The sun. It’s the dominant force here in the desert. Even in the winter.
desert sun
Category: thoughts
palo verde double ex
Double exposures can be interesting to experiment with. I’m not talking about the conventional kind that clutters Google photos – the ones of a face in profile with a tree growing out of the forehead or a cityscape blowing out of the top of the head. It’s easy to get gimmicky with it.
I’m talking about a basically straightforward shot with a hint of double ex. Used with restraint it can add another dimension to a photo. And there are more than three dimensions in the desert.
dead palo verde
I have to be honest with myself. Color bores me, at least my color does. Sure it can look nice, but still…
Color can show what things look like out here in the desert, which is fine, but it doesn’t dig in to what it feels like. When I’m out in the desert as the sun starts to climb it feels like someone jabbed a sharp stick in my eye and then punched me in the gut. I can feel the roar of the sun as it climbs higher in the sky. That’s the feeling I try to get across, and I can at least hint at it with black and white. Color softens the blow too much.
Color can be a good change pace now and then. It’s fine for some things, and I’ll use it once in a while, but when it comes to evoking the true and fierce heart of the desert it simply doesn’t cut it for me.
rediscovering color
My subject matter doesn’t change much. I work with what’s around me, the open desert. Mostly within about a 2-3 mile radius from my door.
I’ve been working almost exclusively with black and white for several years now. I attempt some color occasionally but always abandon it. I’m not comfortable with it. Black and white has become the language I speak.
For me color, good color, is a real challenge. One I need now to expand on what I do. I’ve gotten too comfortable with black and white, which I won’t abandon of course. I’ve gotten to feel like a bit of a one-trick pony so I’ll work with color more. I can speak black and white pretty fluently. I want to learn to speak color too.
old and new
This place, Chiriaco Summit was founded in August 1933, the same day a new highway, US 60 opened between Indio, California and Phoenix. It started with a couple of gas pumps and a small lunch counter.
Here’s one of the original gas pumps contrasted with the modern Chevron station that’s here now.
this matters too
We’re living a troubling, dystopian piece of time right now. An ugly, growing stain is spreading across our country’s history, it’s reputation, the principles it was founded on. Where will it lead? Will we clean it up? Time will tell. But, lest we forget in all the chaos, this, the wild, matters too. Let’s not lose sight of that.
a brief thought
To my mind you never ‘arrive’ when it comes to photography. You’re always moving in one direction or another – sometimes forward, sometimes back, sometimes you take a circuitous sidetrack that leaves you wondering what the hell that was.
I think the most important thing is to work with the attitude ‘what if…’. You try things to find out. If it doesn’t work you’ll know it. If it has possibilities you’ll know that too. It’s all practice.
desert topographics 