Marching on

Saturday afternoon was misty, dreary and below freezing, and it turns out it takes more than that to stop Fayetteville’s Mardi Gras parade. This one was the city’s 27th and my fourth. The weather certainly cut down the size of the crowd from past years, but everyone who came out cheered extra loud, decked themselves out in extra color and dove for thrown beads and candy with extra enthusiasm in spite of the gray day.

Here’s to a happy official Mardi Gras this week and a happy Lent after, for those observing it.

I meant to end here, but all of that mist and drizzle spend the evening and overnight freezing to every surface. Roads and sidewalks this morning around my apartment were too slick for much more than slow hobbling. The grass was crunchy. This wasn’t frost; it was a half-centimeter or so of solid, unadorned ice. I had to see more.

Thanks for looking, and stay warm out there.

2017 2017 eclipse Arkansas Fayetteville Mount Rushmore national parks nature nature photography Northwest Arkansas outdoors photography seasons solar eclipse street photography year in review

2017

It’s just about time to close out the year. 2017 has taken me across more than 3,000 miles to an solar eclipse, two national parks, five hikes at Devil’s Den and other sights new and old. I hope I always remember daylight falling behind the moon as my manic excitement reached ever higher in the middle of Nebraska back in August. Not a bad year for photos.

(From Through the Wall, taken Aug. 23)

(The center of the world, Aug. 22)

(The eclipse, Aug. 21)

(Nebraska, Aug. 19)

The year was eventful in other ways simply as a guy who takes pictures and wants to share them. I made a Facebook page, went to one of Fayetteville’s First Thursdays and took a shot at doing some family portraits this fall. I dream about doing what I do on this blog for a career and creating photo books and traveling the world, and I agonize with insecurities about whether I’m actually any good. Maybe I’ll get a little further with all of those things next year, too.

(In the wind, Sept. 16)

(Devil’s Den in white, Jan. 7)

(The forest floor, June 19)

(Mushrooming III, May 29)

As it happens, this post is #200 since I officially made this WordPress into a photo blog a little more than four years ago. This place been a lot of things for me: a photo diary for friends, family and exploring my home; a travel blog; an extension of work; an experiment in storytelling and new ways to shoot. Basically all of my fear and joy in photography goes here. I’ve tried to learn and deliver at least a touch of art. Some of my shots, especially early on, are embarrassing, really, and I needed to learn a lot about editing down to the best images. Other early pictures aren’t bad. I’ll probably feel the same about my recent shots in another four years.

If there’s anyone from the earliest days who still visits, bless you. For everyone else, thanks for joining me. I look forward to another year.

(The Hawksbill, Dec. 3)

(Twin Cities, Aug. 26)

(Fools’ parade, Feb. 25)

(One day, two cities, June 24)

(June in February, Feb. 11)

(Fall’s first days, Sept. 24)

(Belly of the beast, March 9)

If you’d like to see my past year-in-review posts, they’re just a click away: 2014, 2015 and 2016.

Dan

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Liminal lights

Fayetteville on Friday put on its holiday season getup, switching on hundreds of thousands of lights around the downtown square. The event’s been plenty cold in past years, but this evening it was warm enough for T-shirts and shorts. Arkansas is part of the South, obviously, but it’s not so Southern that seeing a parade with Santa Claus with temperatures in the 60s is normal.

The temperature mismatch has corrected itself since Friday evening, but in my mind it does help show how we’re in a liminal, transitional time at the moment. It’s not quite winter, but more and more of the trees are bare. Some people have Christmas trees up while others won’t tolerate holiday music until after Thanksgiving, thank you very much. I’m still having a hard time believing it’s already the week of Thanksgiving at all.

We’ll snap out of it soon enough. In the meantime, I’ll take some advice from this lady: If you’re selling kettle corn, make sure you save some for yourself.

Thanks for looking.

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Visitors

More and more I wonder whether humans will survive themselves. Neo-Nazis, Puerto Rico, incomprehensible suffering in Myanmar and Syria, climate change and hunger, and then that nagging chance of nuclear war — it’s a damn matryoshka doll of global misery right now that is impossible to grasp. I’m fortunate to have a job where I can bring a little time and attention to some of these issues. It isn’t enough. Talking about the beauty and meaning in the world feels pretty trite and inadequate, and appreciating those things feels harder. I’m working at that appreciation and at my job. That’s what I got.

In that vein, last weekend brought a good dose of unabashed weirdness and occasional beauty from the annual Puppets in the Park at Fayetteville’s Wilson Park. The performance appeared on here once before. The show’s plot is always simple and wordless and political in some way. I was mostly there for the 20-foot white-cloth eagle and 10-foot sun getup, and the makeshift musical accompaniment.

Thanks for looking. Keep working.

Dan

Viewfinder

A photo blog by Dan Holtmeyer

Fayetteville

Marching on

2017

Liminal lights

Visitors