My Best and Worst of 2008

This is a submission to an online contest "Best and Worst Photo of 2008" on Flickr. The idea is to take your best picture of the year and juxtapose it with your worst. Picking a "best" image can be tricky when you are doing the judging. I had a lot of favorites and off-the-cuff portraits that mean something to me, but do they translate to other people as well? I love my cats dearly and felt like I had some breakthrough photography with them as subjects, but does anyone really care about tabby cat photography? Ultimately, I went with my gut instincts in picking something simple but effective.

Defining "worst" is much harder than establishing some basic criteria for "best." This got me to thinking about what my "worst" photo is... Worst technically? Worst composition? Least flattering portrait? Most of what I would consider really short on technical or other contributing factors get deleted right away. Nevertheless, this was the year that I went DSLR and, as a result, took on a volume of shooting that was unprecedented heretofore. Part of this was the learning process of getting to know my camera and firming up my own aesthetic as a photographer. Another part was just embracing the ease and joy of snapping off picts at a rate that was never available to me before. As a result, there were a LOT of unnecessary, uninteresting or "ugly" images in my catalog.

Going off of both criteria, I selected the "Red, White & Bug" picture on the right, taken at our campsite in Iowa during a camping excursion in late August. I think it is a simple and uncomplicated image, but the silhouettes of the two insects bring a deeper context which is entirely subjective to the viewer. In other words, I wasn't trying to "say" anything with it as it just happened, but someone looking at it might see some deeper meaning in it.

The picture on the right was one of those moments that, in retrospect, did not call out for photographic documentation for any future or current generation's betterment but merely happened as a result of me being a bit trigger-happy and lazy with my camera. It was taken on the same camping trip when Jody playfully tried to bite her husband's butt while in the river. I can't exactly say it makes me proud as a photographer and I found myself wondering why I hadn't deleted it earlier, but then I wouldn't have a "worst" picture as good as this one.