The Way We See It: Joshua Tree

Showing posts with label Joshua Tree. Show all posts

Monday, January 2, 2012

Tip #35: Twilight Can Be Magic

Twilight in Joshua Tree - Joshua Tree NP, California
Canon 5D MarkII + 15mm f2.8 Fisheye

Twilight occurs between dawn and sunrise or dusk and sunset. With the sun sitting just below the horizon, light scatters throughout the upper atmosphere and gently illuminates the land. I live for the twilight hours; this is the time when birds sing and crepuscular species are out and about. The soft light brings out the magic in an otherwise rugged landscape that is too contrasty to photograph during the day. You need to prep for your twilight shoot. Pre-scout the landscape for a strong photographic subject or key point of interest before the sun begins to set. Be prepared to work fast and know how to use your camera as the twilight hour is an ephemeral event. Effective twilight photography will require a sturdy tripod, remote release, and patience. Just when you think the moment is over, wait it out. Just prior to darkness the sky can turn indigo, magenta, or green... there is just a bit of magic dust in the physics that illuminates the landscape.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Tip #2: Block the Sun

Tip #2 : Sunrise in Joshua Tree National Park
Canon 40D + 17-85mm IS Lens @ 85mm

Use a tree or animal to block the sun and make a silhouette. This technique will allow you to emphasize the graphic form of your subject and capture the burst of color that accompanies sunrise and sunset.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

On the Fringe

Joshua Tree National Park has been an inspiration to me in more ways than I can articulate. Shortly before my 13th birthday I moved to 29 Palms California, and I... a New York City kid, had to learn to love a place that was foreign. The Mojave was relentless. It was a dry sparsely populated fragment of rock, dirt, and tumbleweed. I hated my new world. I craved the odors of Manhattan, street vendors, and sewers... I just wanted to go home.

Like any lost kid, I adapted. I looked for anything to help me waste away the endless hours of boredom. I took long hikes into the desert, investigated abandoned shacks, and fished for lizards (yes... we use to call it fishing!). By the time I left JTree in 1979, I'd fallen for its charm. In this seemingly simplistic world, I discovered complexities.

My studies in college led me back to the Mojave... This barren landscape that was the place of my youth was also where I found my wife. While I no longer call the desert home, I am a frequent visitor. I have camped, hiked and photographed this harsh landscape for more than two decades, and have spent hours searching for elusive creatures. During a recent outing to Joshua Tree National Park I had a brief encounter with the herd pictured throughout this essay. While I've seen Bighorn Sheep (Ovis canadensis) across montane regions of the U.S., I had never observed them here. The herd traversed rocky outcrops as they ushered their lambs up and over the mountain pass. Their cryptic form allowed even the largest rams to disappear into the mountainscape like a desert mirage on a sunny day. I am forever amazed by the complexity of life and its capacity to evolve and adapt to marginal habitats across our planet. The desert is a beacon for the evolutionary process... competition for limited resources drives change and allows only the most fit to thrive, reproduce and contribute genes into the next generation. If you want to see evolution, look to the fringe... in the desert, the footprint of biology is too large to be ignored.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Species Profile: Yucca brevifolia

When Mormon settlers crossed the Mojave in the mid-19th century they "saw" the hands of Joshua reaching towards the heavens... so goes the origin of this tree's colloquial name.

Home Coming

On March 7th, two days prior to yet another predicted "snownado" (adj: sno-nado, a term used by the weather terrorists to inspire fear in the masses about upcoming snow events) Tamy and I boarded a plane for sunny California... the place we still call home. While Minnesota is where we live, work, and play we have been reticent to call it "home." Although our visit to California was primarily relegated to family, we managed to steal a few days and immerse ourselves in the craft of photography. The moderate temps and coastal breezes were all that I needed to get the creative juices flowing.