It's Now or Never

I had no idea what kind of beauty waited for me in Sedona, AZ. The moment those red rocks came into view, my first thought was how have I been alive for 35 years and never seen this? It hit me hard, realizing how much I needed to travel more, to look up, to look around, to stop letting the world pass by.

We signed up for a bus tour from the cutest little crystal shop/café called Dragon’s Den. The van itself looked like it had been sliced in half, designed so every passenger had an unobstructed view of the outside world. Sunset was approaching, which meant we were about to catch the rocks at their most dramatic. That full spectrum of oranges, reds, and purples Sedona is famous for.

As we curved around a bend, our tour guide’s voice crackled through the speaker: we had about six minutes before the sun dipped low enough to change the colors. If anyone wanted photos, now was the moment. I quickly adjusted my camera settings and hoped for the best, considering we were flying down the road at a solid 40 mph.

I lifted my camera and looked through the viewfinde, and suddenly felt like I was living a Life Magazine photographer’s dream. Trees blurred past as we sped forward. Then, an opening. A deep breath. Three quick shots.

I dropped the camera into my lap and immediately checked the gallery. When the images loaded, I broke into the biggest grin. Not only had I captured the colors perfectly, but somehow from that distance, at that speed, the shot was completely in focus.

Holy shit. I got it.