The remote reaches of Joshua Tree and it’s surrounding desert areas have so many cool features, its a little hard to imagine revisiting something you’ve already shot so soon. Admittedly though, I was never quite happy with the composition I got last year of this particular rock, so I had already gotten it in my head that I might try it again sometime. Well, this year I ended up getting to the park a day before my buddy Mark did, and since I was comfortable getting to this spot by myself I decided to give it another try.
Rather than setting it up from the same side all over again, I decided to shoot it from the other side and get the more northern end of the Milky Way, which is not the standard view I typically shoot (you’ll see from the images I share this year that that was a thing for me this go around). This dictated that I completely reimagine the lighting of the rocks as well, because not only was it the opposite side, but a slightly different rotation, since I didn’t quite need to be 180 degrees from last year for the portion of the sky I wanted. I have also gone back and forth over the years with the idea of having myself in the shot, as a bit of a self-portrait. It is done a LOT these days, so I tend to shy away from it, but with this particular scene I decided to try it so attempt to illustrate the scale of the curling rock. Since the rock mimics a wave, I considered last year getting all the way to the top, but turned back part way up because the approach was so sketchy. I gave it a look again this year and came to the same conclusion, underscored by the fact that I was by myself, and only my friend Mark would know exactly where to find me, and he wouldn’t be joining me till the next day. Instead, I found it easy to shine a light back at myself from the bottom of the “curl”. I didn’t quite stay there long enough though, as you may notice I appear a bit opaque – I like it anyway.
One of the things I have been focusing on this year has showcasing the dust that is found in space, and those efforts are perhaps most evident in this scene. I absolutely love what I was able to pull from the sky, and I really like how the shape of the dust mimics the shape of the rock. Waves everywhere!
More next week!
–Dan Thompson