2021 in pictures: Record photographers sum up a busy year with their favorite photos

Reporters, photographers. Two sides of the same coin.

One uses words to paint a picture — the other uses pictures to tell a story.

Taking photos is no snap. It takes a practiced eye to frame a shot — and a practiced mind to know what shot to frame. Photographers are always looking for the one picture that sums up the event, captures the emotion, speaks to the significance. The picture that's worth a thousand words.

When they get it, they are proud. And readers know they've seen something special.

Here are some of the best images of the year from NorthJersey.com — as chosen by the people most qualified to judge them: the photographers.

Michael Karas: Flight 93, 20 years later

The sky above Shanksville, Pennsylvania, is not the clear blue it was, 20 years ago, when a Boeing 757 dropped out of it — killing 44 people, including the hijackers who planned to ram it into the U.S. Capitol, and the heroic passengers who foiled the plot. The people of Shanksville are not the same, either. How could they be? Their town — a mile from the crash site — has been the subject of constant media attention since 9/11. Yet ordinary life goes on, as Kaitlyn Stoltzfus, Somerset County Dairy Princess, and her sister Abby were happy to show us on Main Street on Aug. 6. "I’m grateful that the people I met there were welcoming and still willing to share their stories," said photographer Michael Karas.

Mitsu Yasukawa: A photo a day in Hackensack

A private moment, in a public space. Not always easy to find in a bustling city. You have to get away from the cars and the pedestrians to find a spot where a boy and his skateboard can share a moment, unobserved. Well, almost — photographer Mitsu Yasukawa was there. He was on top of a public garage in Hackensack to photograph a downtown sunset when he happened to see Zachary Hampton, 16, practicing his kickflips. "I thought I was able to convey the scene of the life living in Hackensack through this particular image," Yasukawa said. "It’s like what you see is very limited, but if you look around with wide-open eyes, you see something new that you didn’t see before."

Chris Pedota: Portrait of Paul McLemore

In 1961, civil rights protests erupted in Albany, Georgia. Freedom Riders were firebombed as they tried to ride an integrated bus through Alabama. And that same year — 1961 — Paul McLemore became the first African American state trooper in New Jersey. Seen at age 83 contemplating his trooper hat, he's here to tell you that though the Garden State might not have been the Deep South, it was not so very unlike it, either. "During a two-hour interview, McLemore, now 83, spoke of the challenges he faced due to racism and his response to those challenges, including becoming a civil rights attorney," said photographer Chris Pedota. "His interview with reporter Steve Janoski was inspiring, passionate and often humorous."

Tariq Zehawi: Solar eclipse

An eclipse was — for the ancients — an occasion of terror. The sun was being devoured! Night had fallen in the daytime! It was the end of the world! Today, an eclipse of the sun, such as the one that occurred on June 10, may be one of the few things we're not worried about. Instead, we find it awesome, beautiful. Especially when it's photographed the way Tariq Zehawi did it, with New York suspension bridges to frame it. "From the thousands of photos I took in 2021, this is my favorite, because the past two years have been overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic and it was nice to have a special occasion to take my mind off it," Zehawi said. "It took me a few days of getting up early to scout locations that would give me the perfect vantage point, since I knew that I only had a few seconds to photograph the moment before it was gone."

Anne-Marie Caruso: A day with Kinsley Geurds

Toys are never not welcome, when you're 7. But toys do not a childhood make. Kinsley Geurds, of Pennington, has multiple medical issues, including severe disabilities that affect her brain, gastrointestinal tract and other organs. She's spent more than a third of her life in the hospital. Her mother, Pat, exhausted from spending hours on the phone with insurance companies, has authored Kinsley's Bill, number A823, in hopes of easing the burden on parents of children with complex medical needs. "What was supposed to be a quick video interview led to spending the day with Kinsley to get a sense of just how much goes into her daily care," said photographer Anne-Marie Caruso. "I am grateful to the Geurds family for opening up their home and allowing me to capture the ups and downs of a day with Kinsley."

Kevin R. Wexler: Firefighters at Recycle City in Clifton

Light, shadow, color are the photographer's paintbox — the tools with which he or she creates. A pair of firefighters, backlit, framed in darkness as they battle a blaze at Recycle City Inc. in Clifton on March 21, with a wall of cardboard in the foreground a lurid pink, are more than participants in a news event. They are actors in a drama — and the visuals help create the emotion. "The location of this two-alarm fire was mostly dark," said photographer Kevin R. Wexler. "However, a bright backlight behind the firefighters illuminated the smoke and the water coming out of the hose. There was also a sidelight to shine on a firefighter’s face and show the enormous wall of cardboard that they were dousing with water. There were no reported injuries as a result of the fire."

Danielle Parhizkaran: Gymnast Samuel Mikulak

Peekaboo — Danielle Parhizkaran sees you. Samuel Mikulak (USA) got the heads-up from the Record photographer when he was competing on the floor in the men's gymnastics qualification during the Tokyo Summer Games on July 24. "Finding clean backgrounds is always an issue, and waiting for athletes to perform within those spaces can be tough," Parhizkaran said. "I had this image in mind; I just needed a gymnast to flip over the rings and turn toward me as I was stuck shooting in one spot trying to frame the rings properly. In the end, I got something I liked that was a little quirky, and with an American gymnast, no less."

Amy Newman: EMT with a Super Soaker

Toyland, Toyland. "Once you pass its borders, you can never return again." Says who? Put a Super Soaker in the hands of this volunteer Ridgefield EMT, and she's a kid again — squirting the crowds at the 127th Ridgefield Park Fourth of July parade. Photographer Amy Newman captured her at the event, held July 5. "It puts such a smile on my face seeing the pure joy on this EMT's face as she enjoys some much-deserved downtime during the annual Ridgefield Park Fourth of July Parade," Newman said. "This woman had spent a year and half on the front line fighting COVID-19, sacrificing time with loved ones, risking health and safety for their job. It was great to see her enjoying herself. I loved doing my job this day. A wonderful breath of fresh air amid trying times for us all, a quasi-return to normalcy on this day."

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Memorable Record photos tell the story of 2021