Well, so much for shooting in the desert!

Sometimes, no matter how much you plan, mother nature wins! I planned on shooting night shots Friday night but a dust storm ruined any chance of that... then it poured all day Saturday. Monsoon season started early this year so I had anticipated *some* rain but I didn't think about haboobs (Arabic for dust storm). I don't know why... I've spent enough time in the desert to know better but usually I'm there in the spring or right when monsoon is ending. The desert is an entirely different animal in the summer. Here's some shots I did take with my phone (the last 3 I snagged from my Instagram):

The haboob rolling in! This is what it looked like from my hotel room

The haboob rolling in! This is what it looked like from my hotel room

Wonder Valley

Wonder Valley

palms
skyvillage

It's funny, in my last post I talked about breaking the rules but I didn't want to take my camera out AT ALL over those 2 days! Seriously, that dust was superfine and I wasn't about to ruin my stuff. Oh well, I guess I'll have to plan another trip soon!

-Helen

 

 

Joshua Tree Road Trip

Been slacking on writing and I realized that I'm about to go on another desert trip but I haven't even posted photos from my June trip...

On this trip I wanted to take photos with the mindset of breaking the "rules". You know, don't shoot straight on, don't shoot into the sun or mid-day, blah blah. But I did, so here's what I was happy with:

Hello mid-day sun!

Hello mid-day sun!

Sometimes I shoot in color...

Sometimes I shoot in color...

You can check out more on my Flickr album HERE. I'm going back this week to work on night shots since it'll be a new moon! Hopefully I can get some shots of the Milky Way but I'm flying down this time so I'm bringing limited equipment. I'll post on exactly what I brought with me and how well (or not so well) my shots came out!

-Helen