POY - Picture of the Year / 2009

<p>Interesting and diffcult thread! I chose the easy way: will share my picture with the highest number of views during 2009. Shot with Pentax K200D and Sigma 400mm/5,6 APO.<br>

<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/9927839-lg.jpg" border="0" alt="Me & The Black Sea" width="669" height="1000" /></p>

<p>Javier,<br />Thank you very much for the kind words. You know that I follow your work intently. I have to say that my favorite Javier photo is one you took on the boardwalk, a photo of three people with a lady sitting on a man's lap and they looked like they were having the greatest time ever. To draw a conclusion from the photo (knowing nothing about the people in it) it looks like those two people who are enjoying one another so much probably don't have much else besides one another. It was very touching to me even if the reality is not what I draw from the photo. </p>

<p>You capture so much of the daily human condition, but not just snapshots of things around you. They aren't just scenes from your walks, but slices of peoples' lives where you capture memories for them. It's like you capture clips of people's lives that they themselves would want to have in their family scrapbooks forever. Very few people have photos of 'themselves' being 'themselves' the way they really remember having lived that moment. You capture that. Your photos inspire me to go beyond the technical and make photos that the people in them would be proud of.</p>

<p>Wow John. I don't know what to say. I am touched and blessed.<br>

Thank you :)<br>

javier</p>

<p>This young lady was a fellow participant in a nature photo workshop that I was taking this past summer and she graciously agreed to model for me. I learned a lot, saw where I needed more knowledge and loved taking pictures of her because she is a natural model. I believe she also enjoyed herself, given her expression here.</p><div></div>

<p>Hmm, I really don't have a photo of the year. I have some decent photos from 2009, but nothing just screams to me WOW! 2009 was a wasted year on many dimensions, and I'm glad it's gone.</p>

<p>I've mostly returned to film. And glad to have lightened the burden of digital processing, following a hard drive meltdown, a laptop and a netbook dying in the same month, I realized I like having hard copies, even ones that fade, and become brittle. A little Kodak Digital ROC can bring back a lot of the original color, and all I need is some sunlight to view them. For some reason I stopped with automatic hard drive backups mainly because I was shooting so little and decided not to leave my desktop running 24 hours a day just to run overnight backups, and I almost lost quite a few files, including at least 1 I cared about from a saleability standpoint. Fortunately I have shot so little since May 2009, that I had a lot of my stuff leftover on cards. Or, I was able to recover using Sandisk Rescue Pro recovery from formatted cards. Overall, I lost just one weekends worth of photos...moral of the story, backup and backup often. Second moral of the story, just because Sandisk gave those Rescue Pro disk away, didn't make them worthless.</p>

<p>That and the fact I just like processing my film. I also like the emotional connection to it I don't have with digital at the time of capture, when shooting digital images are almost taken for granted. I resisted digital for a long time because when I'm out in the backcountry, standing on a mountain, or in front of a lake, I don't want to deal with computers or electronics, and a digital camera is just a little computer with lens.</p>

<p>Anyway, this shot stands out as just one of those days where you have to be outside to get the shot. There are always a few images in my mind from the start that I'd like to get, but those are always dependent upon the conditions. Sometimes no planning, no magic lens, filters, or tomfoolery is required, just roll out of bed and summit a mountain, and on the way down, this might be staring you in the face.</p>

<p><a title="Sunset Ridge by Mountain Visions, on Flickr" href=" title="Sunset Ridge by Mountain Visions, on Flickr"></a> <a title="Sunset Ridge by Mountain Visions, on Flickr" href=" title="Sunset Ridge by Mountain Visions, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3542/3393571599_bbe29f9b34.jpg" alt="Sunset Ridge" width="500" height="387" /> </a></p>

<p> </p>

<p>Welcome back, Justin! Great choice for your POY. I can feel the cold and the beauty...even if I am looking at it in a dark room :-)</p>

<p>Are you here to stay?</p>

<p>I've never been fully, gone, I was monitoring the forums via RSS and occassionally logging in, but of course the temptation once logged in is to post. I won't be getting up to 3, 2, or even one film canister anytime soon. I have several trips planned in February, and I'm up in the Adirondacks almost every weekend Fri-Monday afternoon. Plus, I've been getting a lot of my stuff print ready. So the week goes by fast, without a lot of computer time!</p>

<p>With the 4 day weekend for me, and the ridiculously warm temps (yeah, I know 40F isn't balmy), I figured while I was tied down to a computer I'd stop in "live in person". I hate holidays, so I'm sitting out the weekend till at least Sunday night. I don't have to be at work until Tuesday afternoon or evening, which means I can start my weekend when everyone else is headed home :-)...</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I know what you mean, Justin. I'm down to 1 film canister, and not that bothered. I <em>am</em> annoyed at the lack of shooting time I have. I need to make that a priority.</p>

<p>Good to have you back Justin! Hopefully you'll make more than a cameo appearance for 2010! :-)</p>

<p>Hey Justin, great to hear from you. Well, Justin that shot, your mood, the mood of the shot, the simplistic method, all speak for itself. I'm not too sad 2009 is over either.<br>

I have to say due to the fact that I don't know any better, and I surely don't know 1/1000th of what you guys all know, most of my shots are without any special lenses, filters, or as you say 'tomfoolery'. And I agree, years ago before digital when I had a Canon SLR my shots were 'different' for some reason. Probably because for me with a young family, film and developing were pretty expensive so each and every shot meant something. Now that I have switched to digital I shoot way too many shots. I just picked up some used Ansel Adams books from Amazon and his approach was something I am going to look more at.</p>

<p>Thanks everyone for posting</p>

<p>Bob,</p>

<p>If you have the inclination, you might fool around with black and white. Total cost to get you started (and at the same time process about 100 rolls of film) is about $100 give or take.It's really not messy using the syrupy HC-110 so the kitchen sink works just fine.</p>

<p>You need about 2 feet of counter space total. It's a lot of fun, gets you connected to the images, and has some of that magic of waiting hours, days, or weeks for your slides to come back.</p>

<p>I'd say most of my shots don't require a magic lens, often it's just about being there. And I know you know that as well as anyone.</p>

<p>Enjoy the Adams books, those older film books believe it or not still have tons of value in the digital world, regardless of what you are shooting. Most of my photography book collection is film books, and I still reference them. On the flip side, I was reading a 1960 something copy of Mountaineering Freedom of the Hills the other night, and holy crap, what a useless pile of paper. Wanted to toss it in the wood stove!! I guess capturing light in a lightproof box didn't evolve nearly as much as ascending a mountain over the last 50 years!</p>

<p>BTW, I loved that shot when you posted it last year, definitely my kind of scene. You should consider contacting NYS Parks if you think it is printable. Would make a nice inset to a brochure. Moreau is a gem, especially with that Spier Falls section added on. When we eventually move to the Glens Falls area, that side of GF seems ideal. Wouldn't mind a house backed up to the park.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>What I like about this "picture of the year" thread is that it includes two types of shots: 1. the kind one might be proud of for technical, artistic, or objective reasons, and 2. personal favorites that connect strongly on an emotional level. They also may be artistically or technically excellent or even flawed, but the driver is the emotional connection.</p>

<p>It's all good to me.</p>

<p>ME</p>

<p>I hope it's not too late to post. After being away for a while, it's kind of hard to remember to drop by over here.</p>

<p>At the beginning of this year I was searching for the solution to making digital images look like Fujichrome Velvia 100F. After a few months of experimenting and spending much time in photoshop, I discovered the secrete. I recorded that secrete into an action to increase shooting time. Now, instead of spending several hours a day staring at a computer screen, I have a lot more time to just be out in nature and to wait for those things to come along that only patience can bring. After all, like Justin said, "...just roll out of bed and summit a mountain, and on the way down, this might be staring you in the face."</p>

<p>It's kind of hard to decide which image to select for Photo of the Year. After visiting many different national parks this year, it's kind of hard to decide. But here it is, my best of the year image.</p>

<div></div>

<p>POY? Really hard to decide, but I personally like this one.. :)<br>

Shot taken at Lydd-on-Sea, UK in May 09.<img src="http://www.miro-svoren.com/photos/89.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="640" /></p>

<p>Wow! ^ That is an amazing image. The tonality is just gorgeous.</p>

<p>Here is my choice. To pick one photo isn't all that simple.<br>

Newcastle NSW Australia, beach scene by dawn.</p>

<p><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2711/4257992905_97b97d1c18.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="333" /></p>