Guest Author Carlos Benjamin's Tongue-in-Cheek Take on or recent semi-professional roadtrip to some of the best landscape in North America:

This past week was the first annual AZStrobists Executive Retreat. In attendence were all Admins and Moderators for the AZStrobists flickr group. Of course, that consists of Daron Shade and myself. Our expenses were provided from the dues everyone pays for being a part of this marvelous group.

After a liesurely lunch in the pines of Flagstaff last Sunday, Daron and I cruised on down the highway in the official AZStrobists Executive Limo, nicknamed "Flash" for obvious reasons.

We landed in Page, AZ that evening where we feasted on Mexican food until our wallets hurt. Daron's entree was a Super (anemic) Burrito that consisted of a tortilla loosely wrapped around a meager portion of beans, meat and cheese. I chose the heartier combo platter which included both a taco and a burrito. The taco was normal human size, but neither the tortilla nor the meat in the burrito had ever seen growth hormones..... or basic nutrition. It was, in fact an enchilada that the locals passed off as a burrito. No doubt downsizing has hit the Mexican food industry in Page.

After our sumptuous fare, we retired to our campsite at one of Three Wal-Marts in Page. Yes, that's right, tiny Page has three Wal-Marts..... that only exist in Google Maps. We did finally find a real Wal-Mart and spent the night there.

The following morning we had a brief business meeting and then were off in "Flash" for our first stop - Antelope Canyon.

Now, I don't know what you've heard about Antelope Canyon, but we did not see a single antelope all day. Not one. We would have been greatly disappointed if the thing hadn't been so darned pretty. We figured we may as well take some photos since we were there.

Everything we'd read about photographing Antelope Canyon had been greatly exaggerated. We'd heard that you needed a special (and expensive) Navajo photo guide in order to use tripods. We were charged six bucks apiece for being on Navajo land and then $25 each for access to the canyon. The lady said, "I noticed you have tripods. Do you need a photo pass?" Oh, no..... here it comes. We told her we would like photo passes and she just handed us a couple! "You have to wait for a group tour to start and once inside the canyon you can separate from the group and do your own thing...." Sweeeet! Once we were in the canyon the guide turned and said, "See you fellas later" and moved on with the group.

While we were there we introduced ourselves to another photographer who seemed to know the canyon pretty well. Said he'd been shooting it for about thirty years..... wow. We shook hands and gave him our names and he said he was "Jack, from Tucson" which prompted me to ask, "Jack Dykinga?" Yep..... If you don't know who that is you need to get a subscription to Arizona Highways and pay attention to the photographers' bylines *cough*Daron*cough*.......

After our passes expired we jumped in "Flash" and headed down the highway toward our next stop..... Monument Valley. I should note that we "jumped" into "Flash" figuritively. Jumping into flash is a difficult proposition due to the low slung, aerodynamic canopy of this road machine. You really have to watch your head. I have lumps that haven't gone down yet from entering and exiting this sleek machine. One must accept compromises for performance and elegance I suppose.

We'd both read about the need for expensive photo tours at Monument Valley and how it wasn't very accessible unless you had a guide. Wrong again. We arrived to find that our entrance fee was very reasonable and that for an additional ten bucks we could camp in the valley itself. In fact, you can opt for a guided tour or just tool around the valley in your own vehicle. The roads you're allowed to go on take you completely around the famous "Mittens" and you can also enjoy the view from John Ford Point.



Our campsite both nights was just above the floor of the valley. No. Really. I looked out my window several times during the night and could see the monolithic "monuments" looming in the darkness. We shot the sunrise just steps away from "Flash".

We drove around the valley for most of the day and returned to shoot the sunset and then went back to camp where we found that an unsecured 5 gal. pail of water had decided to lie down...... in my bed...... Blankets, sleeping bag and cushions were all completely soaked. Being problem solvers we hung the sleeping bag to dry in the dry wind and flipped the cushions (they were vinyl on bottom so that offered quite a bit of protection from the water the cushions had absorbed...... mostly). Daron had an extra sheet and blanket, so that's what we put on the very cool cushions.

There was one other casualty of the spill. The headpiece for my CPAP (a device that shoves air up my nose all night so I don't stop breathing) was soaked and we didn't figure that out until bedtime. I didn't get very good sleep that night. Daron on the other hand spent several hours trying to decide if he should strangle me in my sleep, or find a way to muffle the snores and snorting that come along with a bad case of sleep apnea. After two hours of searching he managed to locate his earphones, designed to block about forty dB of sound (that's a lot) but he still had to crank his music waaay up in order to drown out the sounds of multiple near death experiences I was having.

We planned to get up early and make our way to a vantage point we'd scouted for sunset. Unfortunately we were so exhausted we didn't wake up until the sky had already begun to show light. Since the skies were pretty clear we weren't going to see any more light behind the monuments than what we woke up to, so we shot the sunrise from our vantage point at camp again. Kinda bummed about that (and the lack of drama for our skies).

Since we had been on the road since Sunday and this was now Wednesday we decided to dub it, "Hygiene Wednesday" which meant we showered and changed into fresh clothes. We even changed underwear. I don't think I'll do that again because Daron had sweat a lot in his and I got chafed wearing them.

Now it was off to Canyon DeChelly as soon as we finished breakfast. We were scheduled to meet with a Navajo model and a jewelry designer for a shoot in the canyon. I think that'll be a separate post.