Palm Springs: Travel Photography

At the start of May I attended the Palm Springs Photo Festival. I only attend the first day to listen to Art Striber speak about editorial photography. It was an eye opening, learning experience, with a lot of take aways. I also learned how important the PSPF is. I am going to be spending the next 9-10 months shooting and building a book, updating my portfolio, to take with me next year for portfolio reviews.

Being this was only my second time to Southern California I wanted to see the area as fast as I could. I only had a short time following the end of the conference before sunset, so I had to maximize my time efficiently. When I was planning my trip I had hopes of testing with models in and around Palm Springs. The ideas I had didn't seem to be feasible. All of the affordable hotels were booked up and there was a lack of affordable Airbnb's to chose from. I wasn't about to fly into Palm Springs, flights were double that of LAX. I ended up settling on an Airbnb in Hollywood. I seem to favor that area. I was flying in to LAX and with only spending a single day in Palm Springs, I figured a drive in and out same day would be easy enough, which in the end meant no testing in Palm Springs. No worries.. I still ended up setting up some shoots, to be shared in the very very very near future. 

I have never been to a desert before. I spent a lot of time researching the area when I was looking for Airbnbs as well as developing ideas for testing. The Palm Springs area is quite unique and honestly, very much worth exploring. In my research I ended up seeing quite a few high end editorials shot in Palm Springs. I also found a few blogs that listed the best places to see and make photos in Palm Springs. If I had more time and I wasn't traveling solo Palm Springs would have been fun to explore and spend more time in. What I did want to see was the landscape and what made the desert, well, the desert. 

I knew the area had a lot of windmills. They are kind of famous and widely used as a backdrop. I didn't realize why they were erected in the areas they were until I drove into the area. HOLY wind! But, as you turn the corner, the mountains cut the wind. It is a really unique region. I can not contextualize the experience as I do not fully understand the region and its diverse weather. 

I had a lot of fun cruising around and capturing some shots of the landscape. All images were made using my Fuji X-Pro ii with the slightly bent lens I have discussed in other posts. 

I have some other content that I will be sharing soon, including some news about a new assistant!