The end of the year seems like as good a time as any to reflect on recent accomplishments. I was cleaning up my Lightroom archive this week and got sucked into the “January ’09″ folder. Was that really just a year ago? It seems like forever. Most of the photos are pretty bad. Some of them are kind of good! I ended up going through the whole year this way, revisiting the many photographic twists and turns I’ve made in the last 12 months. While I came across a lot of not-so-good images and photographic dead ends, there are also a good number of promising images and interesting ideas.

Above all, 2009 has been a year of tremendous growth for me. I have failed over and over again—but from every failure I have learned something important and it has shaped my work in significant ways. Looking forward to 2010, I feel like I have the wind at my back. I’m actively working on a project that excites me and is generating promising results, and I have a good list of ideas for future projects. I’m not sure I’ll ever get around to doing that series of portraits of urban beekeepers, but it’s nice to know that I have something to fall back on if I ever get stuck.

Here are a few of my favorite photos from the past year. Some I have posted before (maybe you’ve seen them too many times already) and some have been lurking in my archives, seeing the light of day for the very first time. These are not necessarily my “best” photographs, but they are the most meaningful to me. I can remember the exact moment I took each and every one of these; how the air felt that day, the quality of the light. Each one feels like a small turning point that has helped to define the images that have come afterward.

Lloyd Harbor, Long Island, NY

Kismet, Fire Island, NY

Fire Island, NY

Marine Park, Brooklyn, NY

Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, Queens, NY

Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, NY

Wyman Park, Baltimore, MD

Parc Collserola, Barcelona, Spain

Manitoga, Garrison, NY

Connetquot State Park, Long Island, NY

Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, Queens, NY

Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, Queens, NY

And one last image, for good measure:

400 sheets of 4x5

I’d like to invite anyone who reads this post to do the same thing. Revisit your work from the past year, come up with a dozen or so images that best represent your year in photographs, and leave a link in the comments. I would love to see your work!