Grand Canyon. Death Valley. Zion. Bryce Canyon. Antelope Canyon. Joshua Tree. Arches… I can't remember a time when I didn't dream of photographing the deserts and canyonlands of the American Southwest. Their vast open spaces, bizarre stone monoliths, unique lifeforms, and otherworldly shapes and colors have beckoned me for years.

The challenge has always been the mundane shackles of my regular life: the job, family responsibilities, finances, and the like. Every daydream of letting that all go to pursue this "bucket list" item was counteracted by matters of practicality. Until, that is, the summer of 2022.

Call it karma or simply pure luck, but around the end of the COVID pandemic, I committed myself to transitioning to a more balanced mindset and lifestyle where the job didn't always take top priority. Since then, opportunities that I never believed would happen began to appear.

In this case, my months-long search to buy a used car finally surfaced the right one in Phoenix. My little inner voice that kept whispering, "If not now, when?" suddenly gained traction as I reviewed a highway map: all these national parks lay in the general direction back home! I could fly out to Phoenix, pick up the car, then follow a meandering path through these mythical places—just me, my new roadster, and my camera, stopping wherever the muse directed me.

The photos in this gallery started with that amazing 2-week journey of discovery, which then sparked additional visits to other remote places. Reflecting back on that first trip, I realize how close I came to never taking the plunge, of following a dream and fulfilling a bucket-list item that has fundamentally changed my life.

It may sound cliché, but life is too precious to dull permanently. Take some risks now and then; it'll do your soul some good. Pull yourself out of your ordinary. When that little voice whispers, "If not now, when?", take heed. There is more meaning in embracing a dream—even if only for a few days—than in a lifetime of drudgery.

SEARCHING THIS COLLECTION

The following key words can be used in this page's Search field to locate pieces based on certain characteristics: Anasazi, Black & White, Blue, Blue Hour, Brown, Canyonland, Clouds, Desert, Eclipse, Gold, Green, Horizon, Human Structure, Lake, Moon, Orange, People, Plant, Purple, Rainbow, Red, Ruins, Sandstone, Sepia, Silhouette, Silver, Slot Canyon, Sunrise, Sunset, Tree, Yellow.

Note that I associated these key words with my works; the search mechanism adds its own terms, too, so feel free to try other words if you'd like to search using different criteria.