My 2011 POY. (Pictures of the Year.)

Yep. It's that time of the year again. The task of combing through one's archive for the year's best images and posting them somewhere out here in cyber-land for viewers to possibly notice, and hopefully appreciate. These are my six favorites that were made for work during the year. (We've been asked to submit only six for publication...) Remote cameras & arena strobes. Lenses ranging from a 10.5mm fisheye to a super telephoto ~ 300mm w/ a 1.4 extender for HS baseball and other sports. Going early and staying late. Some were fun. Some were difficult. A few were award winners. A couple made it into the updated portfolio slideshow in the right hand column here on the blog. All were challenging at different degrees for me, and are the culmination of the physical work, patience, attention to detail as well as the subject, and represent a mastery of the equipment that I try to employ in creating these types of images. *(Dripping sweat above the arena floor while hanging the ceiling remote camera for the overhead basketball image comes to mind...). The paper is going to highlight our staff photographer's best images on the website with each of us doing an audio voiceover, so I'll be sure to include those links here as well. I'll produce a more in depth slideshow of my personal and work favorites here on the blog in the next week or two. It was a good year for making images. Thanks again for looking. Stay tuned... ~cg.

Newly commissioned 2nd. Lieutenants toss their covers skyward in the traditional "hat toss" during Army's Graduation and Commissioning ceremony in Michie Stadium at the United States Military Academy in West Point, NY on Saturday, May 22, 2011. Navy Admiral Michael Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff delivered the commencement address as 1,031 cadets received their diplomas and were commissioned as 2nd. Lieutenants in the U.S. Army. CHET GORDON/Times Herald-Record *(Link to original post by clicking HERE).

A man shovels the sidewalk in front of his Liberty Street home in Newburgh, NY on Wednesday January 12, 2011. The third major snowstorm of the winter has blanketed the East Coast from Georgia to New England. CHET GORDON/Times Herald-Record

Newburgh Free Academy players (L-R, in blue) Parish Canty (#15), Antonio Harper (#2) and Dominique Jacobs (#11) reach for a rebound with Mount Vernon defenders Givvion Jones (#22) and Jabarie Hinds (#55) during their Class AA Regional Semi-Finals game at the Westchester County Center in White Plains, NY on Tuesday, March 8, 2011. Mount Vernon defeated NFA 72 - 49. CHET GORDON/Times Herald-Record *(Link to original post by clicking HERE).

Trevor "Little T" Mattis is led from Judge Don Willams' courtroom after an expletive laiden outburst in Ulster County Courthouse in Kingston, NY on Friday, May 6, 2011. Judge Williams sentenced both Mattis and co-defendent Gary Griffin to life sentences without parole in the shooting death of Charles "C.J." King Jr. in midtown Kingston last year. CHET GORDON/Times Herald-Record *(Link to original post by clicking HERE).

Livingston Manor shortstop Ken Fisk (#14) dives but can't make the play on a ball hit by Tim Steffens (#9) of Smithtown Christian during the fourth inning of their New York State Class D regional final at Pine Bush High School in Pine Bush, NY on Tuesday, June 7, 2011. Livingston Manor defeated Smithtown Christian 5 -3. CHET GORDON/Times Herald-Record *(Link to original post by clicking HERE).

A boy uses a smartphone to photograph exposed flames burning through the rear of a 3 - story house during a three-alarm fire at 488 Liberty Street in Newburgh, NY on Sunday, October 23, 2011. Nearly a dozen people were left homeless after the fire erupted in the multi-family home when a resident was cooking in a second-floor apartment in the rear of the building. All the occupants got out safely and there were no injuries. CHET GORDON/Times Herald-Record