Joshua Tree National Park

Over the holidays I had the pleasure of spending a few days camping in Joshua Tree National Park in the Mojave Desert of Southern California.  The park offers world class rock climbing and bouldering as well as a spectacular desert  landscape.   I ended up spending a good amount of time in the Hidden Valley area where I found a nice mix of large groves of trees and interesting rock formations.  I also spent time at Arch Rock, the Cholla Cactus Garden, and Jumbo Rocks. I found that the Joshua Trees (a tall growing variety of Yucca) were best photographed as silhouettes to better emphasize their unique shape.  I did, however, play around with some light painting techniques using a variety of light sources at night that yielded some interesting results.

Joshua Tree on a Starry Night ~ Joshua Tree National Park, CA
Tech: Canon 5DMKll with 17 - 40mm @ 23mm, tripod
Exposure: 25 sec., f/4, iso 3200
Note: I used a mini maglight to paint the tree and rock during the exposure.