Tom and I celebrate great photos from workshop participants by selecting a Photo of the Month. For May we chose an image from our Monument Valley Workshop. The image was taken by Joan Carroll in Mystery Valley. Joan is a wildlife and landscape photographer from Fort Worth. You can see her work featured on Fine Art America.
Congratulations to May 2025 ‘s featured photographer – Joan Carroll
The Story…
That was one place where everyone was all gathered. You pointed it out to us and said it was perfect for forced perspective.
A forced perspective landscape was something I had not done before or even knew about doing. I moved around to get what I thought was the best composition. When I started to develop it, I cropped off part of the bottom. In the Image Review someone else showed a similar photo with the bottom included. I was glad I had cropped mine.
True confessions: I eliminated a tree up on the right side to the right of the green tree. It was a dead tree. It was nice to have the green tree in the composition, but I did not want to have a dead tree in the scene. I used generative fill to remove it.
During the editing process, I had been working on some other photos and I was becoming overwhelmed with the color of the rocks. I decided to try black and white for this photo. I liked the effect right away. I used the Adobe Camera Raw profiles and chose the one with the most contrast. I wanted the edges of the ripples to stand out.
EXIF Data:
Camera: Nikon Z9
Lens: 14-24 mm Nikkor at 15mm
Aperture: f6.3
Shutter: 1/800
ISO: 400
Aperture Priority
About Photographing in Monument Valley
We can’t talk about Monument Valley without talking about the ride up to Hunt’s Mesa. Despite my back issues and the cushion I brought along….I just love that kind of ride up a very rough road. I thought it was great.
I wouldn’t love it so much if I didn’t trust the driver so much. They have driven the road so many times. I assume they know what they are doing. They know how to get up the rocks, when to speed up, when to slow down. It was fun. I liked it.
I enjoyed Carl Phillips. I enjoyed his willingness to share his culture with us without having to be probed. He had great stories to share with us and added a lot of detail. I found the people that we dealt with in the hotel, in the stores, in the restaurant to be very friendly and hospitable. Much more so then what we see in other places in the United States. I found the hospitality to be quite nice.
The land is just spectacular. You cannot really say too much about how beautiful it is. The sunrise shots, the star shots, they were just spectacular.
It was great to get into Honeymoon Cave and see the ruin. It was cooler there and breezy. It was a very peaceful place. When we went up into the cave I had to carry my entire backpack with me. The (Moki) steps going up into the cave where spaced perfectly. After the first 4 steps it was easy.
We did so much on this workshop that I keep forgetting everything that we did.
Joan’ s Tips for Landscape Photography in Monument Valley
Tip 1
Stand next to Tom or Cree and see what they are photographing. Sometimes we need a little guidance.
Tip 2
Sometimes when I go places I don’t spend enough time looking for alternatives. I take a photograph and just stay there and photograph it over and over. This time I wanted to walk around and look for nearby places. At one point I found a curving pattern of white on a wall in in Mystery Valley. I was glad I had walked around to find it.
Tip 3
I hear people talking about not starting to photograph right away but to look at the scene and get a feel for what it is all about and how to approach it. Sometimes we get anxious and just run out and start shooting. I wanted to try this in Monument Valley.
Tip 4
Get the postcard shot but then look for other ways to photograph the landscape. Different angles, shoot with a filter. You can always do better. I need to consciously remind myself to do that.
On Joan’s Horizon:
Grand Teton National Park
Iceland in the summer
Greenland
Greece
Antarctica and South Georgia
Workshop Openings:
Join us in Monument Valley in 2027 Aug 30-Sept 3: Space Available More details
We have two last minute openings for our popular Ouray Fall Color Workshop Sept 28-Oct 2, 2025. Photograph dazzling yellow aspen leaves in the Colorado High Country. Read more
Happy Spring!
Tom and Cree