2010

Looking back at 2010, I have to say it has been a great year. Here's a visual summary of it, month by month (each link opens in a new window; close it to come back to the summary)

January - Pittsburgh, Washington DC
February - Lexington, Washington DC
March - Frankfort, Natural Bridge State Park
April - Lexington spring, Keeneland, Red River Gorge
April, Grand Voyage 1 - San Francisco
April, Grand Voyage 2 - New York City
April, Grand Voyage 3 - Washington DC
May - Bob Costas, Louisville, Rabbits
June - Wedding in upstate New York
July - Chicago
August - Great Smoky Mountains
September - Caucasus Mountains, Russia
October - Bill Clinton's visit
November - Big Bend National Park
December - Back to Lexington

The winter has returned to Lexington. I leave tomorrow for Oklahoma and Texas, the good old time continues. It has been an awesome year, and knowing how many wonderful people I have met this year makes me look forward to 2011. Happy New Year, Friends!

I love Texas and I love Texans, but I love West Texas and West Texans even more. In Erna Fergusson's words (read more here: http://lensyoga.com/node/171):

The arid Southwest has always been too strong, too indomitable to most people... The Southwest can never be remade into a landscape that produces bread and butter. But it is infinitely productive of the imponderables so much needed by a world weary of getting and spending.

Bill Clinton spoke on campus to support the democratic candidate, who alas did not win; and I spent most of the month preparing and running a conference, which convinced me that preparing conferences was ten times more interesting and rewarding than going to them.

A three week trip to Russia, most of it spent high in the mountains, climbing mountains with my six year old nephew, and having a good old time - even though it ended with a 16 hour climb with a descent in the dark and a fall into an icy lake.

Photography lessons from Bill Roughen (http://roughen.com), housesitting for good people and making friends with their cat, and a trip to the Great Smoky Mountains with great friends - another month of good old time

It turns out that Chicago is extremely pleasant and varied - as long as you don't visit it in November, and visit it for pleasure not for a conference and stay off of the main street. And the beach is awesome!

Thanks to Crystal Heis (http://crystalheis.blogspot.com/) , I worked as a second photographer at a wedding in upstate New York. Once back in Lexington I tried to solve the low-light-how-the-hell-do-you-focus problem by deliberately misfocusing.

May was less eventful than April - Bob Costas (the man who ruined Vancouver olympics by running his mouth during breaks) visited UK, rabbits came out of hiding, and I went to Louisville on a hot day - but somehow left the city convinced that even more palatable weather wouldn't make the city itself palatable

On to DC to shoot a friend's wedding - and then back to Lexington, KY