The Mittens and the famous "Ansel rocks" in Monument Valley.The snow in the valley was a treat and made the photography even nicer than the normal amazing views.BTW- the famous rocks are right next to the parking lot. I was standing in it to take this image. So if you go-you will not miss them!
Another view of the area around Artist Point in Monument Valley.The big view is what the camera is looking at, but the rocks right there are neat and worthy of an image.Ok, I did not actually use the 4x5 for them but I did burn a few pixels.
I got snowed on again at Monument Valley. This time I made my directly to Artist Point. Wow!The snow lingered. There were low hanging clouds. The red rock country was in full winter wonderland.Wow, indeed!I had three cameras working. I wanted this on sheet film and as many pixels as I could get. I also even went into movie mode with the LX-3 although I am really a still image kinda guy. Looking back at them now, the sheet film wins, although I must say a couple of stitched panoramas do look quite nice.Here is that morning view. BTW, I was the only one here.
I spent a wonderful week out in Arizona in late February visiting Monument Valley, the slot canyons near Page, and the Grand Canyon. You will be seeing some images from these in a series of posts on this blog and my WildernessPhotographer blog too.If you look at this image you might think it was summer and you probably cannot tell that it had snowed the night before, but it had. Then it all melted off.I had been out in the morning but between the wind and the fact that the best light seemed to be way off kept me using the DSLR and I waited for better conditions for the 4x5. After all, I want each sheet of Quickload film to count.The view here is Artist Point. This was that better conditions I was looking for! The view. The conditions. The light. It was just what I was looking for, so I sat up the Arca-Swiss and set about making a few images in the late afternoon light.This was my first visit to Monument Valley and I was impressed. From John Ford movies to the many views photographers have made made it really a great place and the weather I got here over 2 days made it a special location.
