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smoke above the dead horse
It may not look like it, but this was taken at mid day.
That haziness was from wildfires in California; that summer the entire West was smoky, so everything was out of the ordinary* in way that wasn’t entirely comfortable. It was also the pandemic summer, so we spent many days driving and driving. But no matter how far we went, things were still weird.
Dead Horse Point State Park, Utah
photographed 9.7.2020
*Fun Fact #1: I was listening to “Burning Down the House”** and just as I typed “out of the ordinary” those VERY lyrics were on.
**Fun Fact #2: It was pretty loud and I was singing along***. You may have heard it from where you are.
***Fun Fact #3: I was home by myself. If anyone’s here I am expressly forbidden to sing out loud. Yes! That illustrates the, uh, quality**** of my singing voice.
****Fun Fact #4: Good thing I’m a photographer, if you know what I mean.
through the haze
Remember back at the end of the summer when the West Coast had devastating wildfires? And also remember how the smoke plume spread itself across almost the entire country?
The hazy skies in Utah were from smoke, and the distant rock formations, which already seem other-worldly, took on an even more surreal look.
near Dead Horse Point, Utah
photographed 9.7.2020
Smoke Settling into the Canyon
Normally, this view goes on just about forever.
A devastating wildfire season on the west coast gave us a much different view, with smoke settling into the canyons and giving everything a weird, muted look. (This was shot at mid-day.) But you know how I am: at least the situation gave me something different than the usual shots of bright blue skies, vivid red rocks, and a blue-green river, and I wasn’t too disappointed about that. “Anyone can get those shots,” I said to myself in a tone that was probably too smug for the actual situation.
But what I learned is that from a photographic standpoint, smoke doesn’t really add that much to an image. And I was reminded to stop being so damn smug, already.
Dead Horse Point State Park, Utah
photographed 9.7.2020
Two Ships
The majestic rock formations were made blurry by the thick plume of smoke that had drifted from the west coast.
(They are called the Monitor and the Merrimac, decidedly Eurocentric titles for a region that was inhabited by the ancient ones for sort of a while before Europeans arrived to re-name everything.)
near Moab, Utah
photographed 9.7.2020
Open Range
As much as we loved the Palouse, we did have to go home.
The day we drove from Park City, Utah, to Farmington, New Mexico, was a day of extremely smoky skies; the smoke obscured almost all of what was there to look at. But if I’d been enchanted by the natural scenery, there’s a chance I would have missed this cast-off stove beside the railroad tracks.
near Moab, Utah
photographed 9.7.2020
One Day | One Image 