Return to Gallery Order Print
Click to purchase: Artist's Point, Monument Valley

Technical Data:

Description:

Canon Digital Rebel

Canon EF-s 18-55, @ 18mm

1/200s, f/9, ISO 400

Monument Valley Navajo Park, Arizona
January 6, 2006

What's up with all these places named Artist's Point?

It really makes me feel unoriginal to shoot a picture from a place like this, yet I don't think I've really seen many other shots of Monument Valley save for pictures of the Mittens.

Though this photo is 3 1/2, almost 4 years old, I can still remember exactly what I was feeling as I was standing there.

When people say the desert is a "spiritual" place, I actually understand what they mean now.

I don't think it's spiritual in the sense that you'll start rain-dancing or any other stereotypical Native American type thing... no offense to the Navajo whose land this is :)

There is, however, a strange awareness one feels. You realize how desolate of a place you're in, yet it's so beautiful. You realize just how large of a place it is when you see things like the trailer homes in this particular image. You realize how vast it is and how tall these buttes are when you see how long their shadows are cast. You realize how empty the land is when the only sound you hear is the wind and maybe a bird or two. And on this day in January, there were no people around. We saw one other car there.

Oh yes, it's spiritual... but it's spiritual in a sense that you realize just how large this Earth is. It's spiritual in that you see how nature's colors can vibrate in sync with each other to provide pleasing combinations to your eye. It's spiritual in that you realize God made this entire place for us to explore and see.

I realize that I can't ever accurately convey the feeling one gets in the desert. I actually get the same feeling when I'm standing in a quiet spot watching the clouds roll by Mount Rainier.

The only thing I can do for you to help you understand is to tell you to go visit... and do yourself a favor and do it when nobody else is around... because that's when you'll enjoy it the most.