the dailypic 5866 yr17 021 Tresspass

This is a revisit.

During a drive with my wife this past weekend, we got talking about stories — especially my stories. I told her I’m pretty sure most people think I’m full of it, at least part of the time. Honestly, sometimes even I do. If I listed the things I’ve seen, places I’ve been, people I’ve met — I’d tell you half of it can’t possibly be true, just based on odds. But they are.

I think I just remember more than most, or maybe I’ve just found myself in the right (or wrong) places more often than others. My wife insists it’s the latter — that I’ve experienced some things most people wouldn’t — and after 30+ years together, she’s been there to confirm a lot of them. I also document everything, so I have a record to prove many of my so-called tall tales. Photography tends to drop me into moments and with people most wouldn’t normally encounter — all of that was part of our conversation.

Flash to this morning. I was scrolling through old memories online and this photo popped up — badly edited, overexposed, and all. I took it on October 21, 2011 — 14 years ago today — during a trip to Arizona with my wife. The dailypic back then wasn’t even a blog yet; it was just a simple photo each day.

Looking at the file info now makes me cringe: bright midday desert sun, ISO 320, 1/125s, f/22, and a lens that weighed eight pounds. None of it made sense for the conditions. Yet somehow this picture, flawed as it is, has been printed and sold at shows. To anyone who bought it — my apologies. The photo isn’t what makes it special. The story does.

A 100% true story that only I and the nameless cowboy were there for. I had pulled over on a stretch of road, trying to photograph a mountain range. Nothing around in either direction. I’d been looking for an old ghost town but found the property fenced off — got kicked out trying to sneak in (another story for another time). Anyway, I stopped to shoot from the road, camera in hand, when this man on horseback appeared out of the brush.

I said hello. He didn’t smile.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
I explained I was taking a photo — it was kind of obvious.

He said he owned all the land I could see and didn’t want anyone trespassing. I pointed out I was standing on the road and would respect his property. Back and forth we went until he said something along the lines of: “Road or no road, it would be a shame if something happened, and I had to explain it to someone later that you were on my property, who would they believe?” I’m positive he was armed.

It was a polite threat from a man on a horse in the middle of nowhere, and I took the hint. He started off, I took this photo, and I went back to my car. The original horrible sepia edit, the useless bad mountain photo, and the empty road are all below; not one of them is worth the risk, but I get stupid stories. I don’t go looking for them — they just seem to find me.

tr/trp