Posts Tagged ‘deserts’
Posted on February 25, 2018, 10:15 am, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Sand to Snow National Monument owes its name to the striking elevation difference between the Sonoran Desert floor (about 1,000 feet) and 11,500-foot San Gorgonio Mountain, Southern California’s highest peak. That gradient makes Sand to Snow possibly the most botanically diverse national monument in America. Unlike Mojave Trails and Castle Mountains, no roads penetrate its […]
Posted on February 18, 2018, 11:35 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
If I was to sum up my impressions of Castle Mountains National Monument in one word, it would be “primitive”. See what I managed to discover and photograph in one day of exploring this beautiful desert area that manages to make the Mojave National Preserve appear civilized, without the benefit of any detailed information nor […]
Posted on February 10, 2018, 4:30 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Protecting a huge 2,500 square miles (1.6 million acres), Mojave Trails National Monument is the largest of the three California desert national monuments established by President Barack Obama in February 2016, and also the second largest national monument in the contiguous U.S. or the largest if you count the reduction in size of Grand Staircase […]
Posted on January 15, 2018, 11:45 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Joshua Tree National Park is well-known for the namesake Joshua trees and rounded boulders. The Jumbo Rocks area, home to the largest campground in the park (124 campsites), contains some of Joshua Tree National Park’s most whimsical rock formations. The most interesting are unnamed, and their locations passed from photographer to photographer. You’ve seen the […]
Posted on March 24, 2016, 11:29 am, by QT Luong, under
Techniques.
Last week, I posted three images of the Death Valley landmarks, the salt flats, sand dunes, and playas. I invited you to think about how those images, which somehow defy the conventional landscape photography wisdom of not shooting at midday, could work. In this post, I am providing my answer to the question. Most images […]
Posted on March 17, 2016, 12:44 am, by QT Luong, under
Esthetics.
Beginners often shoot landscapes at all times of the day, and don’t realize why some come out better than others. The standard operating procedure of the “serious” landscape photographer is to concentrate on the so-called golden hour, half an hour around sunrise and sunset time. Early morning and late afternoon are the second best. Midday, […]
Posted on January 28, 2016, 1:27 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
The most visited spot in Joshua Tree National Park lies somewhere near the meeting of Park Boulevard, the Hidden Valley picnic area, and the Barker Dam road. When I parked my car a hundred yard east of the intersection, nobody was around, because the time was one hour before sunrise. I walked in the dark […]
Posted on June 12, 2015, 11:59 am, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Before moving on to the marine environment of Channel Islands National Park for an awesome change from Death Valley and its 100F temperatures, I concluded my short stay in the desert with a visit to the remote Ibex Dunes. Read about this location, and how tech nearly got me lost. Amongst the five sand dunes […]
Posted on June 7, 2015, 8:17 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Death Valley National Park is defined by its sand dunes, playas, salt flats, and badlands. Last April, I spent a few days in the park and photographed each of those iconic features, however not at the classic locations usually associated with them. I never saw another photographer. Read this post to learn about the alternative […]
Posted on April 30, 2015, 5:42 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
This March, I visited Saguaro National Park in less than five days, inclusive of travel from home. A fairly extensive National Park photography trip doesn’t need to be lengthy nor expensive! To illustrate this point, in this post, rather than describing the locations visited, I will detail my itinerary, logistics, and costs, which totalled $314 […]
