My trips to Burning Man

I have been to Burning Man seven years.

All I can say is that it is an entirely different reality. And each year has been different for me.
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2012

A sample Burning Man packing list.

The Seven Ages 2001: "my first year"

[man in morning]
The Man. It was beautiful in the morning out in the Black Rock Desert. 2001

[door to the desert]
A door to the desert. 2001

[LED display]
You always have some very technical artwork. This is an LED display that was animated. 2001

[carriage]
An elegant art car. It spewed fire. 2001

[3D maze]
A group of people spent almost a year on designing and building this 3D maze with trap doors, rotating walls, and a goal of making it to the top. 2001

[tesla lighting]
One of the famous Dr. MegaVolt tesla coils. 2001

[dust devil]
There were even larger dust devils than this later. 2001

[flaming double helix]
One of the night art installations that drew a lot of attention was the rotating, flaming double helix. 2001

[carousel]
There were fun interactive things, like this bicycle carousel with beautiful sea creatures. 2001

[amazing masouleum]
One of the art installations I found most moving was the mausoleum, made of wood jigsaw tailings, on which people would write emotional baggage on to let go. 2001

The Floating World 2002: "my project year"

[Patri flying]
Patri and Brian had a project to lift people up in the air with helium balloons, with which our camp helped. Patri has a good annotated series of pictures on the project. 2002

[me on balloons]
Jumping with balloon assistance. 2002

[pretty door]
Sometimes you need to go inside to see beautiful things. 2002

[lily pad]
A technical lily pad with infrared communication and fiber optic dragonflies. 2002

[jazz duck]
A jazz club in the middle of nowhere. 2002

[seahorse]
Sea horse in the playa. 2002

Nick was the designated photographer for bloodletting, the rest of the group we camped with. 2002

Beyond Belief 2003: "my theme camp year"

[sunrise]
Stormy Burning Man dawn. 2003

[neon]
Neon man. 2003

[theme camp sign]
Our theme camp, Beyond Beauty. 2003

[art car]
Playa Air charter. 2003

[hanging slabs]
Granite slabs to climb. 2003

[painted bus]
Pretty bus. 2003

[man]
The man. 2003

[charred ruble]
After the burn. 2003

Vault of Heaven 2004: "my alone year"

[Alex, me, Giles]
Hushville neighbors. 2004

[spinning poi]
Fire spinning by Garth of Fire Arts Collective. 2004

[pink]
Loved by pink. 2004

[bone bike]
Skeletal bicycle. 2004

[fireworks man]
The burn. 2004

Psyche 2005: "my family year"

[solar car]
Solar art car, like our house! :) 2005

[smoke ring]
Huge smoke ring. It's hard to tell, but this one has been in the sky for minutes, getting larger as it floats away... 2005

[night man]
Requisite night picture of the neon man. This year you could rotate it. 2005

[playa unicorn]
Unicorn of playa mud...it's horn and eyes glowed through stained glass at night. 2005

[stag pose trick]
Aerial silks dance class with Firefly Dance. 2005

[random clock face]
Mechanical clock tower with three faces...this one was driven by monkeys. 2005

[hydrolic dragon vehicle]
This mutant vehicle had amazing hydrolic animation...I should have taken a movie of its motion. 2005

Hope & Fear 2006: "my unintended year"

[lamplighter]
Hard-earned Lamplighter charm. 2006

[cathedral with mountains]
Cathedral in front of Black Rock Mountains. 2006

[sky through belgian waffle]
Blue sky seen from inside the huge Belgian sculpture. 2006

[run from the dust!]
Fast and strong dust funnel. 2006

[dawn as gargoyle]
Dawn's shadow posing as a gargoyle atop a pyramid. 2006

Fertility 2.0 2012: "my return year"

[Town Round clouds]
Hushville town round flag. 2012

[in the beginning]
Burn Wall Street: Merrill Lynched, Bank of UnAmerica, Goldman S*cks, Chaos Manhattan. August 28, 2012
[as time goes on]
Burn Wall Street, after the crowd has been there. August 31, 2012

[arch and flags]
Center Camp. The arch had lots of pretty rainbow lights at night. 2012

[couple walking]
Couple Tunnel. 2012

[wagon train]
A train of bears. 2012

[professor]
2012

[flaming octopus]
For me, this brings to mind the Parasol Protectorate. 2012

[dark and light]
Star Seed. 2012

[from the top of the pistil]
Man inside. 2012

[playa, mutant vehicles, man]
The man in the distance. 2012

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