FEATURE PHOTO OF THE YEAR:Capturing emotion

Daily Pilot photographers are always on the lookout for the colorful, candid and quirky moments that occur almost daily in Newport-Mesa. Photographers search for them up close, and from far away. There were several discoveries this year, but this image was the ones the staff settled on as the best.

We see a small moment made bigger by catching the instant Natalie Gregnano discovered she finished an assignment — pure joy! These moments only last an instant, and it can take hours of waiting to capture them. Or sometimes it happens in the first few seconds after a photographer arrives on assignment.

Daily Pilot photographers will continue to bring the colorful life of Newport-Mesa to these pages.