Plateau

I made this image on the long lonely drive from Goblin Valley to Capitol Reef in southern Utah. I have been dedicating a few of my spare CPU cycles to analyzing the feeling the desert conjures up. It is a simple conclusion, but I have arrived that the desert, unlike anywhere else, provides an unmatched sense of expanse. In the forest, you can feel peace and wonder. In the city you can marvel at the architectural accomplishments of human kind. In the desert, you can see forever and experience, in a very real way, our place in the world. On a recent trip to a plateau high above Canyonlands, where you could see all around, we shut our lights off and agreed to be silent for 10 minutes. I watched as my attention drifted from satellite hunting and monitoring cloud movement to enjoying the warmth of the rock I was lying on. It reminded me that I am a small piece in this ever expanding universe, but at the same time I’m able to directly experience a communion with it. I’m sure those are the same thoughts that motivated fellows like Sartre, Liebniz, and Nietzche to write. I guess those thoughts motivate me to photograph…