After leaving Canyon de Chelly I headed to Monument valley, one of the places on my bucket list to photograph. Once getting there I setup camp and headed out to check out the area. I noticed a noise on the roof of the truck and pulled over to see what it could be. I noticed that the roof rack had collapsed in the rear and my cargo box was bouncing on the roof. After looking up where the nearest hardware store was, I found that I had to travel back 35 miles to the closest town. I set out the next day to town so I could rig up a fix, while out we had 45 mph winds and when returning to camp the tent was blown over with tent poles broken. Luckily I had another tent with me so I began taking down the broke tent. About that time a couple came over to assist, the winds were making it a challenge, we got it down and the other up and a friendship was born. The next day I went to the local store to get some things to eat and my new friends who were camping too text me. Upon returning to camp they explained that the vehicle they had could not make the trip into the park, it was too low to the ground, and offered we could use their entry ticket to get in if we went in my vehicle. I said sure. So we headed out for the day. what an adventure! Soraya and Andy were visiting from Germany traveling the USA on their honeymoon, while in the park we stopped and I wanted to take their photo and a panorama shot was the only way to do it. this ended up 132 images to make 44 HDR images to make the pano.
We continued the day, Andy being an aspiring photographer, had great interest in learning. So not only did we all enjoy the trip into the valley, but it gave me opportunity to share my 35 some odd years and pass on what I know. He learned to shoot panorama’s as well as tips on exposure and the importance of having a tripod.
From what I understand, I have been blamed for turning him into a photography monster. I’m not so sure..