As the year ends, I’ve been looking back over the photos I took this year. I take photos every single day. From 2009, I kept 6805 photos. No one else but Merri will see most of those. I continue to upload my favorite photos to Flickr (www.flickr.com/photos/mjhinton), about 4 photos a week. The 203 photos I uploaded to Flickr in 2009 can be seen at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mjhinton/archives/date-posted/2009/.

I decided to select one favorite photo from each month in 2009 . These aren’t necessarily my 12 best photos of the year, but they are a decent representation. I love photographing birds, flowers, and bugs. I hope you’ll see something you like. Feel free to comment. And share your own photos in 2010.

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Click on these pictures or the link. On the next page, click “Slide show.” There will be a button at the bottom for full screen.

I go to Chaco Canyon every year (except for this one). In 2008, I also traveled to a couple of outliers west of Chaco. The road into Kin Bineola (“where the wind whirls,” Navajo) crosses a dirt dam. I had never seen any water on either side of that dam before, but on this trip in May, there was a small pond near the dam, well below the road. I saw something circle over the pond. I stopped on the dam to consider taking a picture. The two adult avocets were cute enough – and seemed out of place enough – to warrant a photo. I just got lucky that the babies flew in just as I clicked. I respect photographic skill, experience, and equipment, but lucky timing is the most valuable asset a photographer can’t buy. I never expected to photograph shorebirds in the desert.

www.flickr.com <><> <></> </> <><></> </> </> More of mjhinton’s stuff tagged with chacocanyon

I watched this robin gather grass for nesting material in our small sideyard a few years ago. It was a windy day and the robin kept dropping what it already had in its beak as it tried for more. (Called to mind Aesop.) After numerous attempts, the robin gathered up a good bundle. It took off from the grass and paused just long enough in a gap in the fence. Click. Thank you. With all the wind, I didn’t expect this photo to be in focus.

Robins love to bathe, perhaps moreso than any other birds I’ve seen in our yard.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mjhinton/tags/robins

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mjhinton/tags/birds

[From the Photo Archive is an irregular series of photos I’ve taken some time ago but want to revisit.]

www.flickr.com <><> <></> </> <><></> </> </> mjhinton’s Birds (Random) photoset