The St. Louis Post-Dispatch staff photographs of the year are posted online at www.STLtoday.com. Individual categories are features, news, portraits, illustrations and sports. Which pictures move you?

Presidential hopeful cutouts John McCain and Barack Obama show their stache, St. Louis, Missouri

On Saturday we launched a new feature on the Post-Dispatch’s website titled “Photobooth.” It is a gallery of portraits taken at local events . I thought it was fitting that we kick off the feature with the culmination of my mustache project at the 2008 ‘Stache Bash on Saturday at Lumiere Casino in downtown St. Louis.

The concept is simple. It’s a one light setup mounted with a softbox against a black paper background.  Participants lined up at the tape and waited their turn. While I encourage complete freedom of expression, there is also an expectation of civility for publication. The following day we published them to STLtoday with eye-popping results. Within three hours web traffic to the gallery completely exceeded our expectations. Not only does that attract the attention of editors but it also suggsts an interest from the community for creative portraiture. That win-win is extremely valuable for the substainability of our staff.

Below are a few of my favorites from Saturday. Here is also the link to the complete mustache gallery.