It's been a busy year for celestial events. First was the solar eclipse, then the Northern Lights (which were visible again this month, but of course its as when we were on vacation at a place too far south to see them!). And then there was a comet, which decided to pass through our planetary neighborhood.
One night Jonah and I headed out to try to see it. We decided to go to the Two Rivers Park Bridge, and arrived around sunset. There were already several photographers there, but unfortunately the comet wasn't visible. It was hidden behind one of the hills along the river. Oh well.
The next night we tried again, and headed to the Junction Bridge in downtown Little Rock. We arrived and actually saw one of the other photographers from the night before already there.
But as it got dark, we had trouble finding the comet. Luckily the other photographer had managed to find it. It was there in the sky, but just really faint. It did show up in long exposures though, here in the top right of the picture above the bridges...
The hotel we stayed at was in the city of Bucerías, which is situated along the Bahía de Banderas. Bucerías has a population of about 16,000 people, so it's a bit quieter than Puerto Vallarta. On our first day there, it was cloudy with a little bit of rain. I decided to leave the camera in the hotel room (rookie mistake, I know), since I didn't think there would be a good sunset that night. We got a few drinks from the bar and walked to the beach, only to see a great sunset start to develop. There wasn't enough time to run back to the room to get the camera, so I relied on the cell phone to get a few pictures and videos...
I chastised myself for not getting a picture with my big camera, and vowed to be better prepared the next day.
I did have the camera with me to get a picture of the other visitors at the hotel. There was a large population of iguanas that seemed to have free rein of the place, who could be seen climbing the trees, walking on the sidewalks, and also eating flowers off of the landscaping.
That night we returned to the beach, this time with the big camera. And wow, another great sunset began to form. But just as the sky began to turn into shades of deep red and orange, the internal glass of the lens began to fog up. Apparently I didn't do a good job acclimating the lens after going from the air conditioned room to the humid air of the beach. It was completely fogged, and since it was inside the lens, I coudn't clean it. So again, it was time to rely on the cell phone camera. At least it does a pretty good job.
We headed into Bucerías the next day to have a look around. We went by the town square, which had a few vendors lined up selling souvenirs like stuffed animals and blankets. On the edge of the square is the Parroquia Nuestra Senora de la Paz.
Walking down the street we passed this guy on the side of a building...
Along with this happy looking toilet...
We also walked by this hotel, which had a cool old wooden door.
We ate dinner at a place right on the ocean - Karen's Place. I ordered the marinated flank steak with chimichurri sauce, which was amazing. I would fly down to Bucerías in a heartbeat just to have that meal again. And best of all, I was able to walk from the table right to the beach at sunset. The sunset wasn't as colorful this time, but at least I had the camera and it didn't fog up! It only took three tries!
To celebrate our anniversary, my wife and I recently took a quick visit south of the border to Mexico. We stayed at a place near the resort city of Puerto Vallarta, which sits along the Bahía de Banderas on the Pacific Ocean, in the state of Jalisco. And one day we headed into town to have a little look around. Puerto Vallarta has a population of about 220,000 people, and is known for its cobblestone streets, beaches, dining and art.
The center of Puerto Vallarta is dominated by the Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (or the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe), a massive church that was built in 1940.
The church is topped by a crown. The current one was added in 2009 to replace one that was damaged by an earlier earthquake.
The church sits by the town square, which had this colorfully-decorated gazebo.
We had been wanting to visit Puerto Vallarta after seeing it on the most recent season of The Amazing Race.
We then walked along The Malecón, a 12-block long promenade along the waterfront. It is home to bars, restaurants, shops and lots of sculptures.
And one last shot from The Malecón, after we got lunch and spent a few pesos on some souvenirs.
I'm happy to announce that an exhibition of my work, titled "The Natural State in Four Seasons," is now on display at Laman Library in North Little Rock. The show contains 33 photographs taken across the varied landscapes of Arkansas over the last fourteen years. Locations in the show include the Buffalo National River, Blanchard Springs and Hot Springs National Park. But there are also pictures from less visited locations, like an oxbow lake in the Delta or a waterfall deep in the Ozark Mountains.
There are many things that Artificial Intelligence is hurting, and one of those is the art of photography. True photography requires skill and patience, and the ability to be at the exact right place, at the exact right time, with the exact right conditions (along with a fair amount of luck). It is much more than fake images attempting to be a lame facsimile of reality. It is my hope that this exhibition showcases photography for the art form that it is, one that is under assault from those who see it as nothing but “content” to post on social media for us to see between ads and scams.
One of the photographs in the show is of the setting sun hitting the summit of Pinnacle Mountain, which makes it look as if Pinnacle Mountain is erupting. This photo was taken from Two Rivers Park Bridge, and there is only a brief period every year where the sun and mountain are perfectly aligned for this to occur. In order to get this picture, the horizon also has to be clear. Clouds in the sky can obscure the sun, even clouds that are hundreds of miles away.
Other photographs represent similar moments - a swirl of fallen leaves caught in a current below a waterfall. Thick fog reflecting the bright lights on the Clinton Park Bridge, turning the night sky into a deep shade of purple. The explosions of fireworks over the State Capitol Building, captured by the camera during a 1.6 second exposure. These images could have probably been much easier achieved through some Photoshop edits, or some prompts on AI. But the photographs on display at Laman Library represent real and decisive moments. Ones that I hope serve as a reminder of how powerful and important photography can be.
To view the other photos in the exhibition, please visit HERE.
The exhibition is open now, and I'd like to kindly invite anyone reading this to please head on down to Laman Library to check out the show (2801 Orange Street in North Little Rock, gallery is on the second floor). There will be an opening reception on Friday, Oct. 18th, from 6-8 PM. The show will be on display until November 27th.
Here is the Artist's Statement I put together for the show:
It was almost what you’d imagine hiking through a rainforest would be like, except we were still in Arkansas. A storm earlier that day had saturated the woods, turning the leaves into a deep green too vibrant to be real. Water puddled on the trail, which at times looked more like a small creek flowing through the woods. The only sounds were raindrops hitting the trees and the wet squishy sound of our hiking boots in the mud.
The trail was heading towards a waterfall as unique as its name - Fuzzybutt Falls. It is a delicate 16-foot-tall waterfall, sitting at the end of a short and narrow box canyon deep in the Ozark Mountains. It started to storm again when we arrived. The sounds of heavy rain, combined with the splash of the waterfall, created a cacophony of sound that echoed off the rocky canyon walls. But those canyon walls also provided shelter from the rain, allowing us to freely move about without worrying about getting soaked. We spent a lot of time there taking pictures, from just about every conceivable angle, reluctant to leave. Eventually we set the cameras down and just watched as the raindrops rippled across the creek, and the waterfall slowly and steadily increased its flow.
I know it sounds cliche, but sitting under those rocky bluffs while a storm raged on was a peaceful and sublime moment; one of those rare moments when things seem to perfectly converge, when you are at the right place at the exact right time you need to be there. The photographs in this exhibition are more than just snapshots. Each one represents a unique moment that I was lucky enough to capture with a camera. I’m humbled and grateful that you are here to see them.
Increasingly, it seems that photography is being devalued in our ultra-modern and overly-online world. Photographs are being reduced to nothing more than content on social media feeds, squeezed unceremoniously between ads and spam. But photography is much more than just a way to get likes and engagement. At its best, photography is a way to showcase and document the world and our times. To paraphrase a quote: We don’t just take photographs, we ask quietly to borrow a fraction of time. To preserve that fleeting moment, which would have otherwise floated on like raindrops hitting a creek.
These photographs were taken with either a Canon 6D or an Olympus E-30, between 2010 and 2024. They are the culmination of countless trips spent driving or hiking across the state, from the Delta to the Ozarks. I would like to thank Richard Theilig and everyone at Laman Library for hosting this exhibition. Also I would like to thank Matt Kennedy and Zack Andrews, my hiking and photography buddies, who accompanied me on many of these trips (including the one to Fuzzybutt), and who helped make sure I didn’t get lost in the woods or fall off a cliff.
And I cannot thank enough my wife Caroline for her encouragement and infinite patience. And also my sons Jonah and Elliott for all the times they’ve indulged their father stopping to take a picture of an old barn. I would never have been able to take these photographs, or put on this show, without their support.
I saw on the news that there was another solar storm, which meant that there would be another chance to maybe see the northern lights again. Most of the predictions didn't really go as far south as Arkansas, but I thought I might head out just in case.
I decided to drive out to an abandoned church north of Conway. Jonah wanted to tag along, which was surprising since I didn't think standing next to an abandoned church in the dark in the middle of the country was an exciting activity for eight year olds. But we drove out there, and there were no northern lights, of course. But there were lots and lots of stars.
And even just a little bit of the Milky Way too.
Apparently, there was a little bit of Northern Lights in the sky last night, just barely visible in northern Arkansas. We were off by two days in our attempt, oh well. Better luck next time?
