Tag: california desert plant life

a new series

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On May 1 I’m going to try something a little different, at least different for me. I’m going to post a month long series – ’31 Palo Verdes’.

I’ll do a new photo of a palo verde tree every day for the month of May, all taken here in the southern side of Joshua Tree National Park and the surrounding desert. My thought is to post one every morning, and it will have been taken that same morning, weather permitting. Sometimes I can’t get out due to the weather so it might not happen that way. If so I will have a few in reserve to choose from – the only rule will be that it has to be taken during May. It will all be new.

These will be done in snapshot format – square, black and white, with a snapshot border and a month/year date stamp like I’ve been doing.

So. It starts this coming Friday. Stay tuned. Who knows? It might even be interesting.

Cheers

in praise of the snapshot

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black and white photograph of an ocotillo in the colorado desert of southern california
long tall ocotillo at sunrise – colorado desert, california | 4.11.26

“I am a passionate lover of the snapshot, because of all photographic images it comes closest to truth.”

Lisette Model

That may be a bit of a stretch, but then again… there is more than a little truth to that. There is no pretense, no theatrics, no attempt to be ‘arty’ in simple snapshots. They’re real and honest. There can be more art in that than in all the attempts to grab a viewer by the eyeballs.

I’ll play around with different things once in awhile like double exposures, adding a vintage look and the like, and sometimes they work, but mostly I just adjust the tones and contrast a bit (I use Snapseed if you care), maybe add a little grain, and slap a border and date on it and call it good. If I have to spend more than two or three minutes on a picture I figure it didn’t work and I shitcan it. I have others to choose from.

The desert, and any place else for that matter, speaks for itself, and doesn’t need theatrics or dramatic color or anything else. The art, if you want to call it that, is in how you see your world and how you choose to fit what you see into a rectangle or square. Anything more than that can be like putting legs on a snake.

palo verde and desert sunrise

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palo verde tree and morning sun in the southern california desert
palo verde at sunrise – colorado desert, california | 4.10.26

When you think of desert plants cactus immediately come to mind. But there are others. There is much desert plant life that thrives in this hot, arid climate.

One of the more common ones is the palo verde. It’s instantly recognizable with its green bark, yet every one is a unique individual. They grow in all shapes and sizes. A visual feast.