Best reader-submitted photos of 2011

By Scott Hewitt, Columbian staff writer

Published: December 27, 2011, 4:00pm

Orchards: On June 1, when Marine Cpl. Cody Morrison returned from Afghanistan to Twentynine Palms Base in San Bernardino County, Calif., his wife, Tiffany, was there to greet him -- along with their unborn child. Their friend Brittany Hout snapped this dramatic and emotional photo of their reunion. "There is so much sacrifice and loss in these wars. I really felt this picture shows all that and yet all the joy that emerges from all the sacrifice," Cody's mother, Kari Morrison, said at the time. (Tiffany is gripping a sandal in one hand because it fell off her foot during her race to greet Cody). We're pleased to report that Cody and Tiffany are doing fine, and so is baby Cali Rose Morrison, born July 13. Cody is a graduate of Heritage High School and Tiffany a graduate of Camas High School; they live in California now but Kari, "their local anchor," lives in Orchards. "Cody will be discharged from the Marine Corps on April 15, 2012," Kari told us earlier this month. "From there, they will be moving to Bend, Ore., where Cody will immediately be enrolled in the helicopter pilot program at Central Oregon Community College."

We get a lot of help from you, our readers, and we appreciate all of it.

This year, as never before, tons of amateur shutterbugs submitted photos of all sorts to The Columbian’s Neighbors section — what we think of as a community scrapbook supplied by you and assembled by us.

It’s a fun meeting when the Neighbors team sits down to sort through them all and pick the best reader-submitted photos of the year. We hope you have as much fun reviewing them. And we hope you keep submitting them in 2012.

Click on the image at left to see our gallery of top reader-submitted photos of 2011.