Big numbers and bigger moments marked 2023 for Reporter-News photographer

First, the numbers.

In 2023, I had 1,682 photographs published by the Abilene Reporter-News.That’s barely a sliver of the 155,125 pictures I made in pursuit of that first number.

Just today I saw a meme on social media, the "Evolution of Photography", depicting the three different media that I’ve used in my career.

Under the first, a 120 mm roll of film, it read, “Twelve shots possible, only six are good.”

The next, a roll of 35 mm film, had beneath it, “Thirty-six shots possible, only six are good.”

The last, a modern memory card, read, “Two-thousand shots, only six are good.”

Sometimes, that’s just the way it goes.

I used to measure my photo-count on assignment by groupings of 36. I figured if I’d shot at least the equivalent of one roll of film, I ought to have something that’ll work.

These days I’ve morphed into something like a chimpanzee. I check my screen on the back every few minutes, hanging my head like a chimp, scratching my head, as I decide if I’m happy enough with what I’ve done so far and if the pictures tell the story as I understand it.

As far as assignments went, I had 388 of those, plus a few here and there that didn’t merit their own folder on my hard drive. All told, I traveled more than 22,000 miles around the Big Country and across Texas, making those pictures.

Memories of friends, the excitement of new ones

But 2023 was about more than numbers. I made new friends and lost old ones too.

I’ll never forget Kayla Christianson, who left us Aug. 2. Not only was she a dear friend to our family but a tireless advocate for Abilene and the Big Country.

Kayla supported many in our community by creating new opportunities and making sure everyone in her expanding circle was taken care of and had what they needed.

Kayla evangelized the merits of Abilene and building community to so many people, especially women, that a meadow of her spiritual heirs can’t help but inevitably bloom like she did in the fertile soil of the Big Country.

Former ARN photojournalist and reporter Ken Ellsworth passed Nov. 26 in Wichita, Kansas, where he had retired. If I looked up “unflappable” in the dictionary, I’ll bet I would see Ken’s portrait in the definition. The man had a dry humor but a ready laugh.

One of my first times to Throckmorton, Ken rode shotgun in one of the tiny Mazdas we used to have at the paper. I’ve forgotten what the assignment was about, but I do recall noticing how the clouds started to build in the early summer heat.

At first there were just a few ones, but then they started piling onto each other. When the clock hit 4 p.m., I started to get a little worried as those clouds turned black, a wind kicked-up and the rain came pouring down.

Soon it was accompanied by the sound of hail and as it struck the roof of that tiny Mazda, ringing the cab like a bell.

I was frantically looking for shelter to pull under — there wasn’t a lot up there in the country at the time — while Ken just calmly observed the storm, perhaps noting how splendidly it was going to counter the drought.

Meanwhile, my eyes getting wider, I zig-zagged across the pavement, trying out succeeding trees in the hopes of finding some semblance of protection.

His voice barely rose with concern, “Don’t drive into the ditch,” he remarked. I found a leafy oak where that wouldn’t happen and we rode it out, to be rewarded afterward with a beautiful rainbow.

The guard changes

It’s been a year of transition in other ways, too. Editor Greg Jaklewicz retired in August after 47 years in journalism. By mid-October, I was welcoming Diana Groom and Lanie Sneed to the paper. Both hit the ground running with Abilene receiving them as warmly as I did.

But you're probably wondering, did I have any favorite pictures? Tons, but I'd never be able to fit all of them in here.

Mayor Anthony Williams, Abilene’s first Black mayor retired this year. Longtime city councilman Weldon Hurt won the election to succeed him. The photo I made of Williams marching in his last MLK Day parade as mayor for me showed how the community felt about him and his tenure.

I spent two long nights documenting the last weekend of Albany's Fort Griffin General Merchandise and Beehive Saloon, tagging after owner Ali Esfandiary and his brother Nariman. It turned out to be one of my favorite stories of the year.

I remember seeing 4-year-old Luke Wagner jumping in the air as the oversized trucks went flying up and over the whoop-de-doos at the Monster Truck Nitro Tour in the Taylor Telecom Arena. I was looking for a way to somehow combine the spectacle of the show with the trucks’ target audience, and I saw that in Luke.

Photographing Willie Nelson ticked a box on my bucket list, as did making my diving-catch photo of Stephenville outfielder Eli Hiitola. Aloys Baribeshya standing beneath the water at the Sears Park Splash Pad when the mercury hit 108-degrees spoke for all of us.

The Cooper High kids throwing their water, ribbons, and inhibitions into the night air at the Crosstown Showdown football game against Abilene High was another moment I’d been hoping to catch for years. That my oldest daughter, accompanying me on her first football game, watched her old man get soaked as he shot it just made the memory all that much better.

Speaking of daughters, nothing brought me more pride this year than seeing how Abilene turned out for the neighborhood parade celebrating Sienna Molina. The 3-year-old girl had been given scant weeks to live, her leukemia too far gone for further treatment.

Hundreds of people in fire engines, police cars, dump trucks, pickups, passenger cars, riding bicycles and cartwheeling on their hands marched past her home in early October in her honor. They waved, they clapped, and they gave candy and smiled through their tears as Sienna was given a proper sendoff.

There are many more stories behind the pictures than these, of course. Visit reporternews.com for my gallery of photographs. It’s not 1,600, just 20-something of my favorites.

With a national election, the Olympics, a new cat at my house and a daughter entering high school in the fall, I’m looking forward to an exciting 2024. I hope you are, too.

Let's take it on together.

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Big numbers and bigger moments marked 2023 for ARN photographer