And more generally, Los Angeles, I did not miss you either, but boy does your smog make for nice photos.

Picture taken on a "hike" in Runyon Canyon with Shasta and her pups, Wally and Charlie.

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Hola, Hollywood.

I didn't really miss you at all.

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Last photo of Joshua Tree. This was taken prior to the three photos below, but it's my favorite.

See you next year, Joshua Tree.

5.3.12

Desert in the dark. That's right, in. the. dark.

A full moon, a long exposure, a bit of bourbon and good company goes a long way in my book.

That evening in Joshua Tree was chock full of moments that would take another lifetime to replace.

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I'm tellin' ya. The desert and the ocean. In moments, similar colors, similar weirdness, similar awesomeness. That middle photo is pretty much what the bottom of the Coral Sea looks like. Really made me want to grab my scuba gear and hit the seas. But ohhhhh no - where did I head next? Los Angeles. Gross.

Speaking of gross, did I mention that I hate snakes? Well, I mentioned it to Kyle. Probably 50 times. I also declared that if I were a snake, I would absolutely want to come hang out right around this beautiful time of day, nice and cool.

And what do you know. Despite my tunnel vision to get back to the car without seeing one of those appendage-less creatures, I noticed something that may have been a serpent out of the corner of my eye. From behind me, Kyle yells, "Al! Snake!"

I think I did some weird cheerleading move to get out of the snake's path. Was it actually a snake? I don't know, ask Kyle.

Yuck.

Joshua Tree National Park at dusk.

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More from Joshua Tree National Park.

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I have so many photos of Kyle from this trip that I adore, but this is one of my favorites. Such a moment of fervour for life and appreciation for the beauty that is in front of you.

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Photos taken on our hike back down. It's pretty awesome that you can see the Salton Sea in the distance in the bottom photo.


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It's an absolute necessity to pull out the ol' teleconverter to capture the details of these desert flowers - some of them, alien in their structure. Strangely, photographing desert life reminded me very much of photographing undersea life.

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Good grief, Charlie Brown. The past three weeks sure have been a trip. Cincinnati to Minneapolis to San Diego annnd back to New York this morning - I've been in a different time zone every week and my body hates me for it. I don't think I've ever noticed visible signs of aging until this summer. Definitely need to add more water and yoga back into my regimen. What about sleep you say? Sleep is for suckers.

Anyway, I have the next 50some hours in NYC then it's back to the airport on Friday morning. So while I'm here, I'm going to try to take some spare moments to continue this lovely blog of mine. What can I say, I've missed it.

We left off wrapping up a photo shoot out in the deserts of California and thus I shall pick-up in the deserts of California. This time with a trip to Joshua Tree with one of my dear friends, Mr. Kyle Casey.

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