Heath OFeeJoshua Tree National Park was near the top of my list of places to visit while I was in the Palm Springs, CA area. Other than the fact that the park was supposedly littered with these ‘Joshua Trees’ I really had no idea what to expect. I’m used to the provincial and national parks of Alberta: lakes, rivers, mountains, and forests, so when we drove into Joshua Tree, it was quite a change to be in the middle of a scrubby desert. It definitely felt like an alien landscape.
The day we went, I was under attack by a nasty chest cold. I was coughing and wheezing up a storm, so we couldn’t go for any hikes without me ending up short of breath and in a lot of discomfort. This meant we were stuck seeing the park from the roadside turnouts, which was a bit disappointing. It also didn’t help that we weren’t dressed for how cold it was in the park that day. Wearing shorts and a light sweater when it’s 8 degrees celsius and ridiculously windy was not the best choice I made on our trip. Needless to say, next time I’m down there, I’ll likely be spending another day or two in Joshua Tree hiking some of the many trails and capturing the park a bit better than I was able to this time.
I thought about converting this shot to black and white, but I really wasn’t feeling it. Instead, I opted for a cooler, desolate feel to reflect how I felt when taking the shot. I was pretty darn cold walking around this lone tree, and there was nobody else in sight…definitely a great experience!
Definitely has a cold, isolation feel to it! Nice job!
Wow, excellent work. Love the treatment and cool feeling. I see you’re using the sigma 10-20mm 3.5, how is it, overall? I’m trying to decide between this and the ef-s 10-22mm 3.5-4.5 . Thanks
I love the mood you captured in this shot. Isolation at its finest, well done Heath
I like how the only real color in this photo is this intense blue!
Some of those things are huge, would have been great to get your wifey to pose next to it to give it some scale 🙂 I love this shot.
Great story. I like your processing on this image very much. As always, skillful composition & framing.
Well even with the difficulties you snagged a cool shot.
Really well done, LOVE the feeling of the scene you’ve captured and created. Perfect composition on this one Heath, you’ve brought the emotion to the viewer! 🙂
Nice comp, Heath! It def. looks cold.
Cool works! Love it!
Ditto on what Jim said. You have a wonderful knack for capturing the feel of a moment and bringing it out in your shots.
‘Cooler’ is good, I like that, the way the tree stands out against the sky really works. You did well, despite feeling lousy!
Love the blue sky and brown landscape.
Love this shot Heath, Keep on rockin’!
After seen the pic without doing it with the title I’ve just remembered the U2 album. I love the pic and I love their music !
I’ve been enjoying your wanderings in the low desert of southern California, Heath. Did you get any shots of the rock formations in Joshua Tree?