Joshua Trees!
This past weekend we took a drive out to the Antelope Valley to see the Poppies at the Poppy Reserve. Afterwards, we drove a bit further and spent the night at Red Rock Canyon State Park. We didn’t get there until after dark, then we made some dinner, and I spent the rest of the night taking pictures. I started out with the Joshua Trees in the center of the campground. I think Joshua Trees are freakin’ awesome, so they are the first to get uploaded and this is dedicated to them.
I had a lot of fun, with my speedlight secured on my hip, taking a shot, reviewing, trying again. You couldn’t see much of anything in the viewfinder because it was so dark, so I had to guess and check. Most shots were several minute exposures, during which time I would experiment with manually shooting the flash off from different places. This one is a fairly short exposure (hence the black background) with a combination of two flash firings: one from above the camera, and one well off to the right.
This is from the morning after. I got up before sunrise, hoping to go hike through one of the canyons in the morning light. But the promising glow on the horizon quickly turned to an ugly gray. I had a nice morning walk though, any way.
Of course, we also saw some pretty awesome poppy fields on Saturday. Those will have to wait for another night!