Visiting Monument Valley with the Grandkids

I have a habit of revisiting fabulously gorgeous places. Some have a magnetic attraction that just keep me coming back.

Each fall I ferry Mom’s car to Arizona and then back to Michigan in the spring. When I can make the arrangements, I ask one of our grandkids to come along to keep me company and in turn share some wonderful sites with them.

The small town of Kayenta, AZ lies along the route between Phoenix and Michigan. A few miles north of the town along the Arizona/Utah border is Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park – a most unique and eye-popping location. There you will leisurely drive along the 17-mile dirt road to view a multitude of amazing cliffs, buttes and mesas.

These photos were taken at a spot with with either the iconic West Mitten Butte or Merrick Butte in the distance.

Taken April 2011

Taken July 2014

Taken Nov 2014

Taken Apr 2015

Taken Apr 2018

Taken Apr 2019

The photos are a great way for me to remember this magnificent area. Hopefully the grandkids will recall their visit in years to come.

Zambriskie Point is of my favorite areas to visit in Death Valley. I am awed by its magnificent landscape created by millions of years of erosion. When climb the steep path from the visitor entrance, you’re immediately greeted by the heavily textured, sandy colored alluvial fans.

This day as I walked up the path I could barely see two people standing on one of the flat areas in the distance. They looked like ants on the rocks. The juxtaposition of the tiny figures against the huge backdrop of these badlands was an interesting view.

My equipment was a Sony NEX-7 camera with a medium 18-200mm zoom lens. This is the image that I captured of the couple. The EXIF data tells me that the lens was zoomed to 44mm.
The above photo was the only one that I took of the couple. When I viewed the image in my “computer darkroom”, I wanted to see how the scene would look if I had used the zoom feature of the lens. I magically zoomed by cropping the original image. The result is that the couple and the rocky landscape show up in much more detail. Which one do you preferr?

While I like both images, I prefer the zoomed in version. This is an example of composing your image after the fact.

 
We’ve published books since 1978. However in 2012 we ceased our publishing activities to concentrate on picture-taking. Still, you may be interested in any of our previously published books about photography including these seven “Stay Focused Guides” for popular DSLR cameras.

Now we’re giving them away free to anyone who would like a copy. They are older but many of the techniques apply to most all DSLR or even the newer mirrorless cameras.

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Without further ado, here are the links for your free PDF copy of our Stay Focused Guides. Click on one of the links below to view a PDF version of a book. Then save the PDF to your desktop.

SFG for Canon XS in PDF format

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28 Tips for Better Photographs in PDF format

National Parks – a tour in PDF format

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