The High Desert

This is a photograph of a Joshua Tree taken in the high desert – outside of Palmdale, CA. This is really out in the middle of nowhere. I was there during the filming of Drifter: Henry Lee Lucas. This location is used a lot in films. For this film it was west Texas but it has also been the Middle East.

While I was there I took several photographs which was a wonderful challenge at how to approach photography in a place that seems so empty. I used my Nikon D2xs. I wanted to get a look that was similar to infrared film, which is attainable through the use of either Photoshop, or in some cases I can achieve this in Lightroom alone.

I work very hard to have to do minimal editing with Photoshop. I feel Adobe Lightroom has gone a long way in helping me with this goal. I want to create honest photographs and for me that means not doing heaving editing on the shot. Having said that I spend on average and hour per shot in the digital darkroom.

One subject I love to explore is what I think of as lonely places. This is not to be confused with sad or depressed subjects but those are part of the lonely places I seek out. I feel more like lonely places are really the empty quiet places where a person feels somewhat out of place. God’s places.

Some of these are abandoned places man has created and now are being reclaimed by nature. I also feel the use of black & white emphasizes the tone and mood. I’m currently collecting my photos of this subject. There is a portfolio on my photography web site that has more photos in the same subject.