On the back loop of the Monument Valley, the Totem has been a special assignment I gave myself the first time I saw it. I have photographed it from every angle except on top, I’ll leave that to Clint. While I treasure all those views, they weren’t what I had in mind. Totem is Totem to me not because of the detail of all the rock but rather, the simple outline as you see here. If you’ve enjoyed Navajo artwork, you know how they incorporate the simple yet gorgeous sky. It’s a palette of colors without anything other than the dust in the air and the sun. That simplicity had long eluded my camera all these years until this trip. Then, there it was and to be honest, I was dumbstruck, in awe to the point I almost did what I typically do, just stare! The earth was spinning, the light was changing fast with the bald skies. I had to walk to get the shot I desired, the one you see, all in a daze. Then the moment came and the haze still seemed to fog my mind. Luckily I went on autopilot, the Z 8 doing its job so darn well when I went click. And with that click in the camera, a calm came over me and I put the camera down. For the next minutes, I just soaked it up. The print is not made, the wall space cleared, and after a long-awaited wait, the moment arrived.

The Z 9 / Z24-70f2.8 never left the tripod and in fact, wasn’t off the entire time except for a few seconds while I was at Monument Valley last week. It was doing just one thing, making time-lapse of the view from our balcony 24/7. The Z 9 ran for five days busily taking 1 photo every ten seconds using my basic settings for Time Lapse at ISO1600, f2.8, Aperture Priority. The Z 9 is plugged into the AC via the EP-6a adapter. Other than stopping the Time Lapse every so often to “save” a few hours at a time and to wipe the rain off the front filter, the Z 9 just kept running capturing time passing in a timeless landscape.

I had arranged with Helen at Three Sisters months ago where I wanted to be this morning to greet the sun. At 05:45 she had us jostling down the road in pursuit of that sweet click, a photo I’ve long desired. We had left earlier than most as she had two stops she wanted us to make first. This is one of them. As a Navajo and resident, Helen had the knowledge and permission to have us at the right place at the right time. And photos like this come from that kinda planned luck. To get the shot, I merely had to stand up in the truck, dial in -1 exp comp, Aperture Priority, AWB, f4 @80mm, and go click. The sky from top to bottom is a gorgeous rainbow transitioning from night to day, the Monument Valley dust bringing warmth to the horizon. This doesn’t happen every morning, but it certainly did today, the magical rainbow.

Seriously, staying at The View, the hardest part of this photo was remembering to set the alarm! I had the camera already set up for the morning when I went to bed. WB 10K, -2/3, aperture closed down to f/32 was all it took. The alarm went off, I started to shoot with the Z 8 / Z24-120 bigger scenes watching the sun which I knew would be right over the “thumb.” Then when it was time, zoomed out to 400mm on the other rig, went click, and then sat in my chair and had my coffee. All I can say, all I wanted to say in my photo was, whata rock!

We knew it was comin, it scrubbed my air-to-air photo mission so the camera was set up and waiting. The skies grew dark and the show began before sunset with a huge clamp of thunder. For half an hour the Miops was clicking away as it was pointed east for the incoming show. The camera was set to Aperture Priority, ISO 100, f2.8 -1/3 comp doing all the heavy lifting as I watched through the windows. The camera wasn’t set up at 02:04 when it kicked up again for an hour. The show is supposed to start again today around 13:00, sure can tell it’s August, it’s time to light ‘er up!