Have Dreams, Will Travel

SNAPSHOTS FROM SEDONA

BY DIANE BAIR
PHOTOGRAPH BY GREG NIKAS

Going through a rough patch that included his dad's death and his own bout with cancer, Greg Nikas-my friend and a photographer from Newburyport, MA-had put his dreams of traveling to the gorgeous red-rock landscape of Sedona, AZ, on hold. "I'd never seen the desert before, and was drawn to the purity and starkness of the landscape. I'd seen photos of Sedona, and I had this crazy kind of visceral, emotional reaction. I wanted to experience that, and feel that, in person," Nikas says. "The purity of light there is a photographer's dream. It really brings out the colors of the rock formations. The combination of that pure light and intense color is really magical."

When his birthday approached, I invited him to go to a wine festival in Boston. "Diane advised me to pack hiking boots and my camera," Nikas recalls. "She told me we would be stomping the grapes."

I lied. I drove past the festival to the airport, and steered my mystified companion to a flight bound for Phoenix. At the gate, I whipped out a brochure for Sedona, and said, "Surprise!" "It was such an emotional moment, I immediately started crying," Nikas says.

We drove 120 miles from Phoenix to Sedona and hiked up a butte with a 360-degree vantage point, where Nikas shot a stunning panorama of the famous rock formations. The next morning, we took a hot air balloon ride.

"The aerial views of the sunrise over Sedona were some of my best shots of the trip. It was magnificent, way beyond my expectations," Nikas says. "It invigorated me as an artist. It was truly unforgettable."