This is the time of year when everyone in the news media, it seems, has their story about looking back at the top stories of the year, or the year’s biggest most significant events.

Since I am a news junkie at heart, I tend to always get suckered into those media stories and provide my own mental or verbal commentary (based on how the moment strikes me).

However, over Thanksgiving, I had a chance for a brief conversation with a person who has personally helped to shape Houston’s landscape. He too is an avid photographer. I asked about one of the images on his wall and he shared with me his tradition of a “New Year’s Image”.

Each New Year, he gets up early and captures an image on his Canon camera (in the past on film, now it is digital). He prints it out an 8×10 and writes his goals on the back in felt tip pen. He then frames and hangs the image on a wall in his office. At the end of each year he takes it down, reviews to see how he did on the goals, then gets up the next morning to begin the ritual again.

So, tomorrow, I will give it s shot. My oldest daughter has expressed an interest in doing the same. So, Emily will be armed with a Fuji Digital and I with a Pentax SLR to capture, frame and hang the New Year Image of 2009.

To the right, my last image of 2008. It was taken yesterday in Santa Fe.

Happy New Year!