Skyfire over the Desert in Joshua Tree

[Travis Rhoads]

I just returned from a much needed trip out west...it was great to get away from the stress of everyday life and spend time with two great lifetime friends. We were in Joshua Tree for 3 full days, and had some of the best light and conditions the whole trip...very unusual for me. This is the sunset on our first night...we scrapped shooting at the Cholla Cactus Garden...I just didn't get the feeling there, so we raced back to this spot and found some healthy looking Cholla to put in the foreground, with the bonus of a nice JTree skeleton. I figured I would show this image here first...

 

[Ben Egbert]

man this is sweet

 

[AlanLichty]

Outstanding! I can gaze into this one and just get swallowed into the scene. <clapping hands soundtrack>

 

[Travis Rhoads]

man this is sweet

Thanks Ben. It was the byproduct of watching the scenes on the side of the road as we drove around all day! It was plan B, that turned out to be worthy of having been Plan A.

Outstanding! I can gaze into this one and just get swallowed into the scene. <clapping hands soundtrack>

Thanks Alan. Very kind of you.

 

[JimFox]

Nice work here Travis! This turned out really nice.

And good lesson to keep our eyes open to our destination. One never knows when the destination may not pan out, and it's good to already have a few plan B's sitting in our pockets to use.

 

[Timmeh]

Hi Travis,

The minimized ground layer works really well with the colorful V shapes in the clouds.

Tim

 

[Ryan10]

we scrapped shooting at the Cholla Cactus Garden...I just didn't get the feeling there,
View attachment 3437

The cholla garden may be one of my favorite spots, but for only about 20 mins. I'm no pro in the garden, but I've been there about 5 times, and the magic only lasts there for about 5 mins before sunset and 10ish mins after the sunset.

With that said, the image you have is awesome.

 

[Travis Rhoads]

Nice work here Travis! This turned out really nice.

And good lesson to keep our eyes open to our destination. One never knows when the destination may not pan out, and it's good to already have a few plan B's sitting in our pockets to use.

Thank you Jim. Yes, we always have to be on the lookout for options...twice on this trip we had to go to plan B....and both times it ended up working out in our favor.

Hi Travis,

The minimized ground layer works really well with the colorful V shapes in the clouds.

Tim

Thanks Tim, I really wanted to show as much sky as I could...so 12mm and a tilt up...that tree lining up with the skeleton and the V in the clouds was icing on the cake, when I setup I would have had no idea the clouds were going to do that...

The cholla garden may be one of my favorite spots, but for only about 20 mins. I'm no pro in the garden, but I've been there about 5 times, and the magic only lasts there for about 5 mins before sunset and 10ish mins after the sunset.

With that said, the image you have is awesome.

One of your images is why we were going to go...but once I got there I just wasn't feeling it...I was worried that the mountains to the west would obscure too much of the good light...as it was, we shot this spot for a solid 30 minutes. Glad you like it.

 

[Raphael Sombrio]

I like very much the wide angle vision, the beauty of colors and the way the clouds was opened creating a great perspective.

Nice moment!