It always seems like the end of the year is a good time to look back and reflect.  As a photographer, I think its instructive to do the same thing; by looking at what I’ve learned, what I tried and what didn’t work over the last year, it helps to make my images better.  As such, I’ve chosen to finish this blog year by choosing five of my favorite images from 2009.  These images may not be my absolute best of 2009, but for various reasons, they’re the ones that mean something to me.

As a post-Christmas special, I’m offering 30% off the purchase price of these five prints through January 15.

I hope you enjoy them!

The first of my five favorite images of 2009 was somewhat planned, somewhat not.   In October, my friend and I headed to the Sierra Nevada to attempt to find fall colors (looking in the archives, you’ll our hopes fell flat…alas).   Because we left work late, we camped in the Alabama Hills outside of Lone Pine, CA.  I had been looking forward to photographing Mobius Arch (aka Galen’s Arch) for several months and had visualized in my mind’s eye the nighttime shots you can see on this page for months.

That star trail shot almost made my top five for the year.  However, early the next morning, the alpenglow on the Sierra was unreal.  The sky lit up a beautiful purple color, and the mountains turned a lovely light pink.  For about 5 minutes, it was unreal.  The moon was setting over the Sierra, adding to the scene.  Thus, Mobius Arch at dawn is the first of my five favorite images of 2009.

Mobius Arch at dawn, October 2009

I recently had this image printed as a 12×18, and it really does look phenomenal.  It will hang in a friend’s home eventually, but right now I’m enjoying it in my own!