Last year I did a recap of my favorite photos of 2008 and I decided to make it an annual tradition. I used the Big Huge Labs mosaic tool to put together collections from each month of the year. Here are my favorites for 2009 month by month:
Each mosaic is linked back to my flickr account if you want to see the pictures individually.
January
I didn't feel too inspired in the photography department this month after finishing up a year's worth of daily pictures in 2008. It was cold and snowy in January so we stayed inside and drank hot cocoa and played dart tag. We also watched a bit of history as President Obama took the oath of office.
February
February 2009 was all about taking pictures of my kids. I also had fun shooting some Valentine treats.
March
This is probably the month I learned the most about photography (to date). I took a photography class taught by Candice Stringham at jessicasprague.com and I learned how to use my Nikon D40 in manual mode. I learned about open and closed apertures, shutter speed, and new ways to look at photography.
April
All of my best pictures of the month seemed to happen on Easter Sunday. I had just gotten a new lens and the lighting was just perfect that day.
May
This month I focused on portrait photography so I practiced on my kids.
June
This seemed to be my least inspired photography month of the year. Maybe that is because it rained almost the entire month? If would have gone crazy without a trip to Cactus and Tropicals to photograph some flowers.
July
I ended up with some favorite shots of my daughter doing the things she loves. We also traveled to Cedar City and St. George (both in Utah) so there were plenty of fun things to photograph!
August
Love these shots of my kids with their toys. I painstakingly detailed my studio (and our homeschool room) through a series of photographs that got me featured on unclutterer.com and Apartment Therapy. Mums are alway so pretty in August.
September
This month was all about Legos for me. I bought myself some mini figs and took them on a field trip to Bingham Copper Mine. So fun!
October
More Legos. I even laid down in the middle of a street to get one of these pictures. (a deserted street) The wicker balls were part of an iphone camera experiment to show that it isn't all about the camera. The socks provided a whole afternoon of fun for me and my daughter. I really worked on different camera angles and perspectives this month.
November
Hand surgery kept me away from the camera for a lot of the month. A well set table at Thanksgiving (my in-laws) gave me a chance to take some pretty pictures. We also got silly with some fun little cards and some stuffed animals. I'm really starting to enjoy using props in photos.
December
The holiday season was a fun one to photograph this year. I concentrated on taking photos of the every day scenes that were part of our Christmas preparations.
...
Not only is this a great way to recap the past year, it is also a very useful tool to analyze yourself as a photographer. I learned a lot about my strengths and weaknesses by doing this exercise and it has helped me get some great ideas for things I want to learn and try this year!
