Several years ago my husband and I chose to go on a little adventure for the Thanksgiving holiday. We both wanted to see Joshua Tree National Park, something completely different from our daily surroundings. I couldn’t wait to photograph the sun drenched and glowing desert landscape and fuzzy trees. Along the way we stopped at a hilarious diner filled with low level taxidermy. We stayed at a camp ground just outside the entrance of the park and were able to easily enter the park each day to explore. The campground had many warning signs to watch out for turtles, especially under your cars. I was so excited to possibly see some local wildlife, animal encounters makes every trip more magical. Sadly for us we did not end up seeing a tortoise, but the Joshua Tree landscape was plenty to fill our cups.
There is something so enchanting about the desert at sunset, a specific kind of stillness. I was excited to see what photos would come my way, but mostly I had one picture in mind I had to get-A glowing, back lit and dreamy portrait of a magnificent Joshua Tree. As the sun set my husband and I drove around searching for the perfect positioned tree until we finally found it. The photo I took of that tree is so special to me, the magical glow, the light on the white sand, I love it so much.
We both took a combination of of film and digital photos and at the time I was shooting with a Fuji XT3 in silver. I loved this camera because it was very intuitive to shoot and was handy to test my settings for hybrid shooting. I loved how all the settings were outside of the camera rather than in digital menus, and that any changes were visible in real time though the back LCD screen. Unfortunately a few years later my camera went black and I sold it for parts. But the camera was a joy to shoot with the few years it lasted.
Editing with Mastin labs
As I have probably mentioned in a previous post, I use Mastin Labs presets for editing my digital photos because they have a clean, natural look, and you can match them to compliment your film shots. Certain presets are ideal for different situations based on light, color and goal for the final image. When I was photographing Joshua Tree I was sure I would be using Ektar 100 to edit my shots for its ability to handle bright sun and make colors pop. Mastin Labs presets are an investment, and it is completely worth it.
Is Joshua Tree accessible?
One of the things I really enjoyed about visiting this national park was that I found it very accessible and easy to navigate with just a cane. Much like Salvation Mountain and Slab City, Joshua tree is level, packed sand and easy to navigate. We never really ran into crowds until one point when we went to see Skull Rock and there was a huge line of people wanting to pose with the rock. In those situations fortune favors the bold, so I just jumped in front of the rock and Tony was ready to snap.
Joshua Tree Photo Gallery
It turns out, the desert is FREEZING in the winter, on the third day of the trip we could barely function it was so windy and cold. So much so that on a whim we decided to break camp and make the long drive back toward home and Yosemite and be in time for Thanksgiving dinner with my grandparents. The fact that our air mattress had a leak in it was also a contributing factor. It was a memorable trip and I would take it again in a heart beat. Below are the images I captured from this trip. Enjoy!
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