This is the cover of both the 2009 National Geographic wall calendar and the desk/engagement calendar entitled "Nature's Artistry." Additional shots of Death Valley, Monument Valley and Sequoia National Forest will be in the engagement calendar.

Calendar is available for National Geographic subscribers (a special offer) and online at "Nature's Artistry" 2009 Calendar

PRESS RELEASE:

In what must surely be considered a stroke of great good fortune in these economic hard times, tourist-friendly Sedona has been honored by National Geographic in their choice of Red Rock Country’s iconic Cathedral Rock for the cover of their 2009 Nature’s Artistry wall and desk/engagement calendars. “Sunset Services,” captured by Sedona landscape photographer Derek von Briesen, depicts the sumptuous red hues of a dramatic Sedona sunset on Arizona’s most famous single rock formation and will appear on over a half million calendars offered exclusively to National Geographic subscribers and available online at www.nationalgeographic.com. Mr. von Briesen joins dozens of National Geographic’s “renowned photographers” from around the world in these two calendar editions whose images, as Barbara McGuiness notes in her powerful introduction to Nature’s Artisty, “serve as both a powerful memorial to the past and a cautionary glimpse of the future.” The cover for the two calendars marks Mr. von Briesen’s second collaboration with National Geographic, a publication “at the forefront of nature photography for over a century.” Earlier this year, his photograph of Antelope Canyon, located on the Navajo Nation near Page, Arizona, appeared on the cover of Earth: The Biography, National Geographic’s coffee table companion to the critically acclaimed five part documentary that aired on the National Geographic Channel this summer. To see more of Mr. von Briesen’s award-winning photography online visit his website at www.dvbphotography.com and stop by the Main Gallery of the Sedona Arts Center to see his stunning fine art gallery prints of Sedona and the Southwest.