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| A Joshua Tree at night, lit by a nearby campfire. |
A couple weekends ago I made my first visit to Joshua Tree National Park and it won't be my last. These trees are amazingly cool looking. The dry, high desert climate these trees inhabit shapes them into truly unique beings. After the first year, when they grow about 5 inches, Joshua trees only grow a half inch a year, making the tree shown to the right here several hundreds of years old. For a Joshua Tree to bloom in the spring, it needs to have at least a brief freezing cold spell during the winter, and remember it's a desert area.
The tree shown in the photo to the right was just on the edge of our campsite and on this night, it was illuminated entirely by our campfire. The image was taken long after sunset as my girlfriend and I relaxed from a long day of hiking around the park. Conditions weren't right to create an image of star trails circling the top of this particular tree, so I opted to isolate it against the dark sky instead. By using a medium size aperture, f/8, and a relatively fast shutter, I was able to get a black sky with very few stars showing up. The couple that did show up looked more like mistakes than reality and were edited out.
Hand in hand with the unique trees, the park also houses some very unique geological features. The soft sandstone that composes much of the exposed rock in the park has been eroded into immense boulders pock-marked with interesting features.
The tree shown in the photo to the right was just on the edge of our campsite and on this night, it was illuminated entirely by our campfire. The image was taken long after sunset as my girlfriend and I relaxed from a long day of hiking around the park. Conditions weren't right to create an image of star trails circling the top of this particular tree, so I opted to isolate it against the dark sky instead. By using a medium size aperture, f/8, and a relatively fast shutter, I was able to get a black sky with very few stars showing up. The couple that did show up looked more like mistakes than reality and were edited out.
Hand in hand with the unique trees, the park also houses some very unique geological features. The soft sandstone that composes much of the exposed rock in the park has been eroded into immense boulders pock-marked with interesting features.
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| Skull Rock |
The appropriately named Skull Rock, shown in the image on the left is enormous! This image is actually three horizontal images, stacked vertically and stitched together in Photoshop to create one tall, vertical panoramic. To get these shots, I had to wait for quite a while as other tourists kept climbing up into the eyes of the skull to pose for pictures.
The wait was worth it as the vertical panoramic really helps emphasize just how large this boulder is, and the nice late afternoon side lighting helps bring out the texture of the sandstone.
Another extremely cool rock formation within the park is Arch Rock, seen below. Located just a short hike from one of the park's campgrounds, Arch Rock is just that, an enormous sandstone arch carved into the rock. We got to the arch just in time for that sweet light at Magic Hour. Unfortunately, there were no clouds in the sky to light up behind the arch, but the sandstone took on an amazing warm glow from the low angle sunlight.
More images from the trip can be seen here, in my Joshua Tree National Park gallery.
The wait was worth it as the vertical panoramic really helps emphasize just how large this boulder is, and the nice late afternoon side lighting helps bring out the texture of the sandstone.
Another extremely cool rock formation within the park is Arch Rock, seen below. Located just a short hike from one of the park's campgrounds, Arch Rock is just that, an enormous sandstone arch carved into the rock. We got to the arch just in time for that sweet light at Magic Hour. Unfortunately, there were no clouds in the sky to light up behind the arch, but the sandstone took on an amazing warm glow from the low angle sunlight.
More images from the trip can be seen here, in my Joshua Tree National Park gallery.
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| Arch Rock |
