Essence

[pecunium]

I've been going to Joshua Tree for more than thirty years. The park hasn't changed much.

I've been going with Maia, and her family, for nine years (the first trip Maia and I took was to Joshua Tree, early one November). Because we are not fools, we tend to travel in the cooler parts of the year. That means days are usually around 60F, and the nights are in the 20-30s (for those who don't know deserts, that's a perfectly normal swing of temperature, it's more extreme in the summers, when daytime highs can be up to the 120F range, and the nightime lows about 65F; which is why we tend to avoid them in those parts of the year).

Because the desert is so dry, things don't decay in the same ways they do where there is more water. Animals mummify, and plants are worn away. There's a California Juniper (Juniperus californica), on one of the trails we frequent, which died, maybe twenty years ago; maybe forty (an old saying about such trees, "a juniper fencepose will outlast two holes).

Dead Juniper

N.B. If you want to see what the terrain looks like, click trough
any of the photos, and go to the right and find the "map" button.
Be sure to use the "hybrid" option.


That shot doesn't do it justice. The tree was large, it's in a grand, if dilapidated way, and takes up a huge chunk of the trail. Usually they don't get to much more than 10-15 feet. This one was probably about 25' when it fell. I've been trying to catch some of the wonder of it, for at least 6 years. Pat allowed as she has given up on trying to get a good shot of it.

Being a glutton for punishment (or big fan of disappointments) I gave it another try this year. I managed some decent shots.

The first two are the same, save for the f-stop, and so the detail in the background is more evident in the second.

Sympathetic



Sympathetic II


Now comes the pop-quiz: Why is the name different on the this next image?


Non-Sympathetic


Finally, I did one which, to me, has a bit of narrative. It makes me think of the way going up the tumbledown canyons of Joshua Tree always leads to another ridge. It's also a slightly sympathetic picture.

Pointing

Comments

[pgdudda.livejournal.com]

Non-sympathetic is next to, instead of below, the mountain. (The two curves line up nicely in the 'sympathetic' set, too.)

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Yep, though I think of it as, in line with, not counterpointing. There's a school of thought which would say all of them are sympathetic, because of the pattern structure. It was tricky to get the elements where I wanted them, and I shout about "a roll" of "film" to get those.

As I work on it, I get better at seeing what I want to see, and then putting it into the frame.

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

Wild guess on the pop quiz: because you've lined up the shot so the angle on the juniper is between the angles on the mountains in the distance, rather than aligned with one of them?

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Basically. The, "sympathetic" shots have the peak of the tree's branch in line with the hills behind, so the shape repeats. The colors are also alike, so that aspect also repeats.

The next thing I'll do with them is see how it looks as a black and white treatment.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

In "Non-Sympathetic" the wood does not echo the line of the mountains.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Answer to pop quiz (before reading any of the other comments): because in the first two, you've aligned the "bump" on the tree with one of the rises in the background. In the third one, you've shifted the camera position to make the tree's "bump" fall into a "dip" and be shown against the sky.

Of these 4 images, I like Sympathetic II best. I'm not fond of blurry backgrounds.

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

I ignored the pop quiz *g*, but I find my favorite of the three is the non-sympathetic image.

[ohdawno.livejournal.com]

Your photographs make me so nostalgic! I lived in the Mojave Desert near Lancaster, CA for 9 years when I was a child, and my parents lived in Lancaster for around 20 years (after Dad retired from the Air Force, mid 80s to 2005) so I've come to think of it as home. In 'Sympathetic II' you can see a bit of a town in the distance, and I sit wondering which little burg it may be.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

It's MCB 29 Palms. I'll be posting more. I lived in the wilds of the Mojave (outside Pioneer Point.... about 40 miles from Ridgecrest, out past China Lake Naval Weapons Center).

The desert is one of the places I adore, and sort of need to be able to get to every so often (that, and to see mountains).

Come on down, we'll go camping.