SIGHT UNSEEN: OUR FAVORITE PHOTOS THAT DIDN’T RUN THIS YEAR

Friday, Dec. 28, 2007 | 7:17 a.m.

line Tiffany Brown

Newspaper photographers make photographs with the goal of telling a story so readers will have more insight into the issue.

Even away from work, the camera is still a prominent accessory. These pictures were made in my off time, where I regularly find myself continuing to pursue stories, inquiring about strangers' lives and making snaps of little things that strike me in passing. Over time these pictures tell offbeat tales of the rambunctious city where we live and the places I visit.

I spent last New Year's Eve on the roof of the Tropicana photographing the Strip fireworks display. When the pyrotechnics ended and the crowd continued to erupt from below, I turned my lens downward. This was my first glimpse of 2007.

In late August the Sun sent a team to cover Burning Man in Northern Nevada. We had been in the blisteringly hot desert for three days before the first whiteout dust storm - which we had heard so much about - rolled in. Sun arts reporter Kristen Peterson and I jumped on bikes and took off to explore the sudden moonscape. A huge swing set with "burners" from around the world was one of the first installations we came upon.

I covered the closing of the Stardust extensively (www.lasvegassun.com/stardust) in fall 2006, but wasn't scheduled to work on the night of the implosion in March. So I went out to make pictures of the legendary casino's end for myself. When the building went down and the plume of dust grew and crawled out in every direction, the crowds ran for cover and a surreal scene lingered for nearly an hour as the Strip remained a haze and conjured up images of a war scene.

"Big Buck" - need I say more? He was serious. Anyone who has ever played the hunting video game knows this face.

I met Nicole Stout, 19, with two of her friends, a young couple, in a park in Portland, Ore., this summer. I was out intentionally wandering to make photos and I stopped at the two girls putting on eyeliner in the center of the park on a sunny day. I commented on Nicole's homemade tattoos and as she told me about them, and that she lives under the I-15 bridge with some other kids her age, she pulled down her shirt to show off a few other tattoos, exposing her heroin syringe stash spot. She had just gotten out of jail. She told me she had been trying to get clean, but that morning she just couldn't take it and used again.