July 8, 2020 AM
Ryan Mountain Trail
Three years ago I had just joined the local photography group meetup and was excited to see a meetup scheduled at Joshua Tree National Park for some dark sky photography. The organizer of the meetup, Hami, had scouted locations in the park during the day prior to meeting at a location outside the park. He chose a location with ample parking for the trail that lead up to Ryan Mountain. Ryan Mountain is in the center of the northwestern portion of park and affords a pretty good view of the park and even Mts. San Jacinto and San Gorgonio on clear days. The area around the trailhead has some nice rock formation that would make for good foregrounds and isn't one of the more popular locations in the park for astro photography so it wouldn't be too crowded. The area around the trailhead also has a nice rocks that frame the sunset which I made use of then as well as last year. Most of us had never shot in a dark location before, so the concepts of shooting foregrounds separately or light(though difficult if not impossible with a group) were still foreign. While waiting for the sun to set and darkness to engulf the desert landscape, I took some photos of the rock formations that were just off the parking lot for the trailhead and two large rocks turned out to perfectly frame the setting sun. As golden hour turned to blue hour, the photographers gathered by the a rock known as the Indian Cave to await the rising of the Milky Way.
Read MoreThree years ago I had just joined the local photography group meetup and was excited to see a meetup scheduled at Joshua Tree National Park for some dark sky photography. The organizer of the meetup, Hami, had scouted locations in the park during the day prior to meeting at a location outside the park. He chose a location with ample parking for the trail that lead up to Ryan Mountain. Ryan Mountain is in the center of the northwestern portion of park and affords a pretty good view of the park and even Mts. San Jacinto and San Gorgonio on clear days. The area around the trailhead has some nice rock formation that would make for good foregrounds and isn't one of the more popular locations in the park for astro photography so it wouldn't be too crowded. The area around the trailhead also has a nice rocks that frame the sunset which I made use of then as well as last year. Most of us had never shot in a dark location before, so the concepts of shooting foregrounds separately or light(though difficult if not impossible with a group) were still foreign. While waiting for the sun to set and darkness to engulf the desert landscape, I took some photos of the rock formations that were just off the parking lot for the trailhead and two large rocks turned out to perfectly frame the setting sun. As golden hour turned to blue hour, the photographers gathered by the a rock known as the Indian Cave to await the rising of the Milky Way.
Rock formaion north Ryan Mountain trailhead
A rock formation at the northern part of the Ryan Mountain trailhead area. This photo was taken from the parking lot, with Park Blvd running behind the rocks.
