July 15 // 8:17PM
Joshua Tree // Mojave Desert
In the evening, when the sun drops right above the horizon in the desert, the light hits the sharp spikes and edges of the cactus and Joshua Trees and they start glowing. The drab, brown desert you’ve stared at all day suddenly changes and turns into a colorful display of purples, yellows, and reds, and all the shapes and forms around you that have blended together in an uninteresting mess all day suddenly light up and become far more compelling.
And that’s why I’m here. I’m waiting on those moments.
I made a few images of the Joshua Trees in the evening light until the sun dropped over the horizon in front of me. I was walking out of the scrub and was admiring the full moon that was replacing the sun in the sky in almost a storybook fashion. (The sun and moon are often in the sky at the same time, but this time of the month, the moon rises and sets at almost exactly the opposite time as the sun.)
There was the faintest glow from the twilight scene behind me lighting up the vegetation and rocks in front of me. The weather was beautiful and I just wasn’t quite ready to pack it in. So, I spent a few minutes making some images with the moon before it rose too high for a decent composition. There were a few images that worked, but this is the one I’m showing today.