Yesterday, I trekked to St. Charles, and deposited a boxful of new pieces at Framations. Being framed for the wall are:
Printed on metal, Sarah and Amy are mounting these images:
And finally, I dropped many new works into the sale bins. These images are matted, and ready to be installed in your favorite frame:
As always, these images — and many others! — are available at my online gallery.
I’ve been busy lately preparing new images. Tonight, I’ve dropped many of them into the online gallery!
As always, these images — and many more! — are available through my online gallery in a variety of sizes.
In the fall, Becky and I drove to the Four Corners region of the US to enjoy a couple of weeks of fun in the desert. We saw rain and snow, sun and clouds, mountains and desert. Here are a just a few images from our journey.
Goosenecks, Wagon Wheel, Green in the Desert, Monochrome Desert, Ocean of Sand, Desert at Sunset, Orion Rising, Comb Ridge and Moki Dugway are available through my online gallery in a variety of sizes.
In the fall, Becky and I drove to the Four Corners region of the US to enjoy a couple of weeks of fun in the desert. We saw rain and snow, sun and clouds, mountains and desert. Here are a just a few images from our journey.
Goosenecks, Wagon Wheel, Green in the Desert, Monochrome Desert, Ocean of Sand, Desert at Sunset, Orion Rising, Comb Ridge and Moki Dugway are available through my online gallery in a variety of sizes.
After being treated to another stunning sunrise this morning, Becky and I decided we’d visit the local Navajo arts and crafts market, as well as visiting Goulding’s.
The arts and crafts market was a nice setup. There were four buildings, with about ten separate rooms apiece, each room with its own front door for customers and garage door for loading and unloading. The weather was very cold and windy, so not too many of the artisans were in residence at the arts and crafts market.
We wandered around the open shops, and stumbled upon an artisan, Wilbert “Keeyazhi” Collins, creating carvings in sandstone. He was working on a sandstone piece called “Father Sky” that contained many astronomical elements, making it was impossible for us to avoid picking it up. A few minutes later, he had the finishing touches on the piece, and we took our new object d’art back to the Acadia.
Goulding’s sits across Highway 163 from The View, and has been the lodging for many Hollywood films made in Monument Valley. At the recommendation of Ron yesterday, we ate lunch there. I had a “Navajo Taco”, which was chili along with vegetables, sitting atop a large piece of fry bread. My goodness was that huge!
We took the self-guided tour through the small museum, and saw many photos from film production over the last eight decades or so. We also saw a boatload of photos and stories of the creators of Goulding’s. It was really a nice stop.
There’s an interesting contrast between the two sides of the highway. At The View, the focus is really on the Navajo experience in the valley. At Goulding’s, however, it’s John Wayne and the movie industry that’s memorialized. Much like the whole Native American experience within the US, these two differing views point to a very different view of the land and its use.
I awoke this morning just before sunrise, and was treated to a view of the desert floor beneath us being lit by the sun as it rose, hidden behind Merrick Butte. This lit the valley floor very selectively, and kept my images from being blown out by the full disc of the sun.
The View has a 17-mile driving trail — the Valley Loop — that can be taken without the aid of a Navajo guide, so Darla and I decided to take a spin through it. It was quite a drive, taking us a few hours to cover the unpaved, rough road. There are about a dozen marked stops along the way, and we took full advantage of them, taking the time to gaze at many of the buttes in the valley floor.
At one of the stops, we met Ron Atine, a Navajo nation member, selling jewelry. We got to talking, and learned that he led tours into the desert to Sand Spring, just across the gulch from where we met him. He told us that he had another couple going with him tonight into the desert, and wondered if we’d be interested. With her knee problems, Darla elected to pass, but I decided to take Ron up on the invitation.
After taking Darla back to the hotel, I drove back down into the valley, and met Ron, helping him breakdown his sales setup so we could get started. Another couple from Europe was there to go along. Ron zoomed down into “proceed only with a guide” roads down into the gulch, and I followed closely behind. The Europeans were having some trouble keeping up, despite them being in a Ford Escape with 4WD. They finally caught up, and we began our march across the sands in the desert.
The sandstorm had re-sculpted the dunes, making for the most pristine sands I’ve ever seen. It was simply gorgeous. We walked a ton — and hiking in the sinking sand was tough! — but saw so much beauty in the desert as the sun set. It’s a trip I would definitely do again!
Today’s travel changed our locale a grand total of about 45 miles. Given that our checkout time in Bluff and checkin time in Monument Valley were waaaay farther apart than the actual destinations, we had to find something to do for a while. Looking at the map, we decided to visit Canyon de Chelly National Monument.
Canyon de Chelly is a preserved area housing a pair of driving routes on both sides of a canyon concealing ancient ruins. This was a park we’d never been to before, and would’ve been a little off the beaten path were it not for our time-based conundrum. While we got as far as the visitor center, that was about it.
Much like our visit to Steamboat Springs a month ago, the National Park Service decided to reconstruct all the roads leading into the park. Ugh. And like Steamboat, they tried to keep traffic moving in and out of the park. One lane at a time. On freshly laid asphalt. Dodging road construction crews and equipment.
Yeah. That was fun.
The last straw came just after missing being hit by an asphalt hauler and hearing the sound of asphalt pebbles pelting the sides and underbelly of Darla’s new Acadia, we called it quits, and headed to lunch in nearby Chinle AZ. Man, was it windy.
Did I mention it was windy?
Fast forward to the drive toward Monument Valley. With all the wind, we saw loads of tumbleweeds cruising across the road. A couple of ’em were even brave enough (dumb enough) to challenge the mighty Acadia’s authority to the road, and… well… let’s just say that the tumbleweeds didn’t stand a chance. (Sorry if you’re a tumbleweed fan.)
When we arrived at The View, we were greeted to a sandblasting from Mother Nature. The winds were blowing up a terrifically impressive sandstorm, making unloading pretty dang difficult. In fact, we had to brush a bunch of sand out of the Acadia after we were through unloading. It was way sandy inside!
There wasn’t much time after we checked in until sunset, so I dashed out to the balcony, and started firing. It was a beautiful sunset, and a wonderful view from the balcony. This was taken in the dark, with the camera wide open — note Taurus rising among the monuments.
After the glow from sunset was gone, and the sand settled down a bit, we could view the stars more comfortably. My gosh, were they stunning! This is the first chance for me to focus on photographing the night sky with my 7D, and I couldn’t have been more happy. It really captured the essence of the night sky in this beautiful location.
