The moment of sunrise had come, but the thick layer of clouds stretching from horizon to horizon held back the golden light that the land craved. Photographed August 2021.
The angle of sunlight is low, and every direction provides a different vista, a different view of the hoodoos carved over millions of years by rain, wind, and snow... In one corner of the Amphitheater, darkness mostly reigns for now, but will soon be dispelled by the power of dawn. Photographed March 2022.
Stars rise four minutes earlier each day, so that over the course of several months, Orion goes from a "winter constellation," which means it's visible during the convenient evening hours, to a rare pleasure glimpsed just before dawn gathers to itself the black of night and slowly spreads in its stead the blues, oranges, and finally the reds of the impending Sun. In a corner of Navajoland made famous for its buttes and spires, the eager Sun will arrive too soon and rob me of one last look at Orion before the chase for sunrise begins in earnest.
