Self Portrait With Camera Shadow

I have been back to photograph this small group of desert hoodoos over and over. Though I usually don't return with a noteworthy photograph, I always enjoy being among the giant cartoon shapes. It reminds me of a scene from a western movie, complete with dusty knolls and tumbleweed, big skies and the calls of coyotes.

I usually visit the hoodoos at sunrise or sunset, or in the warm winter light around Christmas. I like photographing shadows at play in the dramatic sandy shapes. I have often struggled to operate the tiny buttons on my camera with frozen hands, standing in the cold wind atop a cliff.

While photographing the wild shapes at the end of a cold fall day, I caught sight of my own shadow against a nearby sun-lit cliff. I composed the obvious photograph – my shadow, with my camera by my side, against a wild backdrop of shaped mud.

I like the idea of this photo – a self-portrait with no person in it. It reminds me of a ghost town, a forgotten place at the end of the world where nothing ever changes.