EDITOR'S LETTER

editor's LETTER Bruce Dale and Harold Jerrell

Have never met. I don't know that for sure, but based on their day jobs, I'm guessing the closest they've ever gotten to each other is our Contributors page - if you look to the right, you can put faces with the names. Despite their different career paths, the two gentlemen have at least a few things in common: Both are extremely good with a camera, both are appearing in Arizona Highways for the first time, and both of their images were made at Monument Valley.

Mr. Dale, who shot our cover, comes to us by way of National Geographic. He's one of several Nat Geo photographers in this month's issue. They're not the first - Jack Dykinga, John Burcham and Bill Hatcher are frequent contributors - but this is the first time we've done a portfolio dedicated to the men and women who shoot for the legendary magazine.

The idea for that came out of something I call the “Book of Big Ideas.” It's an old composition book that I carry around in my field bag. When something pops into my head, I jot it down. In this case, I was inspired by Pete McBride's beautiful images on Instagram. The scribbled note reads: “McBride (NatGeo) + Grand Canyon ... incredible, different.” Recently, Mr. McBride has been spending a lot of time in the Canyon, which got me thinking about out-of-state photographers - specifically National Geographic photographers - and how they view the places we showcase in this magazine. Thus, this month's cover story.

As you'll see in Old Yeller Was Here, it's everything you'd expect from a collection of images by some of the world's most acclaimed photographers. One of them is Joanna Pinneo, whose shot of three horseback riders in the Superstition Mountains is unlike anything we'd ever seen before. We see a lot of saguaros, but her image offers a different perspective. It's spectacular. And so is Stephen Wilkes' shot of the Grand Canyon.

It was first published in National Geographic's “national parks” issue in January. It's not just any photo, though. It's a remarkable image from Mr. Wilkes' Day to Night project. In this case, he set up his tripod at Desert View Watchtower and made 2,282 photos over 27 hours. He then combined some of them to form a single image. “Seeing the light rotate into the Canyon creates this extraordinary feeling of depth,” he says of his photograph.

Like Mr. Wilkes and Ms. Pinneo, Harold Jerrell was thinking counterintuitively for his shot of Monument Valley. That's one reason it won our recent photo contest. “I like that this is a different perspective on a place we see a lot,” Photo Editor Jeff Kida says. “He used a telephoto lens, so there's compression involved, and the background feels a little closer than it would if we were standing there.” In Best Picture 2016, you'll see why our team was so impressed. You'll also see some of the other winners, which were selected from more than 5,000 entries. If that sounds like a lot, it's not. Not compared with the body of work created by George Alexander Grant, who spent more than 25 years making more than 30,000 photographs in America's national parks and beyond.

He was busy, obviously, but unlike Ansel Adams, Edward Weston and Eliot Porter, few had ever heard of Mr. Grant. That is, until Ren and Helen Davis wrote a book about him. For our piece, we selected a few of the images that Mr. Grant made in our state. The most impressive is a photo of Walpi, the Hopi village on First Mesa. “The framing is simple and not forced,” Jeff says. “Visually, you're pulled into the photo via the existing walkway.” Although his time in Arizona overlapped our own, this is the first time we've published any of Mr. Grant's work. We've done a better job when it comes to longtime contributor David Zickl, who's back with a series of adventure photos. As we write in the subhead of Getting Your Face Wet: “It's one thing to make a photograph with a tripod, a light meter and all the time in the world. To make a photograph in the middle of a Class 10 rapid, with gravity, Mother Nature and the clock working against you, is a rite of passage.” “I wasn't prepared for the water,” David says. “I just had my camera. At one point, a huge wave came down over the top of the boat. Everything got soaked, and my camera stopped working. When we stopped for lunch, I dried the camera out, and it started working again.” It's a story Pete McBride can probably relate to. In addition to the many still photographs he's made in the Grand Canyon, he also directed a wonderful documentary titled Martin's Boat, which honors the legacy of river-running pioneer Martin Litton and showcases the men and women who run dories down the Colorado River. The documentary can be seen at www.martins boat.com. It's definitely worth a look. But first, check out Mr. McBride's underwater photograph on our Table of Contents. And then start flipping the pages. Bruce Dale, Michael Melford, Jim Richardson, Joanna Pinneo, Stephen Wilkes, Annie Griffiths, Harold Jerrell, David Zickl... the bylines in this year's photo issue are especially impressive. You'll see.