Blessing Day

Every now and then a portrait captures a little magic. For the life of me, I don't know what prompted the reaction on my nieces' doorstep the morning their youngest sister was blessed in church, but I love every element of this shot. The missing teeth, the fingers up the nose, the vaguely concerned look on the baby's face...this one was just perfect.

Lunch with Kris

One of the more bittersweet elements of my lunch portrait project was winding up with a picture of a good friend who would pass away in the coming years. Kris was already fighting brain cancer when he and I met up for lunch at a favorite burger spot in Layton early in 2021, but his brave fight lasted all the way to the end of summer 2022 before he passed. As sad as it is to see images like this, I am equally grateful for the friendships they represent, and that I was able to document a moment that will have to wait until after this life to be repeated.

No White Pickup in Sight

I was pretty excited by how my first round of photographs turned out at the famous Shiprock formation in northwest New Mexico. But the excitement turned into nervous relief when I learned a little more context about my situation. Unlike other four corners attractions like nearby Monument Valley, Shiprock is not part of a tribal park, though it is on tribal land. What that means is you aren't supposed to trespass in order to photograph it, and you certainly aren't supposed to climb it. I knew this beforehand, and got all my shots at a distance from the closest highway with my telephoto, and looking back I'm really glad I did. A little research back home revealed that multiple unfortunate trespassers had been robbed by a group of men in a white pickup truck if they were unfortunate enough to be caught on the wrong side of the private property fence.

Resilience on the Reservation, March 2021

The Navajo tribes were particularly hard-hit during the pandemic, and one silver lining of losing two trees in a September 2020 windstorm was donating some of the resulting firewood to a collection for the reservation. Early the next year I saw this striking mural on an abandoned building on my way to photograph Shiprock in northwestern New Mexico.