The Gypsum Creek Watershed of Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park carves its path among ancient dunes that rise up and away toward the south where they meet the lithic fastness of iconic rock: The Totem, standing tall and singular, and the Yei Bi Chei, the Holy People of Navajo cosmology. The northwesterly winds ripple the dunes into amazing shallow patterns that cast the rising sun into shadows in the narrow defiles between the tiny ridges. Enough moisture comes so that rabbitbrush and a host of sand-loving species can gain a foothold. Mule deer come and go leaving hoofprints as they pass. The Desert Southwest is beautifully spiritual and spiritual beauty, no matter how it is seen.
A focal length of 25mm, somewhere in mid-wideangleland, gave me the angle-of-view I wanted from about 1′ above the sand. An aperture of f/22 provided depth-of-field, and a shutter speed of 1/4th second in the motionless air at ISO 100 made for a medium exposure. To be in this location at this hour requires working with a Navajo guide who understands the gravity of being in the Park enough before sunrise to be at Gypsum Creek and the dunes at the first blush of dawn. This land is sacred and must be approached in such a way.
Monument Valley is a photographer’s Eden. It is not a theme park. Approach it as if you are entering a holy shrine, and it will reveal itself slowly to your delight.
This image is another treasure. I look forward to your Images for the Asking each week even if I don’t comment on them. Your message today was particularly poignant and something we should all keep in mind and do our part in this. Blessings for the new decade to come.
Lovely, lovely perspective and pic.
Wow, just wow. You captured the image of the Navajo sacred water flowing symbol:
Water Symbol
The water symbol was used to indicate large stretches of water such as rivers and the ocean. The different forms that water might take symbolized different things. Running water was a symbol of the continuity of life and the on-going flow of time. Many Plateau Indians were reliant on rivers for their sustenance, as fish constituted their main source of food. The meaning of the water symbol was to signify the flow of life from the Earth and to chart the features of a particular area.
Source: https://m.warpaths2peacepipes.com/native-american-symbols/water-symbol.htm
Thank you so.much for the sharing of your photographic skills over the years and your ability to teach these skills to others. I hope we have the opportunity to meet again, if not may God bless your journey and be your constant companion.
Wow! This must have been quite a spiritual experience for you. Thank you for sharing. As I stated a few weeks back, this is an aspect of photography I need to work on, wide angle along with how to compose the foreground. This is a great lesson. The leading lines are perfect. Looking forward to working on this in Acadia with you. One thought. The picture looks ever so slightly unlevel. I think it can rotate clockwise just a hair. I am basing this on the monuments in the background. That is the engineer in me talking.
Will be keeping you in my prayers this week as you prepare for and have your surgery. Will give you a call either today or tomorrow.
Beautiful! The colors, the light, and the soul-satisfying composition all give me an Aaahhh! moment. I could look at this for a long time.
This does look like a spiritual image with all roads leading to the Totem. The gold and blue contrasting colors add to the mood of the image. The Totem and the other rock formations could be the part of a temple that has been protecting these dunes for many centuries. The new decade probably is just like a new day in this spiritual world. Thanks for sharing another image with a story to tell. There are so many here.
I am praying you have great success and a speedy recovery with the surgery. I look forward to your shared images and adventures for years to come.
I am so glad you treasure these Navajo lands as much as I do. This area is reached only with intention; our guide collected us at 4 am. The results are among my favorite images. May you and Bonnie have continued success in the new year, whether your pursuits are surgical or photographic.
I’ve been there, not this particular viewpoint, but to Monument Valley with a guided photographic tour. The red rock areas of northern Arizona and southern Utah rank right up there with “old structures” (mill wheels, cabins, Appalachian barns) as my favorite subjects to photograph. They invoke such a sense of mystery, history, and spirituality. Thank you for sharing them with us. Best wishes for successful surgery and recovery.
Good afternoon Everyone. Thanks you all very much for being with me for this conversation; perhaps even more than any of you can know. I sit in a rigged position staring at a lovely purple (my choice) , mesh fiberglass cast that begins just below my right knee and draws to a conclusion at the tips of a quintet of pedal digits, happy to have begun a return journey toward flexibility and balance in the service of walking once again. Having once loved mobility as a sprinter (4.6/40yds) and later as a middle distance runner (39+ min/10K), I exhort you never to take the gift of walking for granted. It is, indeed, a gift.
It now seems likely that there will be no Image for the first Sunday of the New Year, so from here we’ll move directly into the Image for January 12.
Good Afternoon, Nancy K. Thank you for joining me for the final Image of 2019. It is always good to hear from you, regardless of the frequency of your comments, and I appreciate that my comments with this Image have spoken to you. Our public lands are such treasures for all of us whether they are east of the Mississippi or west thereof. Over the years as I have had the great, good fortune to travel extensively west of the 100th meridian, I have only really just begun to realize the extent of that blessing and to appreciate that wherever they are located, they are my lands to preserve and protect as much as a Utahan or a New Mexican. Thank you for joining me, and may the coming decade continue to enhance our appreciation and determination.
Hello Helen. It’s great to hear from you! I hope you will continue to appreciate the work in this new decade and join the conversation whenever you will. Monument Valley is reasonably well-protected because of its being owned by the Dine; but there are equally beautiful surrounding lands – Cedar Mesa, et.al., the are imperiled and need our help.
Hi Kathy. It’s wonderful to have you with us for this conversation. Thank you so much for your appreciation of the Image and for sharing with us the excellent comments on the water symbology of the Native Peoples of the Colorado Plateau and beyond. We have so much to learn from their experience about how to appreciate to gifts of the resources we have and how to think about them as integral/necessary parts of our lives. May you walk in the beauty of their world and as you help bring it into ours.
Hey Chuck. It’s always good to hear from you. I truly appreciate your kind comments and thoughtful words. Bonnie and I certainly hope that our paths will cross again; and we hope that your journey, wherever it may take you, will be richly filled with beauty and creative joy that will give you deep pleasure and satisfaction.
Hey Kev,it’s always a real joy to have you with me. I know we’ve talked about this Image so I won’t belabor my comments here. Our time in Acadia will be full of moments for wide-angle work, and I’m really looking forward to enjoying then with you. In so many ways the beauty of the Northwoods and the New England coastline is analogous to that of the Desert Southwest, but with the added element of trees. I do want to say that I very much appreciate the care with which you examine ever aspect of an image and then express your feelings about what you have observed. Those qualities will serve you well as your journey progresses.
Hi Linda. Thanks, always, for being with us and for your kind words. I have to admit, this is one of my all-time favorite images from the Southwest, and it’s always a joy when someone else appreciates it as much as do I. And the reasons you have cited are exactly the reasons I continue to be drawn to it. What I, therefore, have to acknowledge is the understanding of natural history and the preparatory effort that it took to put me exactly in this place at this moment in time. Only then could my understanding of the mechanics of the photographic process begin to come into play. I hope you are looking forward to a beautiful year and decade ahead. Bonnie and I certainly hope our paths will cross with yours during that time.
Hey Nancy T. Your wonderful visual descriptions are a prime motivation for me to continue offering the Image for as long as I can. I always delight in reading what you have to share with us. I have visited Monument Valley on a number of occasions and have found that early morning – if you can arrange to be in the valley with a Dine guide – is the most spiritual of moments. The light of the new day, golden on the rocks and sand, engenders a feeling that can only be described as reverence and awe, the awareness that my place within it is infinitesimally small and the Universe, itself, is infinitely large. I hope we get to see you in 2020 and have the pleasure of seeing you again and again in the years to come.
Hey Barbara. I have come to really appreciate and enjoy hearing from you as the Images roll by, for I find that you do love the places that we love, with an equal degree of intensity that is wonderfully refreshing. Your words speak the truth of the intentions you suggest. I cannot imaging getting to know Monument Valley any other way. I hope to make 2019 the last of my “surgical pursuits” for as long as I can, but photographically it’s a completely other story. Walk in Beauty Every Day.
Ah, Donald; how could I be so blessed but to have you as the final comment of the year. I hope you early sojourn to the Valley of the Sun (Southern Exposure) this year has been.I don’t know if I’ll make it back to Monument Valley. The Dine are becoming more guarded in their willingness to make available parts of the valley heretofore available. And I get that it’s their Spirituality that’s the question – but it’s also their decision to make and it’s my duty to respect that. I’m so glad to see you equate the spires and dunes of the Red Rock with the barns and mills of Appalachia. It’s an equivalency that certainly works well in my mind: mystery, history, and Spirit – the substantive elements of our present. Thanks, too, for your kind thoughts and wishes. I plan to come out the other end with an idea for how we can have you with us in the new year, and look forward to it.
Well, Everyone, that about wraps up the eighth year of Image for the Asking. It has been another wonderful experience and I am honored and humbled that you have all been part of it. I look forward as we go into a new season of beauty and the opportunity to share it with you. Walk in Beauty. Don.