Despite my best intentions, I’ve rarely photographed these trees after dark; and if it weren’t for a bout of insomnia, I wouldn’t even have this photo. I was supposed to be contentedly slumbering away in my tent at this hour, but my mind had other ideas. I awoke far before my alarm was due to go off, and I couldn’t fall back asleep. This situation annoyed me quite a bit because I had a job to do in the morning, leading a workshop sunrise outing with my partner, Ted. One of the nice benefits of having certification as a Wilderness First Responder is being able to get a permit to guide workshop participants to wilderness areas as an overnight trip. So we were in this location for a full day and had shot all the way from late afternoon to early night before finally retiring for some shuteye. Everyone had done many hours of hiking and shooting, and we were all looking forward to getting some sleep before sunrise. Alas, sleep was just not going to be possible for me. After tossing and turning for a while, I realized that resistance was futile…the desert night was calling to me.
So I crawled out of my tent and surveyed the sky. It was about ninety minutes before moonset, and there was a big shelf of clouds with a generous opening beneath it. Excited by what I saw, I grabbed my gear and trod off into the seemingly endless expanse of Joshua trees. Having visited that area numerous times previously, I had many interesting trees marked with waypoints in a GPS app on my phone. One came to mind that I thought might align perfectly with the setting moon, and sure enough it did.
By the time I had set up my tripod, I was wide awake, very much enjoying the view, and in very good spirits. So while I was out there, did I actually dance with the trees? No, of course not. Okay…maybe. A bit. Just a little jig, and then it was over. Don’t judge me! 😛
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Sig Nordal 