Among the thousands of works in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the museum staff periodically selects 12 as "must-see" items for West Building visitors who have less than an hour available. I photographed the 12 pieces listed on a flier on May 6, 2007, along with a few others. And I am happy to share them here. They are numbered 1 through 12 in their respective captions. (A few have been replaced since 2007. To see the list of the current 12, click this link: http://www.nga.gov/collection/pdf/wbhighlights.pdf .) ... That page has been taken down. Go to this Web page instead: https://www.nga.gov/collection/highlights.html .

I suspect the dozen must-see items were chosen not just for their intrinsic value but also because, in hunting for them all over the museum's West Building, the visitors end up seeing a rich array of other great works of art.

Everything in the National Gallery of Art has been photographed many times over, and excellent photo reproductions are easily available in books, posters, calendars and prints. So, initially, I had no intention to reinvent the wheel and shoot the art themselves. My plan was to photograph only the museum visitors in candid moments. Well, I did that. But the art on display proved so irresistible that I shot some of them, too -- starting with the 12 must-see targets helpfully identified by the staff. Their apparent ploy is very clever, taking advantage of the fact that most people find "target shooting" and "treasure hunting" fun and inviting.

During a brief visit in November 2010, I started over and photographed the latest dozen of must-see paintings chosen by the museum staff earlier in the year. I have added my new photos to the original set; please scroll down to view them.

I handheld a Canon PowerShot S2 IS to shoot the original set of photographs. I used a handheld Canon PowerShot S90 to shoot the 2010 photos.

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