With the imminent demise of 2011, I’ve been reviewing my photographic efforts from the year. Excluding photos from our recent Australian adventures- I’m still crunching those- I created 609 saleable images processed from over 15000 exposures. Of those, here are ones I see as the best:

Just a wheel bug (Arilus cristatus) on a stick, but I didn't expect the light and the colors to emerge with quite this much ZING.

Eciton burchellii army ants march through a cloud forest in Ecuador. This photo might not look like much at 550 pixel-width, but viewed large it's an action-packed panorama that well exceeded my expectations.

This capture of Hyalophora cecropia silk moths is among the first of my photographs I'd actually consider as art rather than simply natural history documentation.

Fed by a sister, a young drone honey bee drinks honey to acquire the energy to emerge from his natal cell. This capture is not the most aesthetically pleasing, but I find it unusually intimate for an insect picture.

Some images work for no other reason than an eye-catching subject. This friendly insect is an Ecuadorian grasshopper in the tropical family Proscopiidae.

I never thought I'd include a shot from my little Panasonic digicam in with my top photos, but I can't resist this portrait of a young mantis in her habitat. The subject and background lined up to produce an image better than either alone.

I shouldn't have to explain why I picked this one.

Where does the predator end and the prey begin? This shot of an Ecuadorian spider mimicking its ant prey is both aesthetically sound and biologically informative. I hope to do more of this sort of thing.

I can't photograph ants all the time. Sometimes, to mix it up, I shoot researchers who work with ants- like Benoit Guenard (left) and Eli Sarnat.

Hello Phidippus!