I discovered this rock formation one afternoon while I was wandering around in Joshua Tree back in 2023. I’d stopped at an unmarked pull off and decided to see if I could figure out why the pull off was there. Typically it’s a rock climbing area (which this may be), but some times they seem to have no purpose other than a spot to let others go around you. In this case I was delighted to see a number of big rocks around so I walked around to see what I could see. This particular set of rocks caught my eye immediately as it looked like an eye and a beak. Over the years I’ve gone back and forth as to what I think the formation looks like. Initially I thought it looked like Jar Jar Binks, but then I remembered how polarizing that character was (plus, his eyes were on top of his head). Then I thought maybe it looked like one of those plague doctor outfits – minus the hat. I finally decided on a crow, with its wing pulled up toward its face, like it was trying to cover its face a bit. What do you see?
This year I finally put the shot together, as there were a couple other scenes I wanted to tackle, all in the same “neighborhood”. I’d be remiss to not thank my buddy Mark for helping me with the lighting ideas! It always goes much faster with more than one set of hands!
More next week!
Dan
–Dan Thompson