Burning Man is many things to many people.  Whether you come to dance, meditate, party, perform, create or just to observe – you don’t leave unchanged.

The Temple this year was larger and more impressive and moving than in any other year I’ve visited it.  The images above are a small sample of my experience there.  People go there to mourn losses, to honor those who have passed and also to give thanks.  Throughout this beautiful structure, messages are inscribed by visitors during the week of Burning Man.  The Temple is then ceremoniously burned on Sunday night in a deeply reverent gathering in the middle of the desert.

I’m never any less amazed at the beauty I find each year out there on the playa.  The costumed people, costumed cars and buses, and the graceful movements of thousands of happy people caught up in the rapture of the festivities.

Fire seems to be a favorite display on the nighttime playa.  Looking across the desert, you can see bursts of flame that might remind you of lightning strikes under a late night thunderstorm.  Its mesmerizing.

One of my favorite things about Burning Man is the incredible sky and the shows it puts on every time the sun nears the horizon.  The colors in the sky at dawn and twilight are indescribably beautiful and photos don’t do them justice.  You have to see it with your own eyes to truly appreciate it.

The playa sky is such a gorgeous and surreal backdrop.  Throwing images against such a sky seems to me like having the perfect canvas.

I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to participate in this festival and for the wonderful friends that share it with me!

I hope to see you on the playa in 2012 !!