare.  I like this one so much I encourage you to see it a bit bigger on the flickr lightbox.

This one makes the list because I hope it makes people think and it scared me to place it in public. Truthfully, it makes me nervous to re-highlight now. If you see this and are a little peeved with me, maybe my explanation makes it better. If not, I'm sorry, don't hold it against me too much because it isn't meant to offend ( If I truly wanted to, I'm sure I could think of easier ways to offend people ).

This is one of my attempts at landscapes this year. I don't feel I'm too good at them. I like the more compressed approach to landscapes that some people take, so I attempted to emulate it. I am placing it third in this list because it has the same orangey feel of the first two.  I had a couple of others that almost made the cut, but this one outdoes them.

These three represent a little project I have rolling with Tobias. He likes to dress up in costumes. I try to make some pictures that might capture the way he sees himself in them, instead of like the toys that they are. My favorite of the three is the Knight, it is the catalyst of the idea. The Clone Trooper is a very, very close second.  There are others in this flickr set .  We will continue adding to it over time.

Kathryn has gotten too "cool" for pictures.  So, it is nice when I am able to get a decent one of her.  Hopefully next year I will get the chance to make a few more.  They grow up fast.

Carly isn't much of a fan of this picture.  I, however, do like it.  Granted, its harder to get Carly to sit for a picture than it is to get Kathryn to sit for a picture, so I'm pretty happy with anything I can get at this point.

This is my favorite puppy picture for the year. The snow she is running about in was the first hour or so worth from a of a pretty nasty snowstorm.  It started slightly before rush evening hour. I opted to stay home that day because of the weather report. People that went in spent hours upon hours upon hours on the highway on the way home. Some had to abandon their cars and get them later. I got to take pictures of my dog.

Here is the final picture on my favorites list. It was an "out-take" from a some dancer pictures I was making. Why is it an out-take? Its not, really, I guess. But I opted to use a light setup for this different than the safer "one size fits all" approach that I used for everything else. It looks different. I put it last on this list because it seems like she is holding all the other pictures up.

If you have made it this far, thank you for looking and reading. If you stopped somewhere at the top, thank you too-- although you will not see this.

Have a good 2012.