Many of us love to travel long distances to see the amazing things of the world and yet rarely take the same time to appreciate what’s right around us, and well, I’m no different. But Arizona has more than its fair share of mind-blowing landscapes and natural wonders, so last week I took a trip to take some of them in. Having lived in the desert for most of my life, I don’t usually appreciate the landscape as much as someone seeing the for the first time, but I do have to say that the Southwest holds some gems that were stunning even to me.
When most people think of canyons around here, the Grand Canyon is usually what comes to mind. And if you know me or have read this blog you know that I’ve had my encounters with the Grand Canyon. But slot canyons are a different experience entirely. Narrow slots carved deep into the rock by flash floods and flowing rainwater, they boast a beauty all their own.
As promised, here are some images from the trip. I don’t know what else to say other than yes, it really is this gorgeous.
Over the weekend, a friend and I set out on a two-day road trip to visit some of Northern Arizona’s natural wonders. We needed some time away from the city, so we headed out to see one of the slot canyons near the Utah border. We knew we would be in for stunning landscapes and awe-inspiring sights…. What we didn’t know was what we would encounter on our way home.
As we drove north on Saturday, we passed a forest fire just outside Flagstaff. Though it was the closest either of us had actually been to a wildfire, this is not an uncommon sight in Arizona, so I snapped some photos and we continued on our way.
As we drove home the next day, we came to see that over the course of 24 hours, a second fire had started and grown into a blazing monstrosity. And yes, it was directly in our path. As the highway took us straight toward the fire, we witnessed the power of nature in a way we were definitely not expecting…
This is the only major highway heading where we needed to go, so we drove as far as we could. The highway was closed, of course, though.
So… now what to do?
After conferencing with some fellow stranded drivers to find another way home, we ended up taking a very unpaved road about 20 miles or so to a different highway and arrived home only a couple hours later than we planned.
While I sit at home, though, the fire continues to rage. It has now been named the Schultz fire and, as of today, has burned roughly 10,000 acres of forest. You can find more information about the situation at BBC or CNN here and here.
Besides the fire, the rest of the weekend was stunning as I expected. Those photos to come in the next post.
There’s a central theme in my mind that drives much of my more artsy work: the unseen.
I started an abstract project a few months ago based on this concept, and this is part two of that project. This is probably going to be something that I continue to develop, but I thought I’d bring you along on the journey in the meantime.
Here, I photograph the physical world, but in a way that prompts viewers to ask questions about what they’re looking at and what there is beyond the small frame of what they can see. In these images, I photograph the body, focusing the work on humanity…. The rest is for your own reflection…
I don’t know what the general response to these will be. Maybe they’re not really your cup of tea, or maybe they move you somehow. It’s actually okay either way. To be honest, I really have no idea if they’re “good” or not.
But there’s this temptation in photography to do what we know will be accepted. To recreate images that we’ve seen before and that we can be fairly confident that people will like. I’m familiar with the struggle – I fight it all the time. I can do the expected and the safe, but that’s not really enough for me. I’m bored with images that everyone’s done before and seen before. I want to create work that’s deeper and more meaningful to me. But that, my friends, is risky. These images may work, or they may not. Some people might not care for them at all – others may love them. But either way, they’re the product of going beyond what I know and doing something more personal, and that’s something I think is always worthwhile.
Over the long weekend, I spent several days at the family “ranch.” Things are different every time I go there, so I’ve decided to do a series of 360 degree panoramas on the progress of the place. It will be a long-term thing, of course, but I added a couple images to the archive this weekend.
One at early sunrise and one a little later in the morning…
Okay, I’ve been talking about it for months. Visual peacemaking, that is. And now… big news. The International Guild of Visual Peacemakers is launching our official website! While the last-minute bugs are still being worked out, I’ve gotten a sneak peak at the site and have been having fun poking around. And I gotta say… it’s going to be fantastic. The site is full of photos and stories from world-class photographers, resources and opportunities for photographers of all kinds, podcasts, interviews, and way more goodies than I can even talk about. It’s going to be a great place for people to connect, share their work, learn, and enjoy the work of others. Whether you’re a photographer or not, you’re going to want to check this out. More to come when we launch. Until then, I’ll leave you with a couple teasers…
And now for the second of my two Preemptive Love photo shoots from last week. This time: the Nature set.
And um… yes, that’s me in the photos. What can I say? I’ve been doing these shoots for Preemptive Love, and the light outside on this particular day was so incredible that I HAD to photograph. Except, I didn’t have any models and the light was about to change, so I put on a Preemptive Love t-shirt and went out to experiment. I wanted to try a different style, and I’m actually really happy with how my experimenting turned out.
Maybe it’s not cool to be in your own photos, and maybe you think I’m kinda crazy. Well… oh well. It’s okay because this light is GORGEOUS!
And by the way, I went back out to try something else only a couple days later, and the sun was in a different position in the sky – even at the same hour. The same shots were never possible again.
This week I’ve been working on two more photo shoots for Preemptive Love, this time photographing not only the Klash shoes, but also some T-shirts and scarves – all pretty awesome products, if I do say so myself. By the way, if you actually want to buy any of these products, either because you want to help Iraqi kids who need heart surgery, or because you just like the loot, check out the Preemptive Love store.
Huge thanks to my fantastic models for helping me out on this shoot! You guys rocked it!
And now… Preemptive Love: the Urban set…
This weekend I was in Southern California for a photography job and was lucky enough to spend a couple hours taking in the sights before heading back home to the desert.
There’s something about the ocean that never fails to inspire awe and wonder. Something strangely humbling and yet freeing about wading in the water and feeling the raw power pulling at your feet. About standing on the shore and staring out into the vast expanse of sea, so massive that you can’t see the other side.
It did my heart good, so I thought I’d post some photos for you to enjoy. These especially go out to all my fellow desert-dwellers!
In Iraq, thousands of Kurdish children suffer from life-threatening congenital heart disease. These children can receive a new lease on life through surgery, but because of war, corruption, and lack of resources, surgery is simply an unattainable dream for most of them, and thousands of families must face the reality that their children will soon die. There is not enough charitable funding to pay for surgeries for these kids, and the operations must be performed outside of Iraq, making things that much harder. But fortunately, that is no longer the end of the story.
Enter Preemptive Love Coalition.
Preemptive Love is a group working in northern Iraq to help children get otherwise-unattainable life-saving heart surgeries. Working in the region since 2007, Preemptive Love has helped over 50 children receive surgery, and one way they have done this is by partnering with local Kurdish craftsmen who make shoes called Klash. Klash are traditional, handmade Kurdish shoes, and by selling these shoes to customers around the world, Preemptive Love puts consumer dollars to work to fund surgeries for Kurdish children and give them new hope for the future.
No, they’re not paying me to endorse them here, and they haven’t even asked me to. I just personally love what this group is doing, and I’ve been working on some images of the Klash this week. I have a pair of my own that I wear, but after photographing them, I can’t help but say again that these are some seriously awesome shoes!
Making handmade Klash is a unique, 3,000 year old skill, practiced only by craftsmen in Kurdistan
No machines are used whatsoever in the making of these shoes, and they contain no rubber or plastic
They are hand-stitched from beginning to end, made with care and attention, knot by knot
Even the soles are made by hand from countless strips of fabric
LINKS:
Preemptive Love
Klash and other products
Across the desert regions of the American Southwest there stretches a wilderness still unclenched by the fingers of urban modernity. A place where you can look for miles and never see another human being.
In the midst of that wilderness is where I spent the last several days, celebrating the Christmas holiday with family who make their home there. It’s a refreshing thing to separate from the trappings of city life and enjoy a bit of quiet, and I’m now convinced that we don’t spend nearly enough time in silence, what with the incessant barrage of noise and television and busyness constantly pressing in on us…
Anyway, sorry I digress. Perhaps we should all take some time this week to get away from the noise of life and find some silence. Until then, enjoy these photos.
The image above is a 360 degree view of “The Ranch” as it is affectionately known, and the images below are from the daily walk around the property.
by nicoleg
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