Favorites 2003.

Byline: The Register-Guard

The Register-Guard's staff photographers snap thousands of pictures each year as they cover the news in Lane County and across the state.

Each assignment is followed by a painstaking editing and technical process that strives to make each picture a visual feast no matter how mundane the event or prosaic the story.

The photographers go about their work in the certainty most of their pictures will be awarded only a few moments of consideration by readers pressured to absorb the day's news as quickly as possible and move on.

It seems only fair to afford our photographers - and readers - the opportunity to revisit some of our favorite images published in 2003.

The still picture on newsprint has a lifespan of about 24 hours. A few say something to us beyond the news cycle. On this page are five images our photographers think are worth a second look.

CHRIS PIETSCH: Young fans press against the fence in hopes of getting an autograph from pro skateboard senstation Tony Hawk during his visit to dedicate a Springfield skate park that his foundation helped build.

KEVIN CLARK: For a story last April on the resurgent interest in poetry, the photographer asked poet Joe Millar to display the start of his poem, "Slow Hands," on the palms of his own hands.

THOMAS BOYD: At left, Bryan Barker competes at the Eugene Pro Rodeo.

WAYNE EASTBURN: Above, Eugene Emeralds fans scramble to catch a foul ball at Civic Stadium.

CHRIS PIETSCH: Isolated in a nightmare landscape, two firefighters survey the desolation on the east side of the Sulphur Creek Fire during this past summer's fire season.