Vote for your favorite photo from 2009 in the poll to the right! 

I had the chance to travel quite a bit in 2009.  Here are some of my favorite photos from this year and why they are my favorites.  Above is a white tail buck leaping over a fence in Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  I really like this photo for the surreal effect of the backlighting in the scene and the light mist in the air.  Having a nice sized buck as the subject doesn't hurt either.  The early morning light and autumn colors complete this scene and it quickly became one of my favorites for 2009.

The above image of Multnomah Falls also is one of my favorite shots of 2009.  I've seen photos of this place before and was always amazed by it's beauty.  So when we decided to visit Oregon in October, I knew we needed to stop here.

This image was taken in April of this year.  The young female grizzly had been watched and photographed for an hour or so before it moved on.  As it did, the crowd dispersed too.  I stayed and sure enough, she came back.  Dropping onto her back, she rolled around in the snow before sitting upright, as seen here.

This image brings back a lot of great memories.  On our Oregon trip, one of the best places we visited was Cannon Beach.  This image was made as Edyta photographed the sunset.

And of course, my Poland trip was unforgettable.  I have several shots from that trip that could appear here, but I chose this one for the simple elegance of the overall scene.The textures, shapes, and colors all came together nicely with this image and the person walking along the street with the flowers was icing on the cake and made the shot what it is, which is one of my favorites from this past year.

I could easily add twenty or more images to this post, but the above are some of my favorites for the reasons stated.  I look forward to 2010 being just as wonderful as was 2009.  Thanks to everyone for visiting Travels in Bear Country this year.