Emergence

Natural Bridges has one of the darkest skies in the US, with almost no light pollution. It is one of the greatest places to observe the night ski. The International Dark-Sky Association has designated Natural Bridges National Monument as the world's first International Dark Sky Park.

Sipapu Bridge seen here is the second largest natural bridge in the world and means "the place of emergence"

 

A trip to the southwest, for me is always a bit spiritual, the Navajo culture is deep with mystical stories of past ancestors and spirit guides that oversee your conduct in life and in the wilds.

 

For this trip I was going to be basing my central camp in the San Juan Valley and venture to my favorite areas for more scouting and shooting. I departed the house with William McIntosh to meet up with Wayne Pinkston in Mexican Hat for a shoot in Natural Bridges.

 

Upon meeting at the visitor center, we quickly departed for the bridges, we ran into Gabriel Biderman teaching a workshop at Owachomo Bridge so the place seemed like a zoo as we are used to shooting more remote locations but Gabriel was very courteous and most accommodating, so "hats" of to him for his professionalism. We shot there for a couple hours and then made off for Sipapu Bridge further up the road. As we descended into the darkness my spidey senses started to awaken, the deeper we went the more they tingled and I felt like eyes were watching us and then thought about the story behind the arch. It was thought that this was a doorway to a spirit world and spirits passed from this realm to the afterlife, the civilizations of old would watch here for them to emerge. 😱 After many swithbacks and a sharp descent I started to wonder “where is this thing”, we reached stage one, a 10 ft handmade ladder constructed of wood gathered from around the area, you know the kind of wood that you burn in the fire pit!!! Wayne truly is amazing, he just shrugged it off like some modern day Indiana Jones and down he went, I shot Bill a glance and I could see his spidey sense had gone off too. I think telepathy kicked in and I saw in Bills eyes exactly what I was thinking, “What a minute, no body said anything about sketchy wooden ladders descending into the darkness” Rut-Ro(scooby). Several hundred feet later we ran into another “Ladder” which was even sketchier than the last one, this is the point where my curiosity peaked so I grabbed my one million candlepower torchlight and lit up the darkness and what "emerged" was the most awe inspiring behemoth of an arch I have ever seen, it literally blotted out the night sky completing the darkness. By the time we reached the third “Ladder” we were directly under this colossal structure. With a massive buttress to the right it stretches 225' across wide enough to drive a automobile over, and stands 145' high. Humm, how do I get the RAV4 up there, Hehe. As soon as my mind absorbed the enormity of it I felt like an ant, you know the one that you smash(Budda be damned) on your kitchen counter for trespassing. A truly unique and humbling experience to be sure. This scene was lit up by Wayne, while I did the test exposures and I could see Bill exploring the area to shoot with of course his FISHEYE!!! That guy loves that lens and the more he uses it the more I feel the need for one too!! If anybody has a 12mm f2.8 for sale please leave a comment before I strangle Bill. LOL. :) Just kidding Bill !!!

 

For more information about the LLL technique(LowLevelLighting) you can visit lowlevellighting.org

 

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Have a safe and happy 4th of July my friends!! :)

 

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