Do you ever notice when you’re out there taking pictures your level of awareness fluctuates?
It would be egotistical if if I said I’m aware 100% of the time when the camera is in hand, regardless of high end camera or Iphone. A person’s awareness fluctuates most of the time otherwise we wouldn’t have car accidents or a broken camera here and there, had a few occasions of both myself! I’ve past this scene so many times before and standing in this spot looking through the viewfinder wouldn’t show me this scene the way it’s being displayed on the screen. First you have the idea come to you at some point in time, either at the moment you’re there, or before or after. This isn’t one of the checklist shots where photographers gather and point the camera in certain general directions. It’s an idea that came to me just like every other photographer gets ideas. The idea was worked until everything that didn’t relate was excluded. Connect with your ideas until you are fully satisfied!
First Light in the Canyon, Baja California, Mexico
I can’t remember the last time I heard some good news coming from Baja in the past year. It’s been a while since I’ve been down there because of all the media reports on the drup war, even David Muench told me to stay away from our border traffic areas and scenic parks. Of course I’m not one to stay away from something for too that I loved to photograph in the past. I finally gave in to my inner explorer and took a trip down to a very remote oasis deep in the Sonoran Desert of Baja. We passed through a couple of border towns in Mexico and the streets were full of people going about there business. I had a couple of guides that showed us around when we stopped at a super market to stalk up on food, water and spirits. I finished shopping quickly and went for a walk down to a taco stand with a friend from New Zealand. The walk was longer then I thought so I figured if anything bad is going to happen in Mexico now would of been a great time when I was seperated from the group and eco bus we were traveling on. Of course nothing happened and the only odd thing I saw was a hamburger truck passed by. Hmmm, in America or at least Los Angeles we have a lot of taco trucks it would be pretty ironic if they have hamburger trucks in Mexico? Hmmm.
At this moment I’m thinking this better not be the last time I’m seen. Easy to hide the feeling with a smile.
Here is a view of the basin below as we come down from the mountains.
Eventually we make it there and I get to explore this Sonoran Desert Oasis in the middle of nowhere.. .
After traveling so many miles via the eco friendly vegitable oil powered bus, walking across the San Diego / Mexican border crossing with only what you could carry on you in one backpacking trip and walking again from where the terrain became too difficult for the bus makes the beauty of desert something to cherish.
“I never saw a thing that the media used to keep me out of Mexico for over a year, Baja is different then mainland Mexico and TJ!”
Here is a little odd time lapse video I randomly put together to make my friends look like random free bird hippie types
I had never even thought of creating a time lapse video but I took my old 5D down into Mexico and it didn’t have the HD video on so I improvised.
Many landscape photographers fly into Las Vegas, most headed for Zion, Bryce Canyon and Death Valley but there are other smaller photographic destinations in the area. Valley of Fire and Red Rock Canyon are often a pit stop for many of us photographers that want to add a little more variety but there is an abundant amount scenery in the area besides what I have just mentioned. The Rainbow Gardens Geologic Area on the east side of Frenchman Mountain is amazing and it’s layers of ridges fold into the Lake Mead Basin. This is also where the spectacular Grand Canyon ends but the scenery keeps going. This is one place you can see the endangered big horn sheep drinking water from the Colorado River in the Mojave Desert.
How did I even end up in Vegas? This was somewhat of unplanned outing for Memorial Day weekend. I don’t visit Las Vegas much anymore but every now and then when one my friends has a bachelor party. This time my girlfriends parents offered me and Christina their timeshare, I wasn’t going to turn them down when offered a very nice room that I didn’t have to pay for. After waking up late in the morning to the bright sunlight entering the room I skipped out on a hungover afternoon at the pool and drove out past the Rainbow Garden area in hopes of finding some nice canyon narrows that I had researched earlier in the week. I parked at the mile marker and hiked along a trail that dropped into a wash that lead into the narrows. It was hot out and my 32 oz. of water didn’t last me as long as I’d hoped it would. Amazed at the length of the narrows, almost a quarter of mile long with walls rising hundreds of feet. Parts at only 6 feet across with light only getting better as time passed. The place wasn’t even an hour outside of Downtown, that’s golden for us that put in the miles to find these far off places. There must be so many beautiful canyon narrows that exist out there besides the ones we’ve all heard about.
The following day was spent out on the water kayaking in the Lake Mead area. I’m not a kayaker so the first few miles the kayak floated like a log on the river while we physically remembered how to get around. These new things are what keep the drive alive for me so after a few miles of steering the kayak became second nature. I really wanted to try something different and to see the big horn sheep in it’s own enviroment but we didn’t see any until later in the day. They were far way on the other side of the river, you could see their trails that they walked from the slopes to the edge of the river. All paddling ceased and the current took us down river as we just watched. One of them stood on a rock out crop with out a single movement as if it were his or her pedestal. They blend into the landscape so well it was the movement of the other sheep below that caught my eye. We could of easily paddled on over and switched lenses but disturbing an endangered animal was not my cup of tea.
Monday evening is when the first photo in this series was taken. Another one of those mysterious places out in the Mojave where the edge of a sandstone cliff is full of wind sculpted formations that look like they came out of a fairytale. The weekend was almost a fairytale being that I got to mix my social life and I was able to get 3 days of landscape photography, this never happens. There are more photos but I can’t process everything. Just for kicks here is the fairytale version of this photo, the place is just unreal and I could see why someone might want to go all at it in photoshop when visiting a place like this the imagination can run wild!
I couldn’t help it I just watched Alice in Wonderland II yesterday evening.
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