This is what it’s like out here. Everywhere you turn, there’s an amazing geological view. Painted deserts, petrified dunes, mesa, shiprocks, arches… after a certain point, you almost become deadened to the majesty of it all.
Yesterday, we had a lovely time in Mesa Verde before heading on to a tourist trap town called Durango where we stopped for the night. We’re going to eat breakfast at a French bakery and then see how much progress we can make towards driving home.
Yesterday, we drove through the Petrified Forest National Park. It’s not the most visually spectacular of parks, really. Once you’ve seen a few hundred pieces of petrified wood, the excitement fades. The park has a few other areas of interest, including a couple of petroglyph areas that are interesting, but some of them you have to use binoculars to even see. They pale in comparison to the Newspaper Rock of the Canyonlands in Utah, which lets you get very close and see the glyphs in detail.
So the photos of the Painted Desert aren’t really that impressive, but I met this one in the parking lot and it was very cooperative, even curious about the sounds my camera made. I think it was hoping I might throw it a snack for behaving so well, but I know better than to feed wildlife. Anyway, it went right back to rummaging in the garbage cans so it wasn’t exactly starving.
Ravens mate for life, and they are everywhere in this part of the country. Everywhere I look, I see pairs of ravens sitting, watching. I’ve seen a few pronghorn antelope as well, but for the most part, this trip has been wildlife-free.
If I’m still looking for work come April/May (and I probably will be in this market), I think a trip to Yellowstone is going to be in order.
Yesterday, we drove from Moab to Page Arizona in order to see the famous Antelope Canyon. It was the most expensive attraction we’ve visited at $26 a person, but the visit was the best money I’ve spent on photography in a long time.
Lower Antelope Canyon is Navajo-controlled, and you get a guide to take you down the 90 or so feet into the bottom of the Canyon. Inside, you see the most beautifully sculpted sandstone walls, like below. For hundreds of yards, it’s like this, with ever-changing light and shape. You could spend a lifetime in this canyon and not capture every aspect of its beauty.
I bought a photograph from the guide who escorted a group past us playing really fantastic, etherial guitar music. With our photographer’s passes, we were able to spend as much time as we wanted, and that we did. At the end, we talked to this guide and he had a budding interest in photography. I took a look at a print of his, and even though it was’t for sale, I told him I wanted to buy it. He said he would give it to me, clearly embarrassed, but I said no, I wanted to pay for it, and insisted. He had a clear talent and eye for it, and I wanted to encourage him any way I could.
From there, we drove straight to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was amazing, but very hazy and I don’t think much in the way of great photography is going to come out of our sunset shooting there. We bailed before the sun had finished going down, and tried to find a hotel room near the park, thinking we would return. The one hotel we found had rooms at $200 a night, and the crowds at the Canyon just didn’t make it worth the price, so we continued on to Flagstaff where we finally found a room in a Travelodge. Sarah’s still sleeping beside me, and I’ve been looking at yesterday’s photography.
Today, we’re headed to the Petrified Forest, and then onward toward Mesa Verde. Arizona has been fun, but the landscape is very desolate and I find myself longing for Utah or Colorado already. I hadn’t realized how much the mountains had imprinted upon me.
We’ll probably spend Wednesday in Mesa Verde, and then Thursday, drive on and stop in Black Hawk for some penny slots or something. Saturday, we make it home and have the weekend to rest before Sarah goes back to work on Monday.
So far, an amazing trip.
I’ll probably end up photoshopping out the lens flare later on, but right now I kind of like it. This is another HDR from Arches National Park at dawn(ish). I was going to shoot this same picture at sunset last night but couldn’t be arsed. Have to pace yourself on these kinds of adventures or you’ll get exhausted too soon. Yesterday evening was a rest period.
Today’s a driving day. We’re going to round up our belongings here in a bit and get on the road to Page, Arizona. Page is near Antelope Canyon, a place I’ve been anticipating photographing since I started taking nature photography more seriously.
This is an HDR from the dawn shooting, looking back towards the sun and through the North and South Window Arches. You can kind of see Turret Arch peeking through there too.
Up at the crack of dawn and back to the park this morning. Sadly, clouds had gathered to the east, obscuring that golden light I wanted to paint on my canvas. We had about 10 minutes of golden hour instead of an hour. Got a few good shots though.
After dawn shooting, we drove to the Needles District of Canyonlands. It was nice, but not nearly as impressive as Arches National Park. However, we got to see petroglyphs , which were amazing. I had never seen them before myself. More photos later. Now is the time for resting. Maybe more sunset photography tonight, maybe not. We’ll see how we feel in a couple of hours.
We arrived in Moab a little before noon. The light at this time of the day is terrible, so we did some scouting, figuring out what the best vantage points would be when the sun was setting. Then we headed into town and ate at a “cafe.” I think “cafe” is code in tourist traps for “overpriced.” We’re now holed up in a Motel 6 waiting for the sun to get a little lower on the horizon. Then we’ll head back into the park and try to get some honest-to-goodness landscape photos.
The plan is to shoot dawn in the park again tomorrow, then drive to Canyonlands in the afternoon to scout. Monday morning, we’ll shoot Canyonlands and then get on the road to the Grand Canyon. Wash and repeat, basically. We’re having a blast!
We’re headed to the desert to take photos and generally explore the area. We don’t have much of an idea about where we’re headed, only that we’re going to Southwest Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico (probably).
I should have email and phone access part of the time. I’ll be continuing to look for work on the trip. Who knows, maybe we’ll love Flagstaff and want to move there. Heh.
I’m working on a new design for this website–one that shows off my skills as a designer a bit better, and so on, to help secure the job. In doing so, I’ve been building little experiments to teach myself new tricks. I thought I’d share this little trick with you today.
The idea started out pretty simple– I just wanted to loop some moving clouds. But as I thought about it more, I wanted it to be more and more artificial looking, like an old stage set. I’ve got a lot of features I need to add, but the basic theory is there. You can view source and see exactly what javascript I’m using to move things around.
Don’t bother looking at this with IE6. The transparencies won’t work. And yes, the pngs make file sizes kinda big, but I reallly wanted the transparency effects. It’s an experiment, like I said.
More later!
My story “Groob’s Stupid Grubs,” a story of a goblin’s hopes for his idiot children, is available in Black Gate 15.
I recently finished the first draft of a YA novel called Takedown Notice set in the net-mage universe of my stories “Captain Blood’s B00ty” and “One Click Banishment.” What happens when the Magical Association of Atlantis finally gets the upper hand against the net mages in the spell program copyfight?