This is my contribution to Scott’s Assignment 16: Best Photos of 2011. For this assignment Scott is asking us to submit our best photos taken in the last twelve (12) months or from November 1, 2010 to October 31, 2011. The deadline is November 16, 2011 and I hope you will join in the fun.
This was taken 2 days before the cutoff date, October 30, 2010. This is my favorite animal photo. What I like best about this image is the autumn colors in the background, and the soft evening lighting brings out the soft fluffy feathers of the Americana peep.

My favorite portrait photo was taken on November 27, 2010 of my niece dressed in a Hmong outfit.

My favorite moon shot was taken on December 20, 2010 at 8:27 pm (20:27). I’ve never seen a blue sky this late at night in December and there was a lunar eclipse later that night.

The next two are my favorite photos from our Disney trip. The one below is a street performance taken on December 24, 2010 at Disney’s Epcot. This is a very busy image but I think the background image was clear enough to see that the audience’s attention was on the subject.

The night parade at Disney’s Magic Kingdom was taken on Christmas Day, December 25, 2010. I didn’t have my tripod with me and the image came out a lot better than I had hoped for, so the 2 hours of waiting on the curb was well worth it.

My favorite nature photo was taken on April 23, 2011, I love the colors and detail in this picture.

My favorite sporting event photo was taken on September 25, 2011 at the Hickory Motor Speedway, I think this image captured victory.

My favorite image of Lee was taken on October 15, 2011. I like the composition of this image, even with the young man on the left hand side showing only half of his face. I think this didn’t take away from the image but leading your eyes to Lee as the focal point.

The last image for my favorite photos was taken on October 23, 2011 at our local temple, Wat Greensboro. I think what makes this picture special to me is to see the joy in people’s faces when I give them the print copy of their pictures. I started doing this several years back. It started out with one little girl at the temple, and now my list has expanded to several and yet I don’t know their name, just their faces. I think photography to me is not just being able to capture images, but also being able to give back to the community.

You have a really nice way with portraits – the picture of your niece is especially nice, with the thoughtful gaze, the interesting colors, and the bokeh background. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Barbara, the image was taken in the evening and it has good lighting.
Nye, that photo of your niece is adorable. You did a wonderful job with this assignment–what a lot of nice photos to show for your year.
Thanks Kathy, my niece is photogenic and loves to be photographed. This has been a good year for me in terms of learning new skills and thanks to the assignments from Scott and photo hunt from Karma that makes photography so much fun.
I have lots of favorite photos from your blog… it would be too long to list. 😉
I love that your subjects vary from plants to animals, children and places. And many other subjects are nice too. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Cambree, it’s very difficult to pick only a few when I have a long list also. I think photography subject tells a lot about a person, I guess I’m so random sometimes. 🙂
I’m sure you have so many pictures to choose from… Must be a tough decision to select the final set. I really like the first picture a lot, probably because it reminds me of my childhood.
Hi seeharhed, it was a tough choice and I have so many to choose from. I guess it’s better to have more to choose from than less. 🙂
The photo off lee and the horse is very pretty!
Thanks lady0fdarkness, I printed that as her Thank You card for her birthday.
I like your nature picture. I love the color and texture. The droplets on the leaves look amazing.
Thanks Dallas, it was taken at 8:19 am and morning light is good for nature photography. I noticed I use the telephoto lens a lot.
I love so many of your photos Nye. I don’t know how you even chose. Love the Americana Peep photo especially and the one of Lee right below it.
Hi Geni, it took me a while to go through all of them and I actually have more but I know I couldn’t post all of them. I picked 9 for lucky number. 🙂
Nice collection Nye! Great variety. The portrait of Lee is stunning! And I just love the light on the peep. I’d never heard of this type of bird – is it some kind of chicken?
Thanks Karma, kind of hard to narrow down to less than 10 photos. 🙂
The breed is the Americana (Ameraucana), this is what the adult hen looks like and they lay blue/green eggs.
It is a pleasure to browse through your posts Nye. You take many beautiful photos of Lee – this is certainly no exception.
I like the nature shot too with the fine light in the water on red leaves. Very good!
Carsten, I didn’t realize how many photos I took until I went back to look. I’m happy to get a good feedback and thanks for the nice comment. 🙂
Many nice photos – my favorite is definitely the portrait of your niece dressed in a Hmong outfit!
Thanks truels, my niece is photogenic, lots of compliment for her photo so far. 🙂
[…] who is my most avid commenter here at Views Infinitum shares her best which are also her favorites in several categories. I was happy to see she included her favorite photo of her daughter who is growing up before our […]
Oh, Nye, that photo of Lee is beautiful!
All of them are, but there is something quite special about the expression you captured in that photo. Beautiful…
Thanks kanniduba, it’s being about to capture moment like this that makes learning photography worth while for me. 🙂