My favorite posts of 2009

One of my favorite photos, but the post itself doesn't make my top 10 list

I'm still working on that dodge and burn tutorial, so meanwhile, since it's New Year's Eve, I have made a list of my favorite posts from 2009. One note before I begin the list: all of my interviews are favorites, but since they already have a prominent place in my sidebar at right, I am not including them in the list below. Here are my top ten favorites of 2009, in no particular order:

1. Free Money Sparks Riot Today in Paris
My most controversial post. I was at the right place in the right time to capture a publicity stunt gone wrong. Disappointed that there would be no free money, maginalized French youth started a food fight that escalated into a full fledged riot. Somehow, my photos got picked up by a far-right French forum. Their members saw my photos as confirmation of their views, but once someone read the actual post and realized that I did not agree with right-wing views, the vitriolic comments began. Now that I'm back in Utah, I'm sad to say that the nearest thing to a riot is someone complaining that the line is too long at Jamba Juice.

2. 10 seconds at the Paris Techno Parade
Another fun adrenaline-packed moment for me. This series of photos shows ten seconds that walked the line between fun and games and me getting my face kicked in.

3. Saints and Sinners
The photos in this post remind me that I have a great photo project to work on right here in Utah.

4. Composition 101: Strong Diagonals
One very simple point that can make a big difference in your photos.

5. Look at me! I'm a rock star!
I enjoyed poking fun at the photo clichés of music photography.

6. Bleach bypass photoshop tutorial
I probably took about 10 minutes to write this thing and I didn't think anything of it at the time, but it gets me more traffic than anything I have done. Who knew?

7. Street Portraiture
I had so much fun asking random strangers in New Orleans if I could take their photo.

8. Points of View: The Mona Lisa
I never bothered to go see the Mona Lisa until this year. My favorite part was watching the people.

9. 'Nawlins at Night
Without my new camera, I would never have been able to take these photos at 2500 ISO.

10. Clone out distracting backgrounds in Photoshop (and Elements)
I get tons of hits on this post, but the real reason it makes the list is because it made me realize my personal philosophy about tutorials: find a way to make it work in less-than-ideal circumstances and with a less-than-perfect skill set. In this tutorial, I show how you can have horrible cloning skills and still end up with a good result. My upcoming "dodge and burn" tutorial will embrace that same philosophy and show that you don't need to have pro retouching skills to benefit from pro tools.