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Arch rock and girl - Joshua tree national park, USA - Street photography
Arch Rock
by Giuseppe Milo

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The rock and the juniper
Jumbo Rocks Monolith and Juniper tree
by janos.hajas@yahoo.de

Joshua Tree NP, Jumbo Rocks group. Resembling a penguine and a peacock ?

What happens is not as important as how you react to what happens…
Key’s view
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Ellen Glasgow.

| facebook | 500px | ferpectshots |

Key’s view is one of the underrated gems of the Joshua Tree National Park. Part of the Hidden Valley section of the park, the southwest exposure, provides a promising outlook point towards the Coachella Valley Preserve and Indio Hills. The location makes this viewpoint a spectacular sunset location. There are ample parking and some stunning trails. The trails surrounding the outlook are what make Keys view great. Since it is a desert, the view is in no way restricted, and you are free to wander around and find your compositions.

I used this composition as I wanted to showcase the cracks on the granite rock formation. I was hoping that this composition would balance well with the vast valleys and the distant mountains that are visible on the right. I was not sure if the plan worked at the time, so I didn’t process the image. But every time I was in the folder, if felt an attraction and finally decided to process the picture. It looked like I did a good job getting the exposure right, but I am still not entirely sure about the composition.

Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence...
Joshua Tree NP
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Hal Borland.

| facebook | 500px | blog |

Finally the money shot of the trees the park is named after, Yucca brevifolia or Joshua tree as it is more commonly known is the start attraction of the park. If you are entering the park from the south entrance like i did you will not find many trees until you reach almost until the mid point of the park. The tree requires a particular type of temperature range and grows in the cooler Mojave region of the desert.

The name Joshua tree was given by a group of Mormon settlers who crossed the Mojave Desert in the mid-19th century. The tree's unique shape reminded them of a Biblical story in which Joshua reaches his hands up to the sky in prayer.Joshua trees are fast growers for the desert; new seedlings may grow at an average rate of 7.6 cm (3.0 in) per year in their first ten years, then only grow about 3.8 cm (1.5 in) per year thereafter. The trunk of a Joshua tree is made of thousands of small fibers and lacks annual growth rings, making it difficult to determine the tree's age. This tree has a top-heavy branch system, but also has what has been described as a "deep and extensive" root system, with roots possibly reaching up to 11 m (36 ft) away. If it survives the rigors of the desert it can live for hundreds of years with some specimens surviving up to a thousand years. The tallest trees reach about 15 m (49 ft). New plants can grow from seed, but in some populations, new stems grow from underground rhizomes that spread out around the Joshua tree.

Lone Cowboy
Jumbo Rocks Monolith and Juniper tree

Lone Juniper at Joshua Tree National Park, CA, USA.

Nikon D700 Nikkor 14-24 mm f/2.8 Nikon SB-910 Full Power

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Best Friends Forever
Jumbo Rocks Monolith and Juniper tree

Juniper & Monolith at Joshua Tree NP, CA, USA.

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Magnetic
Jumbo Rocks Monolith and Juniper tree

Update: Published in Outdoor Photographer Magazine July, 2019

Located in Joshua Tree National Park, it could appear that the two main objects which...

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Moonlit Arch Rock
Arch Rock

Joshua Tree National Park's Arch Rock. Located steps from our camp site, it was the perfect spot to do some star photography. I was hoping to get a...

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Cholla Cactus Garden
Cholla Cactus Garden

I highly recommend this spot in Joshua Tree National Park for a sunrise shot. Best thing is you can have the whole garden to yourself and that...

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Joshua Tree Sunset
Joshua Tree

Please View Large!

Photo taken in Joshua Tree National Park (California, USA) near Barker Dam.

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The sky lovingly smiles on the earth and her children...
Jumbo Rocks Monolith and Juniper tree
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Henry Morton Stanley.

| facebook | 500px | ferpectshotz |

Recently we had a chance to visit Joshua tree national park which is about 3 hours from our home and see a natural feature of the park which we missed the last two times we were there. The monolith and the Juniper tree is a well known feature and I desperately wanted to capture it in a sunset setting with some nice color in the sky. I had this shot in mind for a long time and I am really happy it came out the way I expected. Thank god for small wins.

Hope you all had a very happy New Years and wish everyone a great 2016.

Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet...
Jumbo Rocks Monolith and Juniper tree
by Sandeep Thomas

-Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

| facebook | 500px | ferpectshotz |

This is an older pano shot I made at Joshua Tree National park some time ago. We originally planned to be at the Juniper and Monolith for sunset and got some shots that I posted earlier. But as the sunset was about done the sky was exploding in colors and I wanted to see if I could shoot a pano image just to emphasize the actual size of the rocks and landscape rather than just the distorted perspective shot of this iconic scene.

Si waked a bit more to a better vantage point to get a view that included the monolith and the sunset sky. And tried to capture the whole scale of the scene in front of us.

You are always a student, never a master. You have to keep moving forward...[explored]
Key’s view
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Conrad Hall.

| facebook | 500px | blog |

This was the shot I went to Keys Point for and I am extremely satisfied by the way it turned out. I was a bit skeptical about this location after reading about the smog and the mountains which usually hides the sunset from view.

I didn’t had much luck scoping out other locations using Google and we were pretty tired by the time so we just decided to just stick to what we knew. Fortunately the sunset was perfect and looked spectacular. It was a challenge to get some foreground interest without getting any of the tourists in the frame but I placed myself pretty much at the edge of the viewpoint and managed to snatch this shot. All your comments and encouragement are greatly appreciated. Hope you all have a great weekend..

Arch Rock LE
Arch Rock

A Smooth Reflections Long Exposure at Arch Rock in Joshua Tree National Park. Waiting for a time when no people were in the shot was a test of my...

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Molten Monzo [EXPLORED]
Arch Rock

The patterns and formations in the Monzogranite offered interest for days on the trip to Joshua Tree. The different striations all had unique...

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Striations [EXPLORED #5]
Arch Rock

Monzogranite formations in the desert in Joshua Tree National Park. When our original sunset location was over crowded, we opted to look for a place...

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Sunset On Another Planet
Arch Rock

At times, Joshua Tree National Park felt like another planet. The rock shapes transported you away from this place, and landed you in a terrain...

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Cholla Sunrise 2
Cholla Cactus Garden

I got to visit Joshua Tree National Park for the first time, recently. This California park contains features that make it feel as if you were in...

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Sunset in Joshua Tree
Joshua Tree NP

First shot from Joshua Tree National Park. This is sunset at an area called White Tank. Chris and I camped a stone's throw away — a literal five...

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Bullet The Blue Sky - Joshua Tree N.P
Joshua Tree NP

From that great U2 album comes my favorite song which you see here as the title of this image. Arriving here at high noon with terrible light. Didn't...

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There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward…
Cholla Cactus Garden
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Khalil Gibran.

| insta | blog |

Joshua Tree National Park was one of the first National Parks we visited after moving to the west coast. At the time, my location scouting was mostly based on google maps street view, and to be honest, and I was a bit disappointed with what I saw. The park didn’t look anything special other than its namesake trees. I was sure we could see everything that worth seeing in 3-4 days. I admit not a lot of planning went into the trip.

But boy, was I completely wrong. Joshua Tree NP is a park that sneaks up on you once you cross its boundaries. There are multiple valleys and at least two different desert systems within the park limits. So the scenery keeps on changing along with the plants and the rock formations. Here is also where I learned about the change in NP infrastructure design. While they designed the National and State Parks on the east coast, accessibility is a prime factor, and it's pretty common to be able to drive right up to a scenic view. It's not the case for parks on the west. Accessibility was not the prime concern; it was to keep the parks wild. You can see this change in thinking even in parks like Yosemite and Grand Canyon. Their famous and easily accessible sections constitute a tiny percentage of the park's total area. One of my biggest regret about Moving out of Socal was that we didn’t get enough time to explore Joshua Tree NP.

The Jumbo rock section of the park is the subject of today’s post. We did a small hike here called the skull rock loop. While hiking the short loop trail, we realized that jumbo Rocks is a location that can easily take one couple of days to explore and still go home with the feeling that you haven’t gotten all the possible compositions. Unfortunately, I could only afford a couple of hours here during our trip. I sincerely hope that one day I could return and explore the park a bit more.

If you want to shine like a sun, first burn like a sun…
Key’s view
by Sandeep Thomas
  • A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.

| facebook | 500px | ferpectshotz |

Recently, I have had some time and opportunity to brush up on some of my photoshop skills and I decided to go over some of the old shots to see if there are photos that were left without processing. While processing, I sometimes discard images that don’t look natural and usually it's my limited abilities with photoshop that is to blame. So since I learned some new skills, I visited some of my old shots and some of them turned out really good.

This is an old shot from Joshua Tree National Park. This is one of the first National parks we visited after moving to the west coast. This shot was taken at Dante's peak with the smoke from the wildfires in nearby areas contributing to some color. This shot is a combination of about three images that were exposed for dark, mid and high tones and then blended together using luminosity masks. I tried HDR on this shot but the added noise and the garish colors that resulted from HDR never satisfied me. But, now I believe this photo truly depicts what we experienced, and I am proud to post it on Flickr.

Sunlight is painting...[explored]
Key’s view
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Nathaniel Hawthorne.

| facebook | 500px | blog |

I was pretty much blown away by this sight at the keys View Point . This streaking of sunlight through the mountain peaks happened just as I was about to leave and fortunately I had the presence of mind to set the camera and shoot away as this only lasted a couple of minutes. Unfortunately I still had my polarizer on the lens and got a bit weird sky but the rest of the picture came out so nice I really don’t care. I hope the next time I am at this place I can be better prepared and hopefully I will get one of those rare smog free days.

A Force of Two
Jumbo Rocks Monolith and Juniper tree

This shot was taken about two and a half hours before my previous”Magnetic” image post. Interestingly or not, both images were captured using a 30...

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Prickly Situation
Cholla Cactus Garden

Cholla Cactus Garden at sunset, Joshua Tree National Park, California, USA.

**This is a copyrighted image with all rights reserved. Please don't...

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A Night with Teddy Bears
Cholla Cactus Garden

This is my second visit to Joshua Tree this month. Being totally in love with these Teddy Bears, I could not say no to visit this place again. But...

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A Dawn with Teddy Bears
Cholla Cactus Garden

After having a successful evening at McWay Falls, my energy levels hit the roof and decided to drive all the way to Joshua Tree National Park. It was...

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Swan and Eagle Rising
Arch Rock

This shot was taken at the end of summer in Joshua Tree National Park, when the milky way is enhanced by three stars, each of which is the brightest...

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Walker Canyon Poppies
Walker Canyon Poppies

Our wet winter is starting to produce wildflower "super blooms" around California, and this area is awash in California Poppies making the hills look...

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Thanks to all Phoide contributors to Riverside County!
Most notably Sandeep Thomas, Giuseppe Milo and janos.hajas@yahoo.de.