Joshua Tree National Park - Story of 3 Shots

During December, I visited Joshua Tree National Park (Joshua Tree for short) for several days. Joshua Tree is quite a big park and contains two different ecosystems, the Mojave and Colorado Deserts. Each has its own unique and special character. Joshua Tree is a very popular rock climbing destination with its numerous boulders on the Mojave side of the park. My goal was capturing great photographs of the park, showing details and views that feature the park at a deeper level. 

“Joshua Tree National Park, California, Anthill and Cactus”, Joshua Tree National Park; December 29. 2016.  Nikon D750 Camera with AF-S Nikkor 16-35 f/4G ED VR Lens at 29 mm. Exposure: 1/125 s, f/16, ISO 400.

On this morning, I got up before dawn with the goal of getting to the Wall Street Mill Trail at first light. It can be quite cold in the high desert. The outside temperature was 29 degrees. After putting on all of the layers of cloths I could find in my car I set out. It was still cold as I started hiking and I found myself wondering why the heck I had gotten up so early. I took a few shots along the trail and a few once I reached the mill, but nothing was working. I chose to pursue Plan B, start exploring and see what I could find. In this case I noticed a perfectly formed anthill on the ground. I chose a wide lens and got in close. I had lost first light and it was a stark, clear sky, but I was still getting strong directional light. Strong directional light is great to capture texture. The result was a lovely picture of a small desert detail.

“Joshua Tree National Park, California, Ice on the Water”, Joshua Tree National Park; December 29, 2016.  Nikon D750 Camera with AF-S Nikkor 16-35 f/4G ED VR Lens at 19 mm.  Exposure: 1/125 s, f/16, ISO 400.

I continued exploring the area around Wall Street Mill. I found an interesting sight, a pool of water amongst the boulders. Even more interesting, the top layer of the water was frozen. For this scene, I shot from a low angle with a wide lens. I wanted to capture the fractured reflection of the sky and boulders on the ice. I find I get the best reflection photos when I have clear bright sunlight at a low angle. In this case, it was a few hours after sunrise. The obvious shot was the Wall Street Mill itself, but exploring the area rewarded me with many interesting shots that were special to me.

“Joshua Tree, California, Sunrays Through Joshua Tree”, Joshua Tree National Park; December 28, 2016.  Nikon D750 Camera with AF-S Nikkor 16-35 f/4G ED VR Lens at 21 mm.  Exposure: 1/640 s, f/16, ISO 200.

This is my favorite shot of the trip. It shows great shots can happen at any time of day. It was about 2 p.m. and I had just entered the park on the first day of my trip. The sun was high in the sky and very bright. It was not one of the well-known sites, just a wide spot in the road with a few parking spots. I saw many distinctive Joshua Trees, which were looking quite healthy after the recent rains. I thought how best to capture them. Back light is a wonderful thing for capturing shape and form. I put the sun amidst the foliage, placing myself very carefully so that the sun would not be obscured. To get the very distinctive multi-rayed sun star pattern I set my aperture to f/16. This had the advantage of also giving me great depth of field with focus was on the Joshua Tree. Exposure is always a challenge on shots like this. I find it is best to take a few shots at different exposures so that when I get back home I can work with each and see what gives the best effect. Black and white conversion was done using Photoshop. Ben Long has an excellent video on Lynda featuring lessons on capturing and processing black and white photography Foundations of Photography: Black and White. I used the techniques he showed in the video to prepare this black and white photo. 

One thing I learned on this trip is when I need the tripod and when I don’t. The tripod is necessary when long exposures are needed: night time, dawn, dusk, combining multiple exposures, and moving water; but much of the time it just means more weight to carry and limits my ability to move around. A lot of my shots in Joshua Tree came from scrambling around on boulders to “find” my shots, I find it much easier to do when my gear is stowed in a backpack and my hands are free. To get crisp shots I increased my ISO and used my VR (Vibration Reduction) lenses (in Canon they call the same feature IS).

See my work at istockphoto.com, search “Otto Kruse Joshua Tree National Park” for my Joshua Tree National Park collection and “Otto Kruse” to see my full collection. Follow me on Flickr at flickr.com/photos/ottokruse.