As I have done for several years running, I am concluding 2010 with a retrospective based on two rules:

1) Twelve images, one per month, and
2) None of the photographs can have previously appeared on DU.

And, as usual, I have to preface this with a complaint about how difficult the second rule is, since I tend to post everything good here as soon as I shoot it. This was an especial problem this year, since there were a couple of months were weather conditions cut way back on my shooting, and so some planned images never materialized. Nonetheless...

January took me to Leavenworth for their annual Winter Festival (along with a white-knuckle drive back in an unexpected blizzard).




In February, on the other hand, the unusually-mild winter brought us the odd sight of rhododendrons blooming several months ahead of schedule at the local arboretum.




March brought the daffodil bloom under a stormy Skagit Valley sky...




...while April took me to Woodburn, Oregon, for the most photogenic tulip farm in the Northwest, Wooden Shoe.




In May, I made a long-awaited return to Tanner Creek and Wahclella Falls.




And, to continue the Water Falling Over Things motif, June brought me to central Oregon's Proxy Falls.




July found me on my first trip to the Palouse farming region of southeast Washington.




August marked a photo trip I'd been wanting to take for years, to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. I posted a number of shots here from Schwabacher Landing (one of the national icons for landscape photography); however, to my surprise, I realized that I never posted the image that came to be my favorite from that spot. Here it is.




September marks the last gasp of flower-growing in the Northwest, as the dahlias come into bloom. This one was taken at a dahlia farm not far from my house. I'd never made a point of photographing dahlias before, the way I'd always do with daffodils and tulips in the spring, but I expect to be remedying that from now on.




As I mentioned here before, 2010 marked a real washout for fall foliage up here. Since the trees weren't cooperating, I needed to make the October drive to Mount Rainier, where the ground cover was putting on its expected show.




Remember when I mentioned, at the top of this retrospective, a couple of months of bad weather conditions where I got almost no shooting done? Well, November of this year was the worst month for photography I've yet experienced, as extremely-late-summer-not-quite-fall suddenly shifted into full-blown winter, with heavy downpours, flooding, and, for a change, snow with subterranean temperatures and iced-over roads. I finally got this detail shot of the end of one snowy period; if I hadn't gone out with my camera that day, I'd have done no photography at all that month.




Finally, December brought about my expedition to a rarely-running Upper Franklin Falls, after a series of monsoons had turned it from a dry cliff into a true subject for WFOT.




It's been an interesting year -- while there were a number of major high points, such as finally getting around to visit Woodburn, Grand Teton, and Proxy Falls, conditions and circumstances meant that I didn't get around to some of my standard photo subjects (Mount Rainier wildflowers, fall foliage, Christmas light displays) without which the year somehow doesn't feel "complete." Next year, I expect to be concentrating on the local area more than in 2010 (after all, there are only so many twelve-plus hour drives I can put in with my age and gas budget ), and hopefully will be able to get to more of my favorite western Washington locations than I managed this time around. At any rate, as always, I wish us all joyful lives and great opportunities for photography in 2011.