national park

...now browsing by tag

A visit to Joshua Tree, part 1

Monday, July 12th, 2010

Last week, a friend and I headed out to Joshua Tree National Park in search of summer wildlife. There’s no doubt the desert is not a fun place in July–we started the first of three hikes in 80+ degree temperatures and ended up hiking in 100+ degrees, but it was a productive trip.

We started the day near the Black Rock Campground in hopes of finding Scott’s Orioles to photograph. We did see several orioles, but they buzzed by at top speed, with no interest in stopping for us to photograph them. Instead, we did find several very accommodating Ash-throated Flycatchers, and I got some nice shots of these pleasant birds. To see all of my Ash-throated Flycatcher images, click here.

ash-throated flycatcher, joshua tree national park, california

Ash-throated Flycatcher, July 2010

After spending a couple of hours hiking in this area, we headed over to the 49 Palms Oasis trail, which is a fantastic place to photograph Chuckwallas and Collared Lizards. We weren’t successful in finding many Chuckwallas, but we did find a few flashy and cooperative Collared Lizards. These are some of my favorites, and I was very happy to find some that were so willing to let us photograph them. To see all of my Collared Lizard images, click here.

great basin collared lizard, joshua tree national park, california

Great Basin Collared Lizard, July 2010

When its over 100 degrees Fahrenheit outside, its easy to see why these heat-loving lizards would seek refuge in the bushes rather than the rocks–its much cooler! Even in the upper photo, you can see the lizard’s toes lifted off the rock–presumably they stay cooler this way.

After these two very hot hikes, we headed into the main part of the park to look for antelope ground squirrels and dragonflies. No squirrels were to be found, but we did find a scavenger-like scrub jay, as well as several dragonflies, including a new one for me: red saddlebags.

scrub jay, joshua tree national park, california

Western Scrub Jay, July 2010

Red Saddlebags, July 2010

In addition to this, we found several desert bighorn sheep (future post), and a few other cool things. Despite the heat, it was a great day in our local National Park!

Posted in california, national park | 6 Responses »
Tags: bird photography, california, desert wildlife, Joshua Tree, mojave desert, national park, nature photography, wildlife photography

Wave Abstract

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

Lately, I’ve been using Nik Software’s plug-ins for Photoshop and have to admit that I’m loving them. As a result, I’ve been revisiting some old images in an attempt to breathe some new life into them. One image in particular that I’ve had in mind is this shot of the Pacific Ocean that I took in April on my visit to Anacapa Island in Channel Islands National Park.

waves in the pacific ocean, channel islands national park

Wave Abstract, April 2010

In this shot, I wanted to accentuate the detail in the waves, as well as the water texture in both the leading and tailing edges of the waves. By processing the lower lefthand part of the image as monochrome using Nik Software’s Silver Efex Pro and leaving the upper righthand part of the image in color, I was able to accentuate the difference in these areas of the water.

Incidentally, in my last post on my Channel Islands trip, I talked about how intense the wind was. For most of the night, we dealt with wind gusts of 50-65 miles per hour, with no vegetative cover. Equipment takes a beating in that kind of wind, and today I received an image from my friend, whose tent we used that night on Anacapa. These tent poles used to be straight.