I'm going to cheat and choose nine. These are different from the five pictures I would submit for the calendar. My favourite pictures all have personal meaning to me.



After a fall while I was out by myself on Hollyburn one night learning how to ski. Nothing is more peaceful and quiet than being out by yourself on a calm night in the dead of winter. Sometimes it is easy to forget just how quiet it is until you stop moving.



On the way up Mount Matier in an ACC Basic Mountaineering Course. This was my first time traveling on a rope on a real trip.



Starting out on a hike from Tenquile Lake. The meadows were rich and the sky was blue; a stark contrast to the rocks, snow and clouds that are often encountered in the mountains.



Standing atop Mount Siyeh in Glacier National Park (US.) This is our first 10,000 foot peak.



Filtering water at a lake below Mount Seton. It's amazing how isolated you can get and how self-sufficient you need to be on any two-day weekend trip from Vancouver.



Enjoying the North Shore on a foggy day.



The night sky with Locomotive Mountain on the right.



I went up to Mount Strachan to try to catch some good colours created by some early season wildfires. This is Sky Pilot which remains on the to-do list.


Black Tusk as viewed from Cypress Peak. From this vantage, I believe that the gap between the false summit and true summit is very clear. We'd get to the false summit later in the season. It was great to accomplish that scramble since I had turned around in a previous attempt.

Nice one!

A stark and interesting effect. !

K

Nice shots - I agree about panos - they suit mountains well.

Holy CR-P! Awesome shot.

Good idea - I can't compete with some of the awesome photographers on this site, but that doesn't mean I don't have favourite photos. These are mine from this year.

Raven on Black Mountain in January



Momma Bear and cubs in the Yukon in June



Li'l bird on branch at Seduction Point, Haines AK in June



Froggies at Little Sliammon Lake in September



Morning over Lois Lake, September

I couldn't come up with 5. Here are 10 my favorite 2012 images that I didn't submit to the Calendar:

Spray Lake, Kananaskis:


Alice Lake, Banff NP:


Marvel Pass, Banff side of the Pass:


Panorama from Little Odaray, Yoho NP:



Hamilton Lake, Yoho NP:


Wasatch Mountain Panorama, Banff NP:


Sherbrooke Lake, Yoho NP:


Daly Glacier from Mt. Niles, Yoho NP:


Floe Lake, The Rockwall Trail:


Castle Mountain Panorama, Banff NP:

I'd prefer two categories; natural and processed. There is a certain challenge and even randomness associated with capturing the right moment. On the other hand, there is some technical skills in post-processing colors,etc. Just feel they are seperate achievements...any other thoughts?

In the good old days, was it a separate achievement to capture the moment, and to bring it out in the dark room?
I agree that they are different skills. But a good photographer was always expected to be able to do the darkroom processing to bring their photos to fruition, and now that we use a computer instead of liquid chemicals, I see no reason that minor adjustments (of the sort one did in a dark room) are no different.

Certainly very shifted colours, and HDR, and those sorts of things are a slightly different form of art, but standard post-processing is not new just because we do it on computers.


As for this thread, when asking a person for their favourite photos of the year, it makes no sense to have any form of categories. People are sharing their favourites, whatever sort they might be. Favourite is up to the individual.

Capturing with a camera always shows what the lens saw and not what the human eye saw. A camera simply isn't a human eye. How is it more virtuous to use a lesser lens than one carefully selected to bring out what the eye can see?

Don't see big difference between the two. I shoot most of the time in manual mode. I can crank up contrast, saturation, sharpness, change brightness and color balance in camera settings or when converting from RAW into JPEG on computer. Color balance is often impossible to determine although I'm increasingly using "cloudy setting" for sunny days. When faced with perspective to blow out highlights I can rely on GND filter or try to underexpose shadows and then brighten them up digitally. What difference does it make?

It is absolutely up to any photographer to use whatever tools and techniques they prefer.
My comment is in response to those who suggest that it's a more pure photo to use one type of camera or processing than another. Picking one simple lens is still choosing a lens, and it's still not a human eye.

Oh, this discussion again.

Any chance the "post-processing isn't natural" discussion can be taken to a different thread and leave this one for people to post their five favourite pictures of the year? And if anyone wants specific categories (dogs, birds, mountains, sunsets, 50 mm lenses, unprocessed, processed, etc.), they could start their own thread?

I'll play even though maybe I should lay low on the photography front for a while here... [:I]

I had a hard time picking 5 so there may be a few extra here... Main reason these won't show in a calendar are the crops - I've fallen in love with panoramas in the mountains since you can fit so much more in a frame that way.





Photos have info in the title regarding where they're taken.