While I’ve already obsessed on these pages about my photojournalism portfolio, which in many ways was also a “best of 2009″ as the majority of the photos I selected were made recently, I felt that it would be a good idea to revisit my nature images from 2009.  Along the journey back in time through my Lightroom library, I also found a lot of quirky images that I really enjoy, but that I don’t always have an opportunity to show.  So here, then, are two portfolios from 2009: the best of my nature work, and some of my more off-beat frames. I’m anxious to see what 2010 will bring!

My Best Nature Images of 2009

More after the jump!
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Tags: nature, photography, retrospectives, slideshow, Year in Review
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Memorial Stadium in the pouring rain. The Nebraska Huskers beat the Missouri Tigers in a last-minute comeback in the 4th quarter to win 27-12 on Thursday, October 8, 2009 in Columbia, Mo. / Canon 1D II N and 24-70mm f/2.8L lens @ 42mm; Exposed 1/60 sec. @ f/5.6, ISO 1600

This evening I spent a solid two hours in the pouring rain to photograph fans outside of Memorial Stadium before tonight’s football game.  In particular, my editors wanted a photo for Vox Magazine that would illustrate the tremendous amount of refuse and recycling generated by the tailgaters to football games.  Too bad that the assignment seems to have killed my 50mm f/1.4’s autofocus, and possibly my cell phone!

More after the jump

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Tags: football, photography, problems, rain, repairs, tailgating, wet
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I have finally had a chance to go over all of my images from the Tour de Missouri, as well as my other shoots from the week, and found three images that I thought were particularly interesting but were unpublished–they did not find their way into the Columbia Missourian, or my Blog, for that matter–until now!

Old Courthouse reflection, St. Louis, Mo. Canon 5D II and 24-70mm f/2.8 L @ 70mm; exposed 1/500 sec. @ f/5.6, ISO 100

I saw this composition with the imperfect reflections of office buildings and the Old Court House as I was walking to the downtown Hilton to pick up my press credentials for the first stage of the Tour of Missouri.  This is cropped fairly heavily, so I do wish that I had switched lenses to the 70-200mm f/4 I L IS, but I was in a rush to get to the race before it started without me!

More after the jump!

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Tags: Columbia Missourian, lighting, outtakes, photography, photojournalism, portraits
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Patterns in the sand along the shore of the Great Salt Lake, Saltair, Utah. Canon 5D Mark II and 24-70mm f/2.8 L lens; exposed 1/125 sec. @ f/9, ISO 1000 Copyright 2009.

One of the photographic conditions that I never had too great an appreciation for before I switched to digital capture in 2003 is the classic, cloudy day.  Overcast skies can yield striking images because the light is delightfully even, not “flat” as too many casually dismiss it.  Working to minimize shadows by photographing on sun angle (with the sun 180 degrees from your lens) or on a cloudy day does not mean that you’ll be working without shadows.  However, it certainly lets you study the shadowed areas much more closely, and the gradation between dark and light tones becomes far greater.

It’s the reason people love the “Shadow/Highlight” tool in Photoshop, or the “Fill Light” slider in Camera RAW / Lightroom: we like shadow detail.  So, consider how much more shadow detail you get on an overcast day, and reconsider any bias against the giant diffusers in the sky known as clouds.

In this case, along the shoreline of the Great Salt Lake in Saltair, Utah, I was actually photographing on a brilliantly sunny day, and the light was about as harsh as can be.  I achieved the soft light by using my body as a gobo, and I photographed in my own shadow. It’s a useful technique that I had forgotten about until I saw Artie Morris using it in the Galapagos to photograph a Lava Lizard.

Tags: lighting, nature, photography, techniques
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As promised, I have finally edited my photos from the Galapagos and uploaded them online at my ZenFolio gallery. I have also placed a slideshow of the best photographs below. (More wildlife, landscapes, and other details of the trip are at the Zenfolio site.)  These would have been up sooner, but I was camping in the Uinta Mountains in the Wasatch-Cache National Forest in Utah for a week with my girlfriend, which culminated in a visit to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in Brigham City. Images from that trip should also be up shortly.

Tags: Galapagos, galleries, photography, wildlife
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Today, in a moment of stupidity, I allowed a grocery store security guard to put my backpack in “safe keeping” while shopping for bottled water and other supplies in Quito, Ecuador.  I was in the store for three minutes.  My bag didn’t last that long.  Inside was one lens, my Panasonic 14-45mm (28-90mm equivalent), my windbreaker, my dad’s windbreaker, some ibuprofen, some generic Dramamine, a pair of earphones, and a couple of AA batteries.

My name, e-mail address, and Web site are featured prominently on many of the items in the bag, as well as the bag itself.  If the person who stole my bag (mochile) from the supermercado, please e-mail me as I will pay you to return my bag.  Yeah, this is a shot in the dark, but I bet you’re more reasonable than the security guard who told me “No me culpa.”

Um, yeah, it was his fault for not noticing…as well as the fault of the two motorcycle police directly outside the supermarket for not noticing you running away with my favorite camera backpack, the Kata 467.   But it was also my fault for ever taking it off of my back to start with.  So, hopefully we can make a deal.

I’m leaving for the Galapagos islands tomorrow, but will be back next Saturday.

In spite of your thievery, I did make a few pictures that I’m happy with.  I cannot edit them as I’m simply traveling with my MSI netbook for this trip, but here are some rough cuts, including the last good photo I made with the lens you absconded with:

Preventing H1N1 at the Quito airport. Everyone deplaning from my flight had to wear them. They were unbearably hot.

Betty Page on a VW Bug.

Looking for Americamino.

Selling fish on the street.

Tags: Kata, Lumix G1, photography, photojournalism, street photography
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