Joshua Tree

Click the play button to watch the video below.

You either love the desert or you hate the desert, a phrase I heard some time in 2019. I forgot who said it but its trivial at this point because I learned very quickly that I love the desert. The following film was produced in 2018 when we visited Joshua Tree for the first time. Well before I heard those words I knew the desert had a hold on me.

We started our day early in the morning entering the park sometime after 7:30. I took with me a Sony a6300 and a Nikon F4. When I wasn’t shooting with one I was rolling with the other and vice versa. At this moment I have only scanned about half of the 14+ rolls I shot that day. Don’t judge me for over shooting, like I said it was my/our first time there. I could have spent days in the park making photos. Sometime in the near future I plan to return for camping trip. It has been a few years since I have overnighted in a tent. I am not sure what mode of domicile I would use for camping in a desert. Id probably lean towards a vehicle that would keep us safe from all sorts of things that crawl around.

We did a fair amount of walking. No major hiking, but as evident by the film we did do quite a bit of exploring. I wanted this film to capture what I feel the desert is and can be, a very weird place. If I was to close my eyes and imagine the Sahara Desert, I would think of camels, Egypt, large expanses of sand. In comparison, when I think of Joshua Tree, I think of Indians, I think of Crows (something I see a lot of in Joshua Tree), and I would imagine some sort of spiritual quest or trip. I found Joshua Tree to be inspiring. So much so that I returned literally 1 year later, October 2019 and photographed a model there. The photos ended up being published. I will be sharing those shortly. But for now enjoy my first trip into Joshua Tree.