Truth be told, I had to look at the map for about ten minutes to remember where exactly I took this photo.
Once I found the spot — on the edge of the mesa that holds Page, Arizona — I vaguely remembered impatiently half-walking, half-running through the sandy terra cotta soil and sagebrush out to this viewpoint.
It was a hot summer evening in 2015, with thunderstorms driving angrily across the plateau country where Arizona meets Utah. I must’ve just gotten off my shift at the boat ramp (I worked as an aquatic invasive species education ranger that summer), with just enough time for a quick walk to catch the sweet light.
If it wasn’t for this photo, it might’ve been a memory lost in my mind forever. And I’m pretty sure this is the first time the world has seen this picture.
I found it on my hard drive, unprocessed, forgotten. Zooming in revealed the blur of camera shake. Looking to free up digital real estate, I almost deleted it. But I paused, and I’m glad I did.
If it does nothing at all for the world at large, it brought back to me a long lost memory. Even if its “not sharp enough to publish”, it looks fine here on the interwebs.
And I’ve come to realize that a photo doesn’t have to be a masterpiece to be worthwhile.
In this one we see a powerful landscape. Tower Butte’s sandstone cliffs and alluvial fans illuminated by the setting sun. The hulking silhouette of Navajo Mountain dominating the skyline. The undulating swales and shrubs pretending to be waves and water spray in a sea of high desert terrain.
It’s an iconic scene that not too many photographers actually photograph because they’re too busy at Antelope Canyon or Horseshoe Bend.
Okay, that was snarky of me to say. I do regret turning my nose up at Antelope Canyon and not visiting that summer.
But I digress, the point is that this photo is documentation of a magical moment of a underrated vista and it deserves to be seen.
Now pardon me as I plan a return to my late twenties stomping grounds and a far overdue first-time visit to Antelope Canyon.
-Jake
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