The Free Press, Mankato, MN

December 28, 2009

PHOTO GALLERY: Photographers' favorites of 2009

By Pat Christman and John Cross

slideshowClick here to see a photo gallery of our favorite images from 2009.

We are often met with amazed looks when we tell someone how many photographs we take as Free Press photographers at a given event. Fortunately, thanks to modern-day digital cameras and the software we use to look through the hundreds of photos we take in a day, the costs of experimentation are limited.

Needless to say, we don t like every frame we shoot. Many of them land in the digital version of the cutting-room floor, the computer s recycle bin. Others are filed away, waiting for the day we might need a file photo from a particular event or of a certain person. The rest are carefully prepared for the newspaper or our Web site and seen by thousands of people.

There are a few, though, that we save for ourselves. The ones that catch our own eyes. Maybe the lighting was just right. Maybe the expression on a player s face really showed the game s emotion. Maybe the photo told just the right story.

These are some of our favorite photographs of the nearly 100,000 frames we have taken in the past year.