2010 always had an optimistic tone to it... like it was bottled up and just waiting to be unleashed. We felt a look at the year that culminated to its birth cannot be ignored. Too much happened in 2009 to be ignored. President Obama reached out far and wide for that smile he was looking for, but the King of Pop left without a last song. War and riots marked its territory, promising to return, while the swine flu crept in unnoticed behind masks. China and Germany were lit up with fireworks for their anniversaries, and the volcanoes elsewhere followed shortly. Yes, 2009 was a mixed bag, but all you photography lovers are in for a real treat. Here's our Editor's pick for 2009 Pictures of the Year...

A drover cracks his whip during the Great Australian Cattle Drive preview on May 7 in Oodnadatta, Australia. The Great Australian Cattle Drive will take place in 2010 and offers the general public the chance to experience an Australian adventure. (Quinn Rooney, Getty Images)


A destroyed home continues to burn in the early morning hours on May 7 in Santa Barbara, Calif. After the Jesusito fire was fueled by strong sundowner winds and record 100-degree heat, at least 20 houses were destroyed. Santa Barbara suffered its third major wildfire to burn homes in less than a year. Three Ventura County firefighters received burns and respiratory injuries when their fire truck was overtaken by the fire while another firefighter was treated for a head injury. Some 2,000 homes in about seven square miles were under mandatory evacuation orders. (David McNew, Getty Images)


Tracy Munch watches as an eviction team remove furniture from her foreclosed house Feb. 2 in Adams County, Colorado. She said she and her husband had been renting from an owner, who collected the monthly payments but had stopped paying his mortgage. The bank foreclosed on the property and called the Adams County sheriff's department to supervise the eviction. They managed to borrow enough money to rent another house for themselves and their four children, she said, but not in time to avoid eviction. (John Moore, Getty Images)


Events around Afghanistan, neighboring Pakistan and Iraq have made for poignant and compelling photography.<br/>In this photo, a displaced Pakistani girl looks out from her tent in Shah Mansour refugee camp, in northwest Pakistan, June 9. These internally displaced people (IDP) were largely from the Swat valley in Pakistan. Approximately 3 million IDPs were created as a result of fighting ongoing military operations against the Taliban. Pakistani forces battled militants in the Swat valley, Lower Dir and Buner. (Emilio Morenatti, AP)



A young boy poses for a photo Sept. 25 in an Afghan refugee camp on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan. (Alexandre Meneghini, AP)


A Pakistani displaced boy from Swat valley sleeps under a mosquito net outside his tent at the Jalozai refugee camp near Peshawar, Pakistan, May 26. (Emilio Morenatti, AP)


Lance Cpl. Sean McMullen of Colorado Springs, Colo., Golf Company, 2nd MEB, talks to his girlfriend on a satellite phone Aug. 9 under the moonlight from combat outpost ANP Hill, near the city of Now Zad in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan. (Julie Jacobson, AP)


Soldiers from the U.S. Army First Battalion, 26th Infantry take defensive positions at firebase Restrepo after receiving fire from Taliban positions in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan's Kunar Province, May 11. Spc. Zachery Boyd of Fort Worth, Texas was wearing "I love NY" boxer shorts after rushing from his sleeping quarters to join his fellow platoon members. From far right is Spc. Cecil Montgomery of Many, LA and Jordan Custer of Spokan, WA, center. (David Guttenfelder, AP)


An elderly Afghan roadside banana vendor waits for customers in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sept. 30. (Altaf Qadri, AP)


A U.S. Marine from 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, RCT 2nd Battalion 8th Marines Echo Co. pauses for a moment during a firefight on July 9 in Mian Poshteh, Afghanistan . The Marines are part of Operation Khanjari which was launched to take areas in the Southern Helmand Province that Taliban fighters are using as a resupply route and to help the local Afghan population prepare for the upcoming presidential elections. (Joe Raedle, Getty Images)


A US Marine of 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade runs to safety moments after an IED blast in Garmsir district of Helmand Province in Afghanistan July 13. Two Marines were killed when the explosion occurred as they tried to clear a route into the Taliban heartland of southern Helmand province. (Manpreet Romana, AFP / Getty Images)


U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Lawrence Nicholson, left, and 2nd MEB Sgt. Major Hooph pay their respects to Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard during a memorial service Aug. 27 at a forward operating base with Golf Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Regiment, 2nd MEB, 3rd MEF, in Now Zad in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan. (Julie Jacobson, AP)


Laurie A. Lewkowski, the mother of Marine Lance Cpl. David R. Baker, is overcome with emotion during the playing of "Taps" at his burial services at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., Nov. 3. According to military officials, Baker, 22, of Painesville, Ohio, died Oct. 20 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif. (Charles Dharapak, AP)


Detainees pray at a U.S. military detention facility Camp Bucca, Iraq, March 16. (Dusan Vranic, AP)


A supporter of main challenger and reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, not wanting to be photographed, hides her face using a poster of him as she waits in the stands at an election rally at the Heidarnia stadium in Tehran, Iran, June 9. (Ben Curtis, AP)


A Jordanian is completely covered by a veil, except for her extraordinarily long eyelashes, Sept. 28 in Amman, Jordan. (Mohammad abu Ghosh, AP)


The new PS20 solar tower, photographed Sept. 23 at the Solucar Platform in Sanlucar la Mayor, southern Spain, is one of the most powerful commercial solar towers in the world. It consists of a solar field made up of 1,255 mirrored heliostats producing a steam which is converted into electricity generation by a turbine. (Miguel Angel Morenatti, AP)




Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off of launch pad 39-a on mission STS-119 on March 15 in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The shuttle is headed to the International Space Station with a crew of seven astronauts after it's lift-off was postponed on March 11 due to a leak discovered when fueling the shuttle's orange external fuel tank. (Eliot J. Schechter, Getty Images)


Barack Obama takes the oath of office as the 44th U.S.. President with his wife, Michelle, by his side at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20. The Obama's were joined by their daughters Malia and Sasha (far right). (Chuck Kennedy (Pool) / Getty Images)


Chinese military singers take part in a chorus performance of patriotic songs involving 10,000 participants at a gym in Beijing, China, Aug. 26. More than 80 chorus groups from various units in Beijing sang patriotic songs to celebrate the upcoming 60th national day. (AP)


The eastern flank of the 16,000-plus-acre Guiberson fire, burning out of control for a second day as Red Flag warnings continue in southern California, advances at night on Sept. 23 near Moorpark, Calif. A Red Flag warning means critical wildfire weather, based on a combination of high temperatures, low humidity and Santa Ana winds. Several large wildfires broke out in triple-digit temperatures on the first of Red Flag warnings. (David McNew, Getty Images)


An Israeli woman lays on the ground Jan. 7 and covers the heads of her two children as an alarm sounds, warning of incoming rockets fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza, at Kfar Azza, southern Israel, near Israel's border with the Gaza Strip. (Sebastian Scheiner, AP)


A Palestinian boy reacts as youths frighten him by pointing their toy guns at him in an alley in the West Bank refugee camp of Al-Amari in Ramallah, June. 16. (Muhammed Muheisen, AP)



Washington police investigator George Klein Jr. examines bullet strikes in one of the doors of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, June 11, a day after a shooting left a security officer dead and the gunman wounded. (Alex Brandon, AP)



Gray cranes flock over the Agamon Hula Lake at the Hula valley in northern Israel on feb. 24. More than half a billion birds of some 400 hundred species pass through the Jordan Valley to Africa and back to Europe when summer comes. Some 25,000 Gray Cranes stayed this winter in the Agamon Hula Lake instead of migrating to Africa, taking advantage of the safety of this artificial water source. Local farmers feed the birds with corn in a bid to prevent them from destroying their agriculture fields. (Menahem Kahana, AFP / Getty Images)


President Barack Obama presents the 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom to Joseph Medicine Crow during ceremonies at the White House in Washington, Aug. 12. (Scott Applewhite, AP)



Palestinian bride Kholood Al Zaaneen sits inside a tent built after her family's house was destroyed during Israel's latest military offensive in Gaza, during her wedding ceremony in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip, July 22. (Adel Hana, AP)


The first flu pandemic of the 21st century, swine flu, has been less deadly than feared since it emerged this year but has taken an unusually high toll among the world's young, leaving thousands dead. The A(H1N1) virus was identified for the first time at the end of March in Mexico and quickly spread, with the World Health Organization declaring a global pandemic on June 11. A masked girl sits with a classmate at a kindergarten in a residential estate in Hong Kong, June 11. (Mike Clarke, AFP / Getty Images)


The Air Force Thunderbirds fly over head as cadets celebrate with the "hat toss" after graduation ceremonies at the Air Force Academy in Colorado, May 27. (Ed Andrieski, AP)


Some 1,000 giant dominoes, many of them decorated by schoolchildren, topple as fireworks explode during the official ceremony in Berlin on Nov. 9, the day of the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The dominoes fell along the former route of the wall in Berlin. (Wolfgang Rattay, AFP / Getty Images)


An undersea volcano erupts March 18 about six to seven miles off the Tongatapu coast of Tonga, sending plumes of steam and smoke hundreds of yards into the air. Tonga's head geologist, Kelepi Mafi, said there was no apparent danger to residents of Nuku'alofa and others living on the main island of Tongatapu. Officials also said it may be related to a quake with a magnitude of 4.4 which struck March 13 around 21 miles from the capital at a depth of nearly 95 miles. (Lothar Slabon, AFP / Getty Images)


Family members gather at the coffin of Sen. Edward Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., Aug. 29. Kennedy, 77, died Aug. 25 more than a year after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. (Doug Mills (Pool) / AP)


Palestinians react after hearing the news about their dead relatives, outside the morgue in Kamal Adwan hospital in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahiya,Jan. 13. (Khalil Hamra, AP)


Chinese parents gather to sleep at an auditorium after they accompanied their children to a university to start their first semester in Wuhan, central China's Hubei province on Sept. 7. The number of university students in China has increased rapidly in recent years, from 1.08 million in 1998 to over 17 million in 2003. (AFP / Getty Images)


President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have a beer with Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., second from left, and Cambridge, Mass., police Sgt. James Crowley in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, July 30. (Alex Brandon, AP)


Army Staff Sgt. Freddy De los Santos, 39, left, and Marine Lance Cpl. Jose Daniel Gasca, 22, both amputees from war injuries, talk outside at Yarmony Lodge. De los Santos, a Special Operations soldier, was wounded when his Humvee was struck by a rocket propelled grenade. Gasca was wounded when his vehicle hit an IED in Fallujah, Iraq, Sept. 6, 2008. (John Moore, Getty Images)


U.S. pop star Michael Jackson gestures during a news conference at the O2 Arena in London March 5. Jackson announced that he was planning to hold a series of final concerts in Britain later in the year. Jackson was pronounced dead a little more than three months later, on June 25, after paramedics found him in a coma at his Bel-Air mansion. (Stefan Wermuth, Reuters)


Approximately 575 soldiers from the 2nd Brigade Combat team from the 4th Infantry Division returned to Fort Carson, Colo., Aug. 18 following a 12-month deployment to Iraq. Ayden Kaplan, 3, reacts after seeing his father, Staff Sgt. Joshua Kaplan, while standing next to his mother Kendra, who is 5 months pregnant. (John Moore, Getty Images)


Pope Benedict XVI prays after he placed a note to God in the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site on May 12 in Jerusalem's Old City, Israel. The German-born Pontiff visited holy sites in Jerusalem at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as part of a pilgrimage marred by Jewish disappointment over his remarks on the Holocaust. (David Silverman, Getty Images)


Snow-covered pine trees sit in flood water March 31 near Moorhead, Minn. A snowstorm slowed recovery efforts as residents of Moorhead and neighboring Fargo, N.D. try to return to their homes as the Red River begins to slowly recede. (Scott Olson, Getty Images)



A cooper works on a cask at the Speyside Cooperage, one of the many places taking part in Whisky Month, a key event in the Homecoming Scotland event on Feb. 10, in Craigellichie, Scotland. Speyside Cooperage has been family owned since 1947 and produces the finest casks from American Oak, providing a vital ingredient in Scotland's whisky making process. (Jeff J Mitchell, Getty Image)


Passengers stand on the wings of a U.S. Airways plane after it landed in the Hudson River in New York as a ferry pulls up to it Jan. 15. The plane was an Airbus with 146 passengers and five crew that had just taken off from La Guardia Airport and was trying to return after striking a flock of birds. It was forced to ditch in the Hudson River. Chesley Sullenberger, known as "Sully," the pilot, was being hailed as a hero for successfully landing the plane without any major injuries or fatalities. (Brendan McDermid, Reuters)


President Barack Obama greets Michaele and Tareq Salahi at a State Dinner hosted by Obama at the White House Nov. 24. The Salahis, apparently aspiring members of the cast of a reality show, crashed the state dinner at the White House. Photos show that the couple had up-close access to some of Washington's elite, evidently without actually being on the guest list. The couple maintains they were invited and a lawyer speaking for them says they have nothing to worry about. (Samantha Appleton, The White House / AP)