PICTURES OF THE YEAR

Tough question. Photography is a very personal process. No two photographers possess exactly the same skills or motivations. Yet good photographers share certain qualities.

Obviously, good eyes are a must. But what does that mean? Let's just say that good photographers see really well, not just in the "vision test" way but in the way they recognize and organize what is in front of them. They see light and understand how to use it to make their pictures work. More importantly, they see the significance of gestures, expressions, positions and movements. They search for the moment when these elements come together to communicate meaning. Sometimes that moment is minutes, even hours, in the making; other times, it is so fleeting the photographer isn't even sure it was captured. But everything starts with the eyes.

Good photographers also have good brains. Not, perhaps, the "structural integrity of titanium under pressure" kind of brains. More the "think on your feet, understand the larger meaning, this-little-moment-tells-a-story-that-captures-the-entire-year" kind of brains. (And wasn't that smart to keep the smirking umpire inside the picture frame while Lou stormed around bonkers?)

Another attribute of good photographers is that they live their photography. Which is not to say they live their work. They don't. The job is more the extension of the photographer than the other way around. At least one photographer at The Seattle Times carries a camera everywhere, even into movie theaters. (Why would you take a camera into a darkened room? Because you just never know when an interesting picture might present itself.) Another photographer here returned recently from running a marathon and said, "Next year I want to run it with a camera and shoot it from a runner's perspective." (Getting the picture?)

Good newspaper photographers also tend to be relentless and resourceful, quick and patient. They are comfortable with foul weather, looming deadlines and ill-tempered editors. And they are confident in the value of what they do.

On any given day, they get opportunities to witness the expression of the ordinary and extraordinary in our lives — respect and foolishness, courage and fear, vanity, sanity, grief and glee. The enduring and the fleeting.

Represented on these pages is just some of the best work done over the last year by Times photographers. They do hard work. Really good work.

And it shows.

PHOTO GALLERY »