Shutter to Think: Favorite photos of 2023 capture Sauk Valley residents’ daily lives, special events, sports

Chloe Coil of Dixon digs into a dog at SVCC’s SaukFest Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023. Dog and burgers were a couple of the treats on the menu for the welcome back to school celebration. (Alex T. Paschal - apaschal@shawmedia.com/credit)

Every year I dig up a collection of news and sports photos to run as a gallery of my favorite of the year. I won’t go so far as to call it a daunting task, but it does force me to take a 100th of a second frozen block of time and choose whether it is a favorite or a best or whether it could possibly transcend as high to be included in “Photos of the Year.”

These designations themselves: “favorite”, “best” or “POY”, call into question the nature of the gallery. I feel like I play it safe and true by sticking with “favorite”. Favorite is subjective, one has to accept the choices or at best agree to disagree (unless you’re posting on the internet, then all bets are off). Best seems to suggest a competition of some kind and “Photos of the Year” comes across as presumptuous.

OK, I may be making this more complicated than it needs to be but that’s what I do. So, next up in the batter’s box is sifting through 12 months of nearly daily photo archives to cull my favorites. I really do quite enjoy doing that. Other, smarter photographers pull images weekly or monthly as the year progresses. I guess I like to “binge watch” the year in order to contrast and compare. But then the murky area starts as this first edit begins.

The decisions should be simple until you allow the whole story to infiltrate your head. This is a satisfying and creative image given the somewhat pedestrian nature of the event. Should it make the cut? This image is wonderful when contrasted with another image that set it up, but as a standalone it’s just OK. The contorted body positioning on this basketball/football/baseball/volleyball photo is quite unique, but is it better than this (unique) photo or that (unique) one. Should a “just fine” photo be elevated given the heavy weight of the story it represents?

In the end you need to “Sophie’s Choice” the whole lot and move on. And after a week or so, I have done just that. Here are my choices for favorite photos of the year. I think they stand out as pleasing images made better with the stories they tell. Enjoy.

Alex T. Paschal is a photographer with Sauk Valley Media. Follow him on Instagram @svmphotogs or email him at apaschal@saukvalley.com.