I went to the desert Saturday. There’s lots of nothing in most of Nevada, but some land is maintained for visitors by various government agencies. My destination was Red Rock Canyon west of Las Vegas and under the supervision of the Bureau of Land Management.
Red Rock features a long loop road with turnoffs to hiking trailheads and overlooks. I went for a hike. It was Saturday. I wans’t alone.
As a meteorologist I should have known better, but I headed into the desert with a black shirt and hat. It’s hot with unimpeded sunshine. White should have been the choice.
I brought a bottle of water, but it wasn’t enough. Two would have been better. Maybe three. It’s so dry there you never feel perspiration, meaning your body will have a difficult time maintaining your body temperature.
The common misconception about the desert is it’s without life. It’s just very spread out. You have to look hard to see small clusters of color.
I brought my camera and was willing to get dirty to get the shot. Some of these were taken while on my belly. I tried to shoot close and mostly with a very shallow depth of field.
I like these shots. I hope you’ll enjoy them too. There’s a huge difference between a thumbnail and larger image. Please click any photo to get a better view.
Some of the yellows were so bright the camera had trouble capturing them. I’ve made adjustments with Photoshop, but only to better recreate what I saw while there. Cameras aren’t perfect under all situations.
There’s beauty in the simplicity of Mother Nature!
Amazing how, with all modern advances, man can’t duplicate or top it.
Wonderful photos, Geoff! The cactus flower and feathery pink flowers are especially fascinating.
Have you ever been to “Valley of Fire” while in Vegas? It’s owned by the State. Alyce and I were there a few years ago and thought that it was as nice or better the Red Rock. Nice Pictures.
Must be very determined plants to thrive with such little water & in the heat… nice pics!
when is your book coming out?????
Awesome photos. I did enjoy them!
Beautiful pictures. Looks like you have another passion when you are not on the air. Very nice. I like Dave’s suggestion above. You have plenty of talent!
Love them, Geoff! I really like the shallow depth of field you used for most of them. And I love the delicate colours and texture of 0281. It so pays off to get your eye to the level and scale of your subject. Well done!
See, you knew what you were doing when you wore black in the dessert — it’s so you could lay down to get these pics! I love the delicateness of the yellow flower next to the cactus.
Thanks for sharing your talents with us. People often forget to take pics of the world and only take them of the people in it.
Absolutely amazing !!!
Beautiful photos Geoff! 🙂 I know what you mean about the camera and capturing the colors. My T2i is the same way with bright reds, no matter what I do! (or what I’m not doing, lol)
I’ve always been amazed by the desert flowers in Arizona also.
If they have had a “wet” winter (rain not snow except in higher elevations) the desert comes alive with seas of colors you would never imagine to see out in “the desert”.