2024

The passage of time still seems so elastic and pliable ever since Covid. It's hard to believe now that it's been almost five years since lockdowns started. And at the same time, the days seem to drag on and it hardly seems like any time has passed since 2020.

But here we are, at the end of another year. 2024 had its fair share of good moments and bad moments (hopefully for anyone reading this, the good far outnumbered the bad). We were lucky enough to do a bit of traveling last year, including visits to three National Parks. I'm still humbled and grateful that I had one of my photos selected to tour the state with the Small Works on Paper exhibition, and had a solo exhibition of my work at the Laman Library in North Little Rock. And I am fortunate that I had the opportunity to take lots of pictures last year. So here, looking back, are some of my favorite images from the last twelve months:

#25:

March 17: Pensacola Beach, Florida
We loaded up both kids in the car and made a road trip to Florida for Spring Break. It stormed on us as we went through Alabama and then finally into Florida, but as soon as we arrived at our rental place in Pensacola, the clouds broke and we were treated with a great sunset. Not a bad way to start a vacation.

#24:

July 2: Tucumcari, New Mexico
In the summer we made another road trip, this time to Colorado. On the way home we followed along Route 66 for a bit. The Mother Road has, sadly, changed a lot in recent years. A good number of the historic structures are gone. And many others are now covered with graffiti and marred by vandalism. But one spot that remains unchanged is the Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari. We spent the night there, and it was quaint and charming. And it was great to be able to just walk out of our room and be able to get pictures of the motel's iconic sign at dusk.

#23:

June 30: Alta, Colorado
Alta was established as a mining town, high up in the San Juan Mountains. It must have been incredibly hard to live there back in the olden days. When the mines closed, the buildings were left abandoned and Alta became a ghost town. But with views like this, it's hard to think why people would ever want to leave this place.

#22:

December 15: Arkansas State Capitol, Little Rock
It was a good time to test out the weatherproofing on the new camera, since it was pretty much sitting directly in this rain puddle. The Capitol looks great around Christmas, which definitely makes up for all the foolishness that the legislature and governor get up to in the other months.

#21:

January 23: Lower Longpool Falls, Ozark National Forest, Arkansas
This was taken a few days after a winter storm hit the Ozarks, and there were still massive icicles hanging from the bluffs at Longpool. There was also still some slick ice along the trail (I only slipped and fell once).

#20:

April 20: Keo, Arkansas
This small oxbow lake is filled with tupelo trees, and also a large amount of duckweed. This was taken after a heavy rain, and the duckweed (which isn't algae but is a tiny aquatic plant) was caught on a slight current in the water.

#19:

June 30: Colorado
The exact location of the Dancing Aspens has been a closely-guarded secret, although there were enough clues out there that it wasn't impossible for us to find them. After visiting the site, I can see why people are so protective. The trees are still pristine. No one has carved their initials into the aspen's bark. The ground around them isn't trampled and worn down from a never-ending onslaught of people. In an age where people find it acceptable to vandalize and destroy things, it's refreshing to see these trees have largely been left alone. I hope it stays that way.

#18:

December 4: Baring Cross Bridge, Downtown Little Rock, Arkansas
When I drove up to the parking lot, I saw that the train was just about to start crossing the bridge. I grabbed the camera and tripod and quickly ran over to try to get a shot. Of course, the center column of the tripod decided that this would be a grand time to slide out and fall to the ground. I reassembled the tripod, set the camera up, and got a shot composed and focused just as the train crossed over the bridge.

#17:

April 20: Scott, Arkansas
Scott is a small town, but there is never a lack of things to photograph there. The town is full of neat old buildings, including this old barn. This was taken on a rainy day in the Spring, the barn standing under dark gray clouds that threatened to storm at any second.

#16:

October 26: Jasper, Arkansas
It was a dry summer here - like no rain in two months kinda dry. So I thought that there weren't going to be good fall colors and the trees would just turn sad and brown. But 2024 was nothing but unpredictable. Despite the lack of rain, there was actually some really good fall color in the Ozarks.

#15:

December 4: Downtown Little Rock, Arkansas
A train heading to Union Station, which was barely visible through the thick fog that night. After getting the picture of the train at Picture #18, I ran across the street and set up this shot. I was only able to get three long-exposures before the end of the train passed below.

#14:

April 26: Fuzzybutt Falls, Ozark National Forest, Arkansas
I met up with my friend Zack and we hiked to Fuzzybutt Falls, which just might be one of the most uniquely named waterfalls in the state. We arrived as it started to storm, but the canyon walls made a great shelter from the rain. After taking pictures of the falls from just about every angle, eventually we just stopped at watch the rain. It was a great and peaceful moment to be out in the woods, even if neither of us decided to do a Tim Ernst-style photo of ourselves at waterfall.

#13:

April 27: Stepp Creek Falls, Ozark National Forest, Arkansas
Stepp Creek has several waterfalls, but this one was the tallest at 25 feet. It was a foggy and misty morning, which helped to saturate the bright green of the Spring growth in the forest.

#12:

June 26: Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, Colorado
The sand dunes here are really great. And you can't really appreciate their size until you try to hurry up the side of them before sunset. We tried to make it to the top of the tallest dune but didn't quite make it. But we were treated to a great view and a nice sunset over the vast sea of dunes below.

#11:

December 28: Petit Jean State Park, Arkansas
Fog drifting through the tree and bluffs from the lodge at Petit Jean Mountain. Below the fog is Cedar Creek, which was full of rain and was audible from the overlook. I took a bunch of pictures here (while standing under an umbrella), and the fog was different in each shot. It moved silently through the trees, covering and revealing the landscape like a magician.

#10:

April 20: Scott, Arkansas
These pecan trees were planted over a century ago. They are massive things, lining the road like dutiful sentries. Their limbs have spread out and over the road, creating a sort of tunnel. But they are surprisingly fragile. Strong storms knock off limbs, or worse take down entire trees. Large gaps have appeared in the long line of trees, like the smile of an eight year old who is losing his baby teeth. As sturdy as the trees look, there's no telling how long they will all be standing.

#9:

October 26: Steele Creek, Buffalo National River, Arkansas
The lack of rain this summer left the Buffalo River running low, where it almost looked like a small creek in places. But the Buffalo is still a beautiful place to visit, even when the river is low. Oddly enough, a storm would later dump massive amounts of rain in the Ozarks, causing massive flooding along the river.

#8:

April 27: Ozark National Forest, Arkansas
We were heading down this dirt road towards a waterfall, but I had to make several stops to get pictures of the road and the fog. Which probably isn't the best conditions for driving but it does make for some nice pictures.

#7:

June 30: Trout Lake, San Juan Mountains, Colorado
Colorado is a beautiful state. And it was views like this that made me wonder what all it would take to move there. Which seemed like a good idea until I saw how much houses cost there, and I remembered how bad I am at driving in ice and snow. 

#6:

July 2: Tucumcari, New Mexico
Tucumcari is known for its many vintage neon signs, dating back to the Route 66 era. Most of those signs are for motels or restaurants that no longer exist, and they stand as rusty and silent tributes to that bygone time. One of those signs is for the Ranch House Cafe, which opened in 1952. I stopped to get pictures here as it started to rain, so I retreated back to the car. But then I saw a rainbow form in the sky so I rushed out of the car to get a few pictures.

#5:

June 27: Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Colorado
We arrived at Black Canyon at about the same time as a pretty big storm. Dark and ominous clouds drifted overhead as we quickly made our way to the visitor center to get our National Park passport stamped and to get a few souvenirs. And we only had made it to just two overlooks before it started to pour rain and lightning. It rained almost the entire time we were there, but then it stopped right at sunset. Which was nice because I was able to get a few pictures from this overlook of the Painted Wall without having to worry about the camera getting soaked.

#4:

March 16: Mississippi
The house was built in 1892, in the late Victorian Queen Anne style. The house was occupied until the 1990s, but sadly it has been left empty and abandoned. But even in its advanced state of decay, you can see so many architectural charms. There are the numerous stained glass windows. There are the wooden gingerbread embellishments. There are the remains of the delicate decorations around the front porch. Compare this to the cookie-cutter McMansions you see in the sprawling suburbs of today. They definitely don't make them like this anymore.

#3:

June 26: Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, Colorado
I woke up before dawn and headed out to get pictures of the sunrise over the sand dunes. But I wasn't alone. A massive swarm of mosquitoes was also there. It turns out we were there at the height of mosquito season in the park, when the creek that flows by the dunes is low enough to create stagnant pools of still water. I tried to set up the camera and take a few pictures while under constant attack by mosquitoes, who hovered over me like the dustcloud that trails after the character Pigpen in Peanuts. The only way to keep them away was to be in constant motion, so I had to walk in circles along the overlook and the road. After being breakfast for countless mosquitoes, I retreated back to our camper, which was in a campground just outside the park boundary. A few hours later I looked out the window of the camper and saw some great light on the dunes, which cast soft shadows across the sand. So I went out and took a few pictures, where luckily the mosquitoes weren't so bad. It's kinda funny to think that I could have just slept in and just taken pictures from the camper instead.

#2:

February 19: Keo, Arkansas
This was my third attempt at taking star trail pictures at this abandoned church. The lens fogged up during my first attempt. On the second attempt the external shutter release broke while I was out there. On this night I got there in time to get the camera all set up. I put a hard-warmer inside a sock, and wrapped it around the lens (which is a crude, but effective way to prevent the lens from fogging up). The replacement shutter release was working, and finally I was able to get some pictures. The star trails were taken over the course of about two and a half hours.

#1:

April 8: Riverfront Park, North Little Rock, Arkansas
This year we were lucky enough to live in the path of totality for a solar eclipse. And after witnessing it in person, I can understand why people travel across the country to see them. We went to a park to watch the eclipse over downtown Little Rock. It was along the river, where a few boats from the police and sheriff's office were going by. Elliott, like most three year old boys, is completely obsessed with fire trucks, police cars and ambulances. And when he saw that police boats actually existed, his young mind was blown. He wanted me to hold him during the entire length of totality, because all he wanted to see were the boats in the water (which were playing "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" on their speakers). So I tried my best to get a few pictures of the eclipse, all while holding a squirming toddler who was yelling "police boat Dada!!" in my ear the whole time.


And finally, I would like to thank anyone who is reading this little photo blog. I know we live in an incredibly fast-paced and distracted world, where there doesn't seem much time to do things like look at blog posts. I'm grateful for and happy that anyone stumbles by here. This will be this little blog's 19th year in existence, and I hope to keep it going for awhile longer. Thank you again, and hope you all have a kind and happy new year.

Riceland Hotel

At five stories, the Riceland Hotel is still the tallest building in downtown Stuttgart. On a busy Saturday morning, cars cruised down Main Street in front of the hotel, and people visited the shops and stores that sit in the neighboring buildings. But the Riceland Hotel was quiet, it is home now only to stray cats and a few occasional pigeons that fly through the windows that aren't boarded shut.

I was recently given permission to go inside the old hotel and take pictures, so I headed down to Stuttgart earlier this month. The once-grand Riceland Hotel opened way back in 1923, and was for several decades the center of social life in Stuttgart. But the hotel closed in 1970, and has been left empty and abandoned. But through the cracked paint and plaster, you can still find signs of the hotel's former grandeur.



This was taken in what was once the hotel's lobby. When it was open, the hotel hosted several celebrities, including Ernest Hemingway, Joseph Pulitzer and Clark Gable.





This was taken in a room next to the lobby, which was once the hotel's coffee shop.



The hotel was designed by George R. Mann, the same architect who also designed the Arlington Hotel, Little Rock Central High School, the Pines Hotel, the Albert Pike Hotel, the Pulaski County Courthouse and the Arkansas State Capitol.





The building has been victim to a lot of graffiti and vandalism lately, some of which was pretty awful (I tried to avoid as much of it as I could in the pictures).











Most of the windows in the building are boarded up, which made taking pictures difficult since it was very dark in many of the rooms.









Despite being abandoned and left to the elements for so long, the building did seem to be in decent shape. There was, however, some considerable water damage on the fifth floor because of some holes in the roof. It had actually stormed just before we arrived to take pictures, and rain water was percolating throughout the building.





This is part of the old elevator machinery that sat in a room at the very top of the building.



I was a little nervous stepping out onto the roof, since there was so much water damage. But there was this view, looking out towards Stuttgart. Back in the olden days, there was a rooftop garden here that offered dancing on Friday nights and was advertised as being "cool and above the mosquitoes." According to local legend, a party here in the early 1960s got so out of control that a piano was thrown from the roof by a group of drunken revelers.



And one last shot from inside the hotel, looking down from the top of the staircase.



Although it has been empty for decades, the Riceland Hotel still occupies a prominent spot in downtown Stuttgart. There have been talks of renovations to the hotel recently, so hopefully something can happen to help save it from further deterioration. It's a long shot, but the building is well worth preserving.

Catching lightning and going to an easy waterfall at Lake Catherine

Hope everyone had a good St. Patrick’s Day. On that day last week I was driving home from work and noticed that the Big Dam Bridge was covered in green lights in honor of the holiday. So I rushed home and grabbed the camera and headed out to the bridge. I went out and stood on a little island that sticks out from the dam.  I went out on the shore, and found an area with some rocks in the river that worked with the bridge in the background.


After I got the shot I headed back to the car. It had started raining anyways, so I thought the night was done in terms of taking pictures. I drove out to a beer store to buy a 6-pack of Guinness for a traditional photo to celebrate my Irish heritage, which I used for a shot later that night:


At the store I noticed that there was a nice storm developing in the sky, so I drove back out to the Big Dam Bridge to attempt taking some lightning pictures.

Taking pictures of lightning is very difficult. Not only do you have to get out in some nasty weather, it takes a lot of luck to be in the right place at the right place to get the shot. I’ve been out a few times to try to get lightning shots, never really getting anything in the process. One time I was out at Ft. Roots, trying to get a shot of lightning over the Little Rock skyline. There were some great lightning strikes right over the downtown buildings. But I was using film at the time (this time being maybe 1996), and I didn’t load the film in the camera correctly so nothing turned out. Last year I tried to get some lighting at the Big Dam Bridge, and managed to catch one small bolt. It wasn’t much, but I was happy with it at the time:


This time I went to the same exact spot, hoping to catch lightning again. I sat for about 30 minutes with nothing much going on. There would be some lightning, but it was either in the distance or up in the clouds. I took lots of pictures, never catching anything. I finally got one shot with a small bolt, so I thought I’d at least get something. Then it started to rain, so I moved under the bridge, with the hope it would provide some shelter from the rain. I hoped to see some lightning, but wished it wouldn’t strike me or the bridge while I standing under it. I took lots and lots of pictures, at 20 or 25 second exposures. It’s a crapshoot really, to get a good lightning shot. You have to be set up in an area that sees lots of lightning strkies, and have to be taking a shot at the right place at the right time in the second or so that it strikes. Finally, on one exposure, lightning hit!


Holy crap! I was thrilled that I managed to have taken a picture of the lightning. I wasn’t too happy with the composition of the shot, I don’t like the location of the bridge pillar, but it was better than standing out in the rain. I stayed out there longer, in case there would be more strikes. But the storm moved on and seemed to be striking behind me, very near to where I was. Enough that it made me nervous so I went to back to the car and back to safety.

The storm that brought so much lightning also dumped lots of rain across the state. We only saw a few inches in Little Rock, but other parts of the state saw over a foot of rain. Some of that ended up in the Arkansas River, flooding the area around the Big Dam Bridge. I went back out there three days later to see the damage. The floodwater covered the road leading to the bridge.




The water had risen 15 feet, at least. It was well above the spot where I stood a few days before taking pictures of lighting. The second pillar of the bridge is the one that I stood by on the previous Monday, the spot under about a dozen feet of water.


The river was so high that it had gone over the banks and had flooded some of the parking lot and was just a few feet away from the base of the bridge.


I went up on the bridge to have a look at the flooded area. The place where I stood to get a shot of the bridge with it’s St. Patrick’s Day lights was also under water. Even the spot where I parked my car was now part of the Arkansas River.


But there was a nice sunset, which I got on the way to the bridge. This was taken along a backwater along the river, which was the home to ducks and a beaver that night. It was a tough decision, stay and catch the sunset there or go and get pictures of the bridge...


A few weeks before I went out to the Big Dam Bridge, I went out to Lake Catherine State Park. I wanted to visit the waterfall there, which is very easy to reach. It would be a nice change after my previous adventures attempting to reach Twin Falls at Richland Creek. The waterfall at Lake Catherine is easy to get to, the trailhead at the end of paved roads. The trail is level and easy, under a mile and with just one hill to travel over. There is also a nifty swinging bridge to cross, so it was a nice trip to take.

The waterfall there, called Falls Creek Falls, is a popular spot to take pictures. I’ve been out there several times, and the hard part is to find an angle that hasn’t been shot before. I tried to find a good spot to take pictures. Luckily there weren’t many other people out that day.


The falls aren’t that tall, and the creek isn’t very deep. I should have worn the mud-covered shoes I had last worn to Twin Falls, but instead foolishly wore some new shoes, so I was reluctant to get them wet. To get some shots, I tried to find some rocks in the creek that would be a dry place for me to stand to get some shots of the falls...


I crossed the creek using some convenient rocks and took some pictures from the other side of the creek...






After that I went back across the creek and hiked up the hill to above the falls. The view up there is just as nice...


But then the sun came out. The sun isn’t your friend when you’re trying to take pictures of waterfalls. Luckily, the waterfall was in shadow. The sun was striking a rock at the top of the falls, so I got a shot of it with the waterfall below.


Spring is a great time for taking waterfall pictures. Sadly, I wasn’t able to go out last weekend. And this next weekend will be spent in Dallas, so no waterfall shots. Hopefully there will be more rain so all the waterfalls will be running nicely when someone hikes up to them with a camera....