For the last photo challenge of 2018, Anne-Christine asks us to recap 2018 in photographs. You can view her challenge post here. As it turned out, our travels for the summer were cut back some due to health issues, but that didn’t stop us from visiting several new places (to us). The opening image is from a collection of images documenting our first visit (noted here) to the Blue Ridge Mountains, part of a week we spent in North Carolina in October… but I am getting ahead of myself.

In January we head to Scottsdale Arizona for Barrett-Jackson’s annual auto auction. We’ve been visiting the classic car auction since 2012 and we already have our tickets for 2019. You can expect a photo review in a January Travel Tuesday sometime after January 17. Check out my other 2018 Barrett-Jackson photos here.

In February, I featured a series of posts documenting our late January cruise. We tagged along on Carnival’s Magic with about a dozen family members as we visited San Juan, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, USVI, Grand Turk, and enjoyed several days at sea. More images from the cruise can be found here.

From the ocean to the desert, March featured many images captured at our winter home in Arizona. One of my favorite images from the month featured a cellphone shot of an Arizona sunset, scientifically proven to be amazing! Of course, I used my D500 to capture the best image quality, but this cell phone shot didn’t turn out bad either (if I say so myself). Check out my Cellpic Sunday featuring images captured only from a mobile device.

In April, I featured a story about a March trip to Las Vegas with our friend and fellow photographer, Fred Mast. We had a great time exploring downtown Las Vegas, nearby Hoover Dam, and even spent an afternoon and evening on the Las Vegas Strip including dinner in one of the many places to eat inside the New York, New York casino and resort. More pictures from that post here.

In May, my favorite photos came from a visit to the Goodyear Spring Training Field where the Budweiser Clydesdale 8 horse team was hitched and viewers were allowed an up close and personal view of these magnificent animals. See the original post and photos here.

One of my favorite shots of our trip to Hoover Dam focused not on the dam but on the highway bridge that traverses the Colorado River. Travelers from Phoenix to Las Vegas have the opportunity to stop at a nearby rest area so they can walk along the bridge and capture images of Hoover Dam. In June, I featured images from the iconic dam. You can find more pictures of that trip here.

In July, my favorite collection of photos for the month featured images captured at Oatman, Arizona. This iconic old west town is just off a section of Route 66 a few miles from Kingman. Wild burros “own” the town and wander freely looking for handouts of food that can be purchased by tourists that is safe for the burros to eat. More photos and a brief history of the town can be found here.

July in alternate years features a visit to Fargo by the Blue Angels flight demonstration team. It’s an aviation show that I never fail to miss. In August, our Journeys blog featured shots of the Blue Angels in flight. You can review the gallery here.

In September, for the first time ever, my wife, Lynn, and I visited the Red River Zoo in Fargo. We had a great tour guide in our grandson, Owen, who with his parents had visited many times. My favorite shot of that visit is of a red panda. Though they look cute, they have the personality of a Tasmanian Devil. You can see some of the other attractions at the zoo here.

In October, I featured a visit to Bismarck’s Applefest, an autumn celebration at Buckstop Junction, one of the state’s several pioneer villages. We also featured a visit to another pioneer village at Jamestown, North Dakota featuring a story on Jamestown’s native son and western writer, Louis L’Amour. You can visit the Applefest post here.

In November, a stop at a Bismarck garden at sunset brought home in my camera several photos of a late afternoon in a beautiful park that overlooks the Missouri River. Those images can be reviewed here.

Finally, in December, we visited Phoenix Zoo’s Zoolights holiday display. It was our first visit there, and I’m sure it won’t be our last. A gallery of images from our visit is located here. My last image features my wife, Lynn, and I standing in front of a “selfie” area where we snapped what would become our holiday card image that went to family and friends.

With that, I’d like to wish everyone a safe and happy 2019! Thanks again to all the moderators of the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. I look forward to viewing everyone’s challenge responses every week.

John Steiner