Typically when I visit Joshua Tree National Park, I’m going to a part of the park very few people visit – it’s not even on the park map they hand out at the entrances.  I do this for a couple of reasons: first, there is some REALLY cool stuff out there; second, very few people go out there; and third, the light pollution situation is a bit better.  The only real downside is that none of the images really scream “Joshua Tree”, except for the pictures of the trees themselves, of course.  The pictures could be from anywhere in the desert really.  Well, this past fall I was inspired to wander around in the main part of the park to look for shots that I thought would look cool.  Perhaps they’d been done before, and that’s okay, but I could put my own twist on them.  Through the process of exploring around, I identified a number of things, some of which I came back this past summer to shoot with the main body of the Milky Way in view.

That all brings us to this week’s Picture of the Week.  Below in the alternative perspectives area is a test shot I captured of this rock structure.  I’ve since learned that this is called “bullseye rock”, after the very circular looking hole in the top of the central boulder.  What jumped out at me was that the rock on the left looked like a circle, the one in the middle a triangle, and the one on the right a square.  Very unique shapes I thought.  As luck would have it, the Milky Way rises directly behind it, so my friend Mark and I stopped by one night while we were out shooting to capture it.

More next week!

–Dan Thompson