Anza - Borrego Desert State Park

Several years ago, an usual amount of rain had fallen here in Southern California at the beginning of the Spring season. Keeping an eye out for good photo opportunities, I spotted an article in the local newspaper mentioning the unusual flower bloom that was happening out in a desert area, Anza - Borrego, that is mostly dry and barren. We decided to head out there, but needed to do a little prep work first.

The night before I had all my camera gear prepped so that we could essentially roll out of bed and start driving right away. It would take us a couple hours to get there and good light is critical, essential, and really really important to good photos. Batteries were charged, memory cards were formatted, snacks and water packed. We put everything in the trunk of our car, ready for an early morning rise.

We got up EARLY, still very dark, the stars were out and hours before the sun even peeked over the horizon. We drove the several hours with hopes to find a good location with some interesting subjects to shoot. We had to work fast since the light changes so quickly as the sun rises higher and higher in the sky. Everything about light changes as the day goes on: the color, condition and angle of the light evolves as the day progresses. Capturing the right light can make the difference between taking the snapshot that everyone else gets in the middle of the day and making an amazing image with stunning, magical light as it paints the image you envision.  

I shot this image from a tripod mounted camera using 3 bracketed photos. I found a nice location that not only had a nice and interesting background, but more importantly has an interesting focal point in the foreground. I shot a lot of images that day and was happy to come back with several that I could share.