The Year in Pictures — 2024 Edition

Happy Valentine’s Day ❤️

It’s been a little bit since I posted last. This already feels weird to me, but I suppose I can get used to it again. I don’t really feel the need to go into detail about why I dropped off. Very few people will ever see this anyway. But the blog was never completely off my mind. Over the years I’ve done quite a bit of work under the hood, so to speak, to modernize it and make it a lot friendlier for folks running on mobile devices and lower bandwidth connections. Not only because it interested me to do so — to stay current — but because I never intended to let this thing drop permanently. I always wanted to do it better, honestly. But I’m still searching for an idea of what that means.

As always, if you’re interested in viewing the entire set on Flickr, just click on the photo above. Or, if you’d rather continue reading, click the link below.

We didn’t take a family vacation last year. To be frank, we were buried in a series of expensive but more or less satisfying home projects that took up all of our time and attention, but most of all our money. As a consequence this past year was unusually light on photos. That wasn’t the only reason, though. After years of collecting so many photos in digital form, and many hundreds of hours exploring the nuances of photo editing and editing tools, I finally began to take seriously the effort of printing some of these to hang on the wall. And for the very first time, maybe, I felt like an actual photographer.

Getting that right took a shocking amount of time. Easy enough to find good printing services, and easier still to find cheap printing services. But good and cheap(ish) was a challenge. I experimented with prints, large and small. I discovered that certain photos that I really liked didn’t translate all that well to print. I had an issue with a number of them being simply too dark. All of these services offer automatic corrections for such things, but then they wind up distorting the color. I had to learn exactly how to edit the photos to get the look I wanted from a certain printer, and on certain materials. I had to learn what kinds of print materials suited what photos, and how to streamline the process for ordering a large number of prints at once.

All told, it was a bit of a pain. And then there was the framing.

In the end, I had my living room wall covered in photos from our last vacation to Rocky Mountain National Park. A beautiful place that was, and a lovely time that I intend to blog about here sometime soon. I have much to catch up on.

But truth be told vacation photos were never about why I got into photography in the first place. The reason for that was memory, and so, inherently personal. But more than that it was a desire to give a particular kind of life to those memories; remembering not so much with the eyes, but with the mind and with imagination.

Of course like any father I wanted to capture all those precious fleeting moments of family life which are both personal and universal. A lot of fathers of a certain sensitive bent eventually find themselves taking up photography for that reason. I’ve wondered what the difference is in that regard between men and women. Most of the women I’ve known who’ve stepped into photography later in life wind up taking graduation pictures, wedding photos, pregnancy portraits; things that are social in nature, formal, and meant for prominent display. Nothing wrong with that, and like anything worth doing it requires particular skills and sensibilities. But not what I was reaching for.

I turned 50 last year. Sort of a landmark. People tend to think of 50 as a kind of a midway point in life, the beginning of the “middle age.” But that’s really true only for a few. I suppose 50 is a natural time to take stock of one’s life. To gauge oneself. Certain things become harder, other things become easier. It’s a comfortable age. Not as much vitality as at 40, but maybe a little more clarity. Focus is, of course, a necessary quality in life and in photography. Maybe this all sounds pretentious. But you see I have to write a little something here.

Last year I focused on having fun in my backyard. My little pizza oven was a fantastic gift from my wife, one of the many special gifts she’s given me over the years. My favorite gifts are those I can use to give something back to the family, so that we all have something to celebrate.

Truly the gift that keeps on giving.

I have made many fine pizzas, and there are still so many varieties and styles yet to try. My next experiment will be with pan pizzas, and I hope to share the results of that on this blog. But my favorite pizza of the past year was one that I dreamed up out of necessity for Lent. I think I could win awards with it, honestly. And no one would believe it. I haven’t made a name for it yet. I’ll give you the primary ingredients: shrimp, basil pesto, and pineapple. Yes, likely, only the true culinary explorers can appreciate it. But for me it was a palette-opening experience.

2024 was the year that the great solar eclipse passed through Dallas on its path across America, seven years after we experienced a partial solar eclipse, which I blogged about here. Now this was a major event, particularly as it came on the year of my 50th birthday. We didn’t need to travel for good positioning, so we decided to host a party and watch the whole thing from our backyard. My brother came up from Louisiana with his family and we had an experience that I’ll never forget. The site of the eclipse and everything leading up to it was nothing short of awesome, and everyone present felt the mystery, and the power of it. A true sign from God, but of what?

My little animal friends always seem to provide for some of my favorite shots, though I don’t consider myself a wildlife photographer, lacking as I do the required time and patience to really be good at it. I realize I’ve been taking pictures of this little grass snake and her family for several years now, and I still love its bright colors and happy appearance.

There was a part in Dandelion Wine where Ray Bradbury writes that for every summer there are things that you do for the first time — new things, new experiences; and things you do in exactly the same way year after year, the unchanging traditions. The understood third part, not explicitly mentioned, is that are the things you do for the last time, and never do again. But you only know about those things looking back.

When I look back at these photo sets I can see the truth in what he says. Certain ideas you eternally revisit. Certain shots you keep trying to perfect. Maybe there should be a new category, though, for things you do only once in a lifetime.

No doubt we had our share of good times in 2024, and did some fun and memorable things. As the kids get older I find myself thinking about the days when we’ll be sharing these things not only with them, but with our grandchildren. Far from making me feel old, that is a thought that excites me and brings me joy. I always thought I’d make a good grandfather.

There is more ahead. It feels good to be doing this again, though I honestly don’t know why.