Best Photos of the Year...A Duel To The Death

It has become tradition for nature photographers to post a compilation of their best photos of the year. This year I finally had my act together enough to contribute something to the web. There turned out to be a problem however....

I discovered my favorite images and my "best" images were not always the same. I was constantly drawn to the photos I had an emotional connection to: the ones that had a story, a funny circumstance, or a mishap associated with them. I've been around photography long enough to know how to turn of that emotion off when I'm editing but I wasn't sure I wanted to this time. After a long deliberation (of about 90 seconds), I decided the only fair way to pick the images was to assign them to different categories and let them compete against each other...to the death, as it were. The winners would be immortalized for eternity in a blog post while the losers would be cast into the darkness of the hard drive. So without further adieu, here are the victors in each of the ten selected categories.

 Best image taken on Thanksgiving because my wife works and I'm looking for something to do with my son.

Keystone Spit, Whidbey Island, Washington

 Best image taken one-handed while fending off a young child pulling on my jacket.

Fort Casey, Whidbey Island, Washington

 Best image taken on a day when I really thought I would get absolutely nothing accomplished because of the weather.

Double Bluff Beach, Whidbey Island, Washington

 Best image taken while realizing that I am completely alone in a State Park on a warm Friday evening and starting to become paranoid that there is some deranged killer loose in the woods.

Camano Island State Park, Washington

Best image taken while losing a polarizing filter in the river.

Sauk River, Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Park, Washington

 Best image taken while accepting a warm beverage from a passing waiter on the deck of a cruise ship.

Tracy Arm. Alaska

Best image taken while worrying that I had gotten the departure time wrong for my cruise ship.

Skagway, Alaska

Best image taken after arriving well after sunrise and assuming I'd screwed everything up.

Rainy Lake, Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, Washington

and last but not least...

Best image taken while saving a small child, cat, and puppy dog from the raging surf of the Puget Sound.......well maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but it is my favorite shot of the year.

Mukilteo, Washington

Thanks for looking and (hopefully) having a little chuckle. I promise to do more macro photography next year.