After visiting the Indiana Dunes, my next stops were Milwaukee and Chicago. In that order.

Nonsense? Yes.

Regrettable? No.

From the famous dunes of Indiana, I drove direct to Milwaukee, where I would eat, drink, be merry, and hear some killer live music…

Good lord.

I may have finally become the sort of person who writes self-reflections and resolutions in the hopes of having a more productive, well-adjusted year in which I achieve goals. Yuck!

Unfortunately, I’m guilty as charged. So without further ado, here is… my reflection.

Hiya!

I made a music video out of footage that I shot whilst driving from Pennsylvania to Washington State.

I think it’s amongst the best songs that I’ve written. In fact, it’s one of the very, very few that can be classified as an earnest and heartfelt love song…

Here it is:

For more information on locations & travels, check out posts in the series, “Go West Young Lad”.

And continue reading for the full lyrics…

Here it is. My final blog post of 2021. And, unsurprisingly to anyone who has paid attention to my “last post of the month” for the last year, it’s a post about 52 frames.

I have now succeeded in completing 52… nay, 53 weekly photographic challenges.

I can crown myself a more experienced photographer who has tried and learned a few approaches.

Additionally I can appoint myself the role of “lazy bones” who sometimes puts in the bare minimum in order to complete an assignment. (Bet literally every teacher I’ve ever had, but particularly those from grades Kindergarten through 10 would agree…)

There are some weeks where my focus wasn’t really on photography, but there are some others with some good results. Generally the quality of the result was related to the quality of effort I put in.

Who’da thunk?

2021 is almost wrapping up, and I have a lot of pictures I haven’t edited or organized, and events I haven’t written about.

That’s okay!

I’ll do it someday… Or, never… It doesn’t really matter.

But it would be a tragedy if I didn’t write about my favorite hike of the year and one of the single most spectacular places I visited before 2021 ended.

So here goes.

Warning: a quadrillion images will ensue…

Christmas lights are pretty in part because of the colors, in part because of the garishness. The celebration.

What do you get when you take that color away?

When you leave them to shine in darkness?