Photography I Desert


	Desert
	What is it about the desert that makes it at times both such a wasteland and yet a place of stark beauty and mystery? It is at times incredibly harsh and unrelenting, yet a place of contrasts and intense colors. Many of us fear the heat and desolate aspects of the desert, and as such, miss the magical moments it has to offer. When I take the time to look and wait for the right light, I realize that as in life, there is often more to discover than is expected.


		Walking Shadows Palm Springs, California In a place where time stands still, where you feel that the future is the present and the present shall never pass, that is where shadows walk. Although not native to this area, these planted Saguaro Catus made me realize that we can avoid destruction and even enhance our environments with careful and creative enhancements of our environment.


		Reflections of Solutide Mono Lake, California Tufas carved by a dream from shapeless stone. Heavens own light and reflections shone. An angel’s vision, this beauty within, is our own. Taking a late ski trip to Mammoth with my buddy Carl Lauten, we headed up to Mono Lake. The simplicity of this place belied its desecration by both draining water for Los Angeles, and the winds that erode these natural wonders. Now, some 7 years later, years of exposure to the elements have ended and these tufas are once again underwater.


		The Ascent Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California Yours is the Earth with everything in it if you can trust when there is doubt, or dream without losing focus and face success and defeat with the same abbrobation, the ascent to greatness will be yours. The Alabama Hills between Lone Pine and the Eastern Sierra Nevada Range are a wounderous rolling range of smooth rolling rocks outcropings that contrast with the towering and jagged peaks of the Sierras. Waking early to catch the contrast of light and shadow, this small wash seems to beg one to begin the ascent.


		Zabriski Point Death Valley, California On a clear day, you can see the highest point on the North American Continent, Mt. Whitney, and the lowest Point, Death Valley, from Zabriski Point. A location and name sake in many films, this desolate local is filled with wonders, and intense tempatures as it can be one of the hottest palces on earth. Death Valley itself is one of the lowest places on earth. A sunrise at Zabriski brings out tourists from all over the world, even in the peak of summer.


		Desert Garden Palm Springs, California A cool spring afternoon of dark broken clouds, sunlight, desert poppies, scrubs, rocks and furry cacti creeping towards the San Jacinto Mountains.


		San Jacinto Mirror Palm Springs, California A desert landscape with such a large lake must be a mirage, but it’s not. As is possible with so much man does, there is room for adding beauty to the land, as is the case with many of the desert lakes created for the golfing crowd.


		Purple Desert Palm Springs, California As wonderful as it is to see the reflections of the San Jacinto Mountians in the artificial golf course lakes around Palm Springs, it is also disturbing to see so little of the natural wild flower open space left in the area. Development has boomed in the deserts all across the West, and this type of open space is becoming harder to find.


		Eternal Wilderness Joshua Tree National Monument, California Quite spiritualness, prehistoric yet timeless. When there, one feels transported to a world and a time far from life's pressures one thousands of years past. Once in this eternal wilderness, one experiences a sense of timelessness and serenity.


		San Jacinto Palms at Dawn Palm Springs, California Quite spiritualness, prehistoric yet timeless. When there, one feels transported to a world and a time far from life's pressures one thousands of years past. Once in this eternal wilderness, one experiences a sense of timelessness and serenity.


		Morning Mesas Lake Powell, Utah Much controversy surrounds the amazing area of Glen Canyon, now Lake Powell. From the forcible movement of Navajo to this desert land, to the construction of the massive Glen Canyon Damn at Page, Arizona. With the massive man made lake, having more shoreline than the entire Continental United States, one thing is certain, it is a place of overpowering beauty.