Best of 2008

My friend Jim Goldstein is currently running a blog project that highlights photographer’s best images for this past year. I am in the process of creating a marketing piece that looks at what I have worked on in 2008, so I have decided to join Jim’s mission and make this month’s “photo of the month” a compilation of my favorite images that I have shot in 2008 to coincide with my project.

I shot close to 20,000 images in 2008, of those, 14,000 were personal and 6,000 were for commercial clients. Here are some of my favorite personal images.

Fir Trees in the Forest, Vail, Colorado © Jay Goodrich

2008 started out as one of the biggest snow years on record. Not only is this very important to me photographically, but it is very important to me personally because I love to ski. I took this image in the backcountry near Vail Ski Area in January.

Egret on the Eagle River, Wolcott, Colorado © Jay Goodrich

This egret would be just a photo of an egret, but it just so happened to be taken 10 miles from my house. Egrets are very rare here and to capture a fleeting moment like this one is the reason why I became a photographer in the first place.

Vine Maple along Lake Crescent, Olympic N.P. © Jay Goodrich

I got to visit the Pacific Northwest for the first time this past year. I am completely mesmerized by this area of our country and I have consequently been back on 5 additional occasions.

Sage at Sunset, The Boneyard, Eagle, Colorado © Jay Goodrich

Upon returning from my Pacific Northwest trip, I was blessed with the blooming of our first wildflowers. I have been shooting thousands of images close to home for the past few years for an upcoming book project that focuses on the valley in which I live. This book will hopefully be complete by the end of 2009 and is going to be sold in a very high end limited edition. This landscape illustrates why I live here.

Redtailed Hawk at Sunset, Eagle, CO © Jay Goodrich

This spring was the year to photograph nesting birds of prey. It started with this hawk…

Osprey Chicks, Sweetwater, Colorado © Jay Goodrich

And continued with these osprey. This was taken a day before the chicks fledged the nest.

Jade Looking at Hawks, Eagle, Colorado © Jay Goodrich

I couldn’t leave my daughter Jade out, I have watched her grow up so much this past year. I caught her discovering how to use binoculars for the first time.

Sticks and Stones Reflection, Maroon Bells-Snowmass W.A. © Jay Goodrich

I was teaching a private workshop at Maroon Lake in Aspen, and while preaching that the “standard” image of the 14,000 foot peaks was an important image to take, it is not all that a place of this magnitude has to offer. That is when I discovered this image.

I could continue on with this post for days, but in order to keep you awake and wanting even more in the coming year, I have decided to end it here. Stay tuned, I am hoping that 2009 becomes an even better year than last. All my best.

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 12th, 2009 at 12:06 am. It is filed under news, photo of the month. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.