J.B. and I played a bit of a trick on Elizabeth, Debbie, Katelyn, and Keri recently.

I asked each of them to send me their favorite photos that they had taken, with the reasoning that I wanted to do an end-of-year “staff photo picks” blog post. Our real intention was to get them a Christmas gift with their favorite photo printed on metal. Pretty sneaky, right?

It worked beautifully – they were genuinely surprised by and (I’m pretty sure) happy with the gifts. Of course they couldn’t pick just one photo each, because they are all such great photographers!! Plus they love all of the chimps so much. So I had to narrow it down from the several photos they picked. There were a variety of factors to consider, including which photos would likely look best once printed on the metallic surface.

I figured I may as well go ahead with my cover story and share the photos on the blog so you too can enjoy them.

These are the four photos I had printed for their gifts:

Debbie’s photo (Foxie):

Keri’s photo (Annie):

Elizabeth’s photo (Burrito):

Katelyn’s photo (Foxie):

Just because I feel the need to have all of the chimps represented, here are a few more favorites:

a photo J.B. took of Missy in her element:

Another of Katelyn’s – this one I am guessing will always be a classic of Jamie:

This was another of Keri’s picks. I really like it because of Jody’s extreme relaxed face:

I took this one of Negra in October, but it might be my all time favorite photo of her (except for the other 15 all-time favorite photos I have of Negra, taken by various staff photographers):

If you have a favorite photo of one (or more) of the Cle Elum Seven, let us know – we’d love to see what your favs are too!