How to pull together a Best of Images gallery

It’s that time of year again when photographers and creatives of all variety assess the work that they have done over the past year. And when some of them are done looking over a year’s worth of work, some of them post their photos or links to galleries titled “Best of 2010″.

Here at arabianEye we have been lucky to be so busy working with our clients that we didn’t have time to pull together our own Best of 2010 images gallery. Instead, we will post Thursday night a random listing of photographers and publications that have created their own Best of 2010 images and multimedia pieces.

But what does a best of images gallery mean? And how do you accomplish this?

A best of the year gallery means that you taken a look at the work that you have produced from January 2010 until now. And then you share with the world via your web site, blog or online photo gallery your best work.

One of the simplest ways to achieve a best of 2010 image gallery is to create a new folder on your computer’s desktop and copy the photos that you have taken/created from the beginning of this year until now into this folder. Keep in mind that you can edit during this process which photos are to be added and how many photos are dropped into this folder. After all – the title is Best of 2010.

After you have completed your initial edit, you’ll need to decide whether you want to edit this selection down even further or whether the images you have put into this folder are the ones you want to share as your best work from this year.

Generally speaking you’ll want to keep the number of photos in the gallery under 30 images. If you want to share more than 30 photos, you may want to consider breaking them up into their own groups – such as a Best of 2010 news, sports, fashion, etc. so that the people can click through the your work, but not feel overwhelmed at the number of photos in your gallery.

Some photographers like to explain of why a particular image strikes them as their best work. This works really well if there is a story behind the photo … for example how you had to slog five miles in the Western Region while carrying all your equipment and supplies, but how it was all worth it in the end after you captured a spectacular image. Or how it was a technically challenging photograph (shooting it, lighting it or the post-production work), but only do this if you truly feel compelled. For those who are passionate about photography we will enjoy and appreciate just being able to see what you have created/documented over the past year.

The last step is publishing the images online. Publishing them can take many forms … what matters the most is what fits you and your work the best. Typically Best of Images are showcased in slideshows, but they can also be posted one at a time to a blog, showcased in a video, or put into a single gallery on Flickr. Again, it’s more about what fits you, your work and what is available to you than following a standard.

When you have posted the selection online of your best work just from 2010, we would love to share the link with others. The link will be added to our Best of 2010 image listing on our blog. We can be reached via Twitter or Facebook – just search for arabianeye. Or you can email Robin your link for submission consideration directly at robin@arabaineye.com.

We look forward to seeing your Best of 2010 images! And may you have a great 2011!