Best Flickr Photo of the Year

Contrary to what the title of this post might suggest, I’m not picking a best photo I’ve found or come across on Flickr. Instead, the whole point of Flickr’s Photo of the Year pool is for you to pick out your own best photo of the year. Something that I find appealing as an amateur photographer. I’ve had my Nikon D40 for about a year now and the more and more I use it, the more and more I just love using it. And, even though I’m far from what I consider a skilled photographer, I think that doing something as introspective as picking your best photo out yourself is a good exercise to see how far you’ve come. Looking at a year’s worth of photos – nine in all – I can see how markedly better I’ve gotten in such a short time. Bodes well for next year. Looking at my stuff, I thought I’d share the top photos I’ve taken in the year 2009.

Let me know in the comments which photo I should choose as my top 3, absolute best or even worst photos. I’ll be choosing what I think is my best once I’ve had some time to take a closer look at all the work within a week or so and I’d love to hear any feedback at all. There’s a link to click for a non-flickr, full size shot if you want to see more detail.

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Mott Street, Chinatown NYC +lrg

This photo was taken on Mott Street in NYC while walking up the Lower East Side of Manhattan from the South Side Seaport. I really liked the life and vibrance of markets and this street was definitely full of life. It was an interesting walk shooting things with my friend Steven Fischer. Probably one of the best (hell, the best) walks in NYC I’ve done.

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Cheap Dinosaurs at VGXPO, Philadelphia PA +lrg

Shot this of the band Cheap Dinosaurs at the VGXPO in Philly. I was down there shooting the events and antics for the 8BitX Network, run by a great friend of mine and amazing radio host Will Strouse. The band played with a projector, which was being worked on by a circuit bended playing around with graphics. It was a pretty sweet show that devolved over time into cacophony. I was a bit unprepared for shooting this, but I think I pulled some decent photos out.

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8BitX 4th of July – Wrestling, Allentown PA +lrg

If you happen to know my friends, then this picture shouldn’t be puzzling to you at all. Getting Mets and Will together and expecting them to not put on a wrestling demonstration, complete with weapons and sound effects, is a fool’s errand. Never actually got to see the final results of the video, though.

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Empty Space at the Sussex County Fairgrounds, Sussex NJ +lrg

I wish I had gotten more shots of this event, but many of the artists at the Peter’s Valley Craft Show weren’t too happy about having photos taken of their work, which always stuck me as an odd thing, considering usually one sells art by getting their pieces seen by as many people as possible. This was one of those glorious days and was just perfect early fall weather in New Jersey. It is a very odd sight to see such a huge plot of lands (the Sussex Co. Fairgrounds are huge) empty of tents and people wandering around a fair.

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Cloe Dog, Lancaster PA +lrg

This is actually the only shot that wasn’t taken with my D40. Oddly enough, it was taken with my Palm Pre. The Pre takes some of the best shots in day light of any point and shoot I’ve ever used. Here are the kind of results. This is Cloe, a dog on my friend Sam’s farm, after a long day (about 3 hours) of light walking around as we hung out in late summer.

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Obey Blackberry +lrg

This is one of the photos I took for the DIY skinning of my Blackberry Curve 8900 almost a year ago. For whatever reason, it’s always a shot that caught my eye. The sticker is of Shepard Fairey’s OBEY Andre the Giant face. The sticker is still on the phone, and it still looks awesome.

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Flipping a Coin, Philadelphia PA +lrg

I ran into this shot by accident, but it’s one that I really enjoy. One of those happy accidents of sorts. I’d say it’s a pretty good portrait of my friend Mets (seen in an above photo beating my friend Will). This was after the Armadillo Tank set at VGXPO, which was one of the best times I’ve ever had.

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The Green, Central Park NYC +lrg

No matter how played out NYC may get for some, I love it for many reasons. You can walk only a short way and it could seem like you’re in a whole different part of the world. This is the Great Lawn in Central Park as seen from the south (by the Turtle Pond). I was playing around in black & white that day, and the resulting shot here just gave me a feeling of a beach in the 1920’s for some reason. I’ll probably work this photo into a print at some point.

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Silhouetted Barnegate Lighthouse, Long Beach Island NJ +lrg

Believe it or not, this photo is unprocessed (you can actually tell because I didn’t straighten it in post). It was a really nice moment of the day when the sun just barely dipped behind the lighthouse, and I happened to be at the perfect angle. Another case of right place, right time. All I could think about when I took this shot was, “Shit… I hope this one turns out alright.”

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Megan Tackling Mike, Allentown PA +lrg

Another shot from the 8BitX BBQ. I have no idea why (maybe to keep him from running to the next base?) Megan jumped Mike. Don’t really have to explain why I like this shot. A really good memory from a really good day.

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So those are what I consider my best nine shots of the year. What do you say? If you want to see more, just drop by my Flickr account. I’m not vouching it’ll all be this good – in fact I promise it won’t be.