This fall, Aaron and I took the RV east, hoping to capture a new Collection. We drove 3000 miles into the San Juan Mountains of Colorado for the aspens, across the Utah line to Moab for the full moon, and home by way of a dog show. That journey became Aaron's new Aspens and Desert collections. This is the story behind them, and it begins with a phone call...
If you read our Pacific Northwest story from this summer, you know how we travel now: a 33-foot RV, a tiny car in tow, and our two salukis, Kazper and Memphis, who go everywhere we go.
One Sentence That Changed the Trip
In August, I called the RV park in Ouray, Colorado to book our stay. The plan was simple — finish the dog show on October 4th, then head to the mountains for fall color. The woman on the phone had other ideas.
“I think the leaves will be gone by then,” she said. “It's been a dry year, and they won't hold their color long. I'm already seeing fall mornings, and that never happens this early. If I were you, I'd come mid-September.”
A stranger's hunch, offered over the phone. We decided to trust it. We flipped the entire trip around and left weeks early.
Going Higher
When we rolled into Ouray, the leaves were barely turning. Telluride wasn't turning at all. For a moment it looked like we'd rearranged everything for nothing.
So we went up. Every day we drove the Million Dollar Highway toward Red Mountain Pass, climbing until we found color — a stand of gold here, a whole hillside there. Day by day, the mountains caught up with us. What started out disappointing turned into something spectacular, and it all happened inside a ten-day window.
Me, Kazper and Memphis, somewhere above Ouray — finally, the color we came for.
This is the road we drove every day — the meadow below Red Mountain Pass, the iron-red slopes showing through under storm light.
The Day
The prime shooting came down to one weekend — the last one before we had to leave. And really, it came down to one day. The aspens were at their absolute peak, and the weather cooperated, giving us soft light under partly cloudy skies. Everything in this collection was captured in that single day of pure, pristine beauty. It's a day I'll never forget.
The one we'd been waiting for. An entire grove turned at once — no sky, no horizon, just gold.
Aaron's favorite from the trip. One young spruce holding its green while everything around it changed.
A still lake off the Million Dollar Highway. There was no wind that afternoon, so the reflection holds nearly as much detail as the trees.
A single spruce wrapped in orange and gold — the one tree the season can't change.
A whole hillside turning at once, lime to gold, with a few trees gone red. Those are the embers.
Moonrise Over Moab
The day after the aspens, we drove to Moab. It sits just across the Utah line, a few hours from Ouray — which for us counts as a day trip. The full moon was rising that night, and Aaron had exactly one chance to catch it.
Where he wanted to shoot from, our little towable car was never going to make it; the canyons are steep and the roads are rough. So Aaron hired a guide with a Jeep to lead him in, and I stayed back with the dogs. He came back with the moon rising over the red rock, exactly as he'd pictured it.
A long lens brings the moon down until it seems to rest on the ridge, with the red rock gone quiet for the night.
Outrunning the Storm
We didn't get to linger. A hurricane was pushing up from Baja into New Mexico and Colorado, and a high wind advisory covered our entire route west. With the aspens and the moon both captured, we packed up and ran for it.
The storm hit right behind us. Rain and wind swept through the San Juans, soaking the gold and red leaves and bringing them down.
The woman on the phone had been right about everything. Had we come in October as planned, we'd have been photographing bare trees.
The Desert We've Been Keeping to Ourselves
Somewhere on the long drive west, through Utah's red rock and open desert, we made a decision. Aaron has a body of desert work that has never been shown — the slot canyons of northern Arizona and the dunes of White Sands, New Mexico. We'd been waiting for the right moment to release it. This was it.
Together, these pieces do something we love: the blue of the dunes against the red of the rock, with the moon rising between them. They romanticize the desert — all that space, all that quiet. These are images that let you breathe.
The White Sands pieces carry the name Dune for a reason. I'll let Aaron explain:
“As a teenager, I got completely enamored with the Dune novels by Frank Herbert. They fueled a lot of my imagination for my travels. It was interesting to me that in all this time traveling all over the world, I'd never been to the White Sands dunes in New Mexico. So I set out in front of a storm to try to capture that area, and came home with a magical set of images.”
— Aaron
Storms, apparently, are a theme.
Aaron on the dunes at White Sands, New Mexico — the story in his own words.
Storm sky over the white gypsum dunes. Two tones and one line.
For an ocean photographer, the shape was unmistakable — a barrel, held still in stone.
Looking up from the canyon floor, under an arch that has held this shape for longer than anyone has been here to see it.
Salukis on the Strip
Having outrun the storm, we were tired. So we stopped in Las Vegas for a couple of nights to rest before the dog show — and one evening, we took the dogs out for a stroll to the Bellagio fountains.
What happened astonished me. People lit up. They wanted to pet them, ask about their lineage, know where they came from. “Are they Afghans?” People of every age showed true delight, and the salukis brought a joy to that crowd I never expected.
That's when I decided Kazper needed an Instagram page of his own. So many people have never met this magnificent breed — one of the oldest on earth — and I wanted to show them who salukis actually are. You can follow along at @kazperthesaluki.
Kazper and Memphis on the Strip in Las Vegas.
Best of Breed at 105 Degrees
From Vegas we drove on to California's Central Valley for the Saluki Club of Greater San Francisco Specialty in Turlock — and landed square in the middle of an extraordinary heat wave. It was 100 to 105 degrees all weekend. Impossibly hot. A week earlier I'd been standing in the aspens in a beanie and a puffer jacket.
Only Kazper was entered this time. On Saturday, under a lovely judge from Austria, Nina Neswadba, he won Best of Breed. There were so many beautiful salukis in that ring — we were truly surprised, and truly honored. Aaron was right there beside us, as he always is. Beside the judge is my friend and saluki mentor, Cindy Taylor.
Kazper, Best of Breed at the SCGSF Specialty, Saturday, October 3rd — with judge Nina Neswadba, and me on the lead. Photo: MyDogPhoto.com
A Perfect 65 Degrees
From the Central Valley we made for the coast, and landed in Carmel-by-the-Sea at a perfect 65 degrees. After a weekend at 105, the ocean air felt like a reward.
We arrived just in time for Meet the Artist, the gathering Carmel holds every year, and hosted an evening of wine and stories with Aaron at our gallery. After three weeks of mountain passes, canyon roads and a show ring, we were suddenly standing in a gallery with fans, collectors and tourists, in front of his work, talking about their experiences with the art and asking about his travels.
A gallery full of happy people was the perfect ending to the trip.
Aaron didn't stop shooting just because we'd reached the coast. This one is from the air above Carmel that weekend — the bluffs, the white sand, and the fog bank waiting out at the horizon for evening.
Wine and stories with Aaron at our Carmel gallery.
About the New Collections
We came home with the gold, the moon, a Best of Breed ribbon, and an event with happy collectors, fans and friends. Aaron came home with a collection — the aspens on their one perfect day, the full moon over Moab, and the desert work we'd been saving for the right moment.
May these pieces bring a little of that season into your home: the gold of the high country, the quiet of the dunes, and the light that doesn't wait for anyone.