A Lens On Adventure with Art
Since 2015, the Paddle Antrim Festival has drawn over 1,200 people from all over the country to Northern Michigan to experience the beauty of the Chain of Lakes Water Trail. This two-day non-competitive paddling event has become a fixture in the region, bringing visitors from near and far to celebrate our waterways and communities year after year.
The festival has also become a celebration of the dedication of amazing volunteers who come back year after year to contribute to the success of the event. Art, a veteran hobby photographer, has been a part of the festival since the beginning. “My senior year of high school, in 1960, I won a box camera as a prize and have had the photography bug ever since,” Art smiles from this memory. We are grateful that he got the photography bug all those years ago. It’s through his lens that the vibrancy of the Festival comes alive—the friendship among participants, the smiling faces, the signature “paddler wave,” and the beautiful landscapes framing every stroke.
The paddler wave
Art’s wife, Nancy, participates as a paddler in the festival every year, and Art trails her and the other participants by land throughout their entire journey, capturing photos at strategic points he has identified as good photo opportunities over the years. He even keeps a notebook so he can remember what time paddlers arrive at each spot.
“I enjoy seeing the people year after year,” Art shares. “I enjoy meeting new people and keeping up on their new kayaks and new paddles and spotting the trends in paddling and how the paddlers have evolved as the event has evolved.”
Art is an avid kayaker himself and keeps a binder of the number of miles he has paddled, longest run, fastest run, night runs, hours paddled by year, and so on. He and his wife started paddling in 2010 and have enjoyed doing it together ever since. “It’s fun being with people who like to do what you like to do. [At the festival], you end up hugging strangers. Everyone is on a high during the event and at the final bash,” Art reminisces.
Dedicated volunteers like Art have created their mark on the festival and have become fixtures of their own. Art’s dedication to the individual paddlers at the event allows him to capture the true spirit of the festival. His photos tell a story through images that draw in new people and bring back fond memories for those who’ve been coming to the festival for years.
As we gear up for yet another exhilarating Paddle Antrim Festival in 2024, we celebrate Art’s contribution—a dedicated visual storyteller whose photographs immortalize the festival’s legacy with every click of the shutter.