September 29, 2025

I hired Tom Phillips, the Zen Master of Navajo Photography Guides in Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. My wife and I were crowded into the only seat of Tom's pickup driving through the desert on the way to the  first stop on Tom's list of "Shooting Locations," when we met a Navajo woman on a black horse coming toward us through the sagebrush. "There is the photograph!" The realization hit me like a physical blow to the body and I ignored it as we passed the rider and Tom nodded to her. This was the experience I needed to have had before our trip to Monument Valley, and what I came to Monument Valley to have and learn from.

I have carried The Woman On The Black Horse with me ever since. She has directed me to a life time of photographs, and is part of every scene I walk through, and smiles back at me from every photo I take. Here she is in this one--she was kind enough to pose from a distance and wink at me before disappearing back into my memory cache. Of course, I winked back and waved. We have a thing going. Every time she gives me an intuitive nudge, I give her a Namaste bow and do what at the situation calls for as the situation calls for it, around the clock throughout each calendar year (And we have been doing this since 2006).

I'm able to bring her into the here and now of photographic reality thanks to Photoshop's AI feature, "Generative Fill." 

Create a space in an image to be filled with whatever you want placed there and type in the directions, like, "Navajo Woman on a Black Horse," and the Ap gives you three choices. If you don't like any of them, you can request three more choices. And here you are: The Tree on The Hill with a Navajo Woman on a Black Horse, both of them winking to you and laughing. My secret partners in every photograph I take.