The Escalante, Desert Ruminations, and How to Build a Website
My hiatus is over, and I just wanted to share some images and thoughts with you.
Ruminations on a Desert Road
By Don Giannatti
All photos by the author.
The southwestern desert is a wild and mostly untamed landscape full of deserts, mountains, sand, and precious little water. It's a place where the earth bares its soul, raw and unfiltered.
As I ride down this much-less-traveled road, my bike hums in a strange harmony with the wind, each turn unveiling a vista more breathtaking than the last.
I haven’t seen another soul in 40 minutes.
I am gloriously alone, as much as anyone can be alone in these fiery distraction-fueled times. Yes, my phone is off.
It's here, amidst the sprawling silence and the stark, unyielding beauty, that I truly understand the paradox of the desert: its ruthless desolation coupled with its profound peace.
Edward Abbey once spoke of the desert with a devoted reverence that bordered on sacred, seeing in its vast emptiness a mirror to our own, sometimes confusing, internal landscape of hopes and dreams.
And trials.
I occasionally feel Abbey’s spirit as a silent companion, his words a guide to uncovering the layers of this complex, rugged environment.
Abbey was a huge influence on me. Two books that helped me form an understanding of why I so love these places were “Desert Solitaire”, and “The Monkey Wrench Gang”.
And if Ed ever reads this, dude - you were correct.
The dam at Page, AZ, which filled the amazing gorge of Glen Canyon with sparkling blue water for folks to water ski on, is looking like a monstrous failure. The projected snowfall fell short, and now the dam is holding water that has never been lower since it was filled back in the 60's.
If you want a look at the splendor of this area, try to find a copy of “The Place No One Knew”. It is well worth the search.
The desert's unique and fascinating qualities go far beyond its physical beauty.
The true beauty is the incredible contrast and brilliantly stated raw resilience at every turn.
The way the sun bleaches the bones of the earth, only for them to be cast in the soft, forgiving light of dusk, is a lesson in persistence and transformation.
The mountains, ancient sentinels, stand as testaments to the passage of time, their jagged peaks, cutting a sharp silhouette against the sky, remind me of the enduring strength and adaptability required to live and thrive in such a challenging environment.
Life pulses quietly beneath the surface of these rocks.
The desert is alive, teeming with micro-stories of survival and adaptation.
From the resilient cacti to the elusive desert fox, each creature and plant has mastered the art of thriving in adversity, an inspiring metaphor for the creative soul navigating the arid stretches of doubt and uncertainty.
Riding through the desert, one can't help but reflect on the solitude that Abbey cherished so deeply. There’s a clarity that comes from being so small in such a vast expanse, a reminder of our place in the world that humbles as much as it liberates.
It’s a place where one can rummage through life’s fleeting moments, each mile traveled is a sort of meditation.
The beauty of the transient is laid bare, and we get a glimpse of the importance of the journey over the destination.
I found a little flat spot to park the beast so I could watch the sunset, stretched out on the seat and fuel tank. Boots up, sunglasses off.
Before me, the sky is ablaze with colors that no camera could ever truly capture, I’m reminded of the inherent beauty in the raw, the unrefined.
In the desert, beauty is not manicured or manufactured; it’s wild, untamed, and utterly authentic.
It's in this unguarded beauty that the desert holds its most salient and valuable lessons for the creative spirit.
We must embrace our raw, unpolished selves, find strength in our vulnerabilities, and carve our unique paths with the rugged determination of the landscape that stretches out before us.
The road through the desert becomes more than just asphalt cutting through sand and rock; it’s a brief ride through the essence of what it means to be fiercely alive.
To reach for horizons that seem to never end, under a sky that certainly does not.
So we fire it up, grip the clutch, toe down, and throttle on.
Chasing a horizon that has no end, knowing that the chase is the thing, yet happy to know that it will never be found.
In this relentless pursuit of the horizon, I find more than inspiration, I find a profound sense of truly belonging to the vast, wild world around me.
(All photos by the author.)
The “Build a Website Sprint” is ON, baby!
March 22, 23, 24.
We will build this website together… live.
This is a WordPress site, and we are using Divi as our backend developer. I am a strong believer in Divi and Wordpress because they make development quicker, cleaner, and allow for a great deal of customer CMS… which is increasingly important these days.
Of course, there are reasons to choose a site like this.
It is a good, solid Landing Page: a single-page website. Lots and lots of small businesses can utilize something like this.
Each of the modules can be saved to a library so the next time you need to build a single-page website, you can reuse the work you have already done by simply customizing the modules.
A website like this can add $2K - $4K to the photography you bid. And with Divi, and your saved modules, you can easily finish a site like this in one or two days.
We will start at the beginning by understanding the underlying structure of a website, how to think of it when you are putting your ideas down, and ways to make this part of the work easier.
We will then open our browsers together and build the site. You building yours, while I lead in the bones creation.
You do not need to know how to build a website on Friday, you WILL know how to build one on Monday.
Friday, March 22, 2024
5 PM - 8 PM Pacific
Understanding the framework, and setting up our workspace for the site.
Saturday morning, March 23, 2024
8 AM - 10 AM Pacific
Creating our infrastructure. We build out the various modules that we need for the site.
Saturday afternoon, March 23, 2024
5 PM - 7 PM
Preparing our assets, understanding global vs local changes
Adding text and elements.
Sunday morning, March 24, 2024
8 AM to 10 AM Pacific
Filling in our assets, adjusting the containers to taste, and creating links
Sunday afternoon
5 PM - 8 PM Pacific
Final touches, adjustments, and sharing.
Two additional classes will be offered for those who want to take it a bit further.
They will be held on Monday, April 1, 2024, and Tuesday, April 2, 2024.
5 PM - 7 PM both nights. You will be able to enroll in them on Sunday afternoon if you choose to.
We will look into how to use Divi templates, which additional Divi tools can be used to create even more dynamic sites, and how to add some cool animations to the various components to create a powerful, custom website that your customers will love.
I am limiting this to 10 students.
This will be a “NO CODE” project. You will build visually without writing a single line of code. Not one line.
NOTE:
We will be using Divi, a visual editor. Divi has a free 30-day trial, so do not get it until right before we begin class. If you find you like Divi, you can go ahead and pay for it.
However, if you want to use Elementor, Webflow, or any other builder, your knowledge of how it works, the terminology, and how to plan your page will cut the learning time of those products by at least two-thirds.
You must have a server set up with WordPress, and Divi installed before taking this class. If you need some help with that, I will give you all the info after signing up.
C’mon y’all, let’s build something cool.
Ready to go?
Here is the page with the enrollment information.
When you are ready, here is how I can help you succeed.
Group Mentorship: a small group of photographers who meet to show images, work on their portfolio, and build their businesses with help from a wonderful group. Lifetime membership for one fee.
One-on-one Mentorship: You and me - working together in an intense 6-month push to get you on the way to over $30K in additional revenue. The work we lay down will help you increase and scale your business for years ahead.
The Creative Class: Expand your toolset and become a one-person visual agency capable of pulling in steady and repeated income. If you have questions, let me know, and I will answer them as fast as possible.
A wonderful travel story, Don. Beautiful, heartfelt writing. So easy to imagine being there with you. Thanks for this one.