June 16, 2021
Galleta Meadows at Anza Borrego
Galleta Meadows is probably the most photographed feature of Borrego Springs and the surrounding park. The sculptures are on non-contiguous plots that are all around Borrego Springs. They were produced by local artist Ricardo Breceda(we passed his studio on the drive in) and were commissioned by the late Dennis Avery(of Avery Label fame) and placed on land that he'd bought around Borrego Springs and now administered by a trust after Avery's death in 2012. They're open to the public 24 hours a day, are mostly off the paved road, and are very popular foreground for astrophotographers. The sculptures in Galleta Meadows cam be packed during nights near the new moon by photographers trying to get the perfect shot of the of the Milky Way core with the sculptures as a foreground. We saw no other photographers but the 4 in our group since we visited on a night with 85% of the Moon illuminated. While this provided great lighting(almost daylight) of the sculptures, the view of the sky definitely suffered due to the natural light pollution from the very bright Moon.
The first set of sculptures that we visited were the T Rex sculpture. It's about 3/4 of a mile off the paved road and the dirt road to the sculpture is pretty rocky, so we decided to park my Prius along a side road and I joined the rest of the group in higher clearance vehicle. We finished our shots at T Rex, I shot two panoramas from the north and south, and headed back to my car. We couldn't find it. We thought we were on the same road that we'd came in on, but we'd made a turn too early and were a bit to the west. We finally ended up on the main road and re-entered the dirt road we'd originally traveled in on and found my car(next time I'll mark it on Google Maps).
Next up was the grasshopper and the scorpion sculptures, they're in a field just off the main road, so there was little chance of losing my car this time. Again, I shot another panorama along with shots of the scorpion and grasshopper. Finally, we headed north about a 1/4 of a mile along the main road to the most photographed of the sculptures, the Chinese Sea Serpent. The sculpture appears to move in and out of the desert sands. I shot a panorama as well as some shots of the head with one including the faint and desaturated(due to the moonlight) Milky Way core.
Having the moonlit photos of these sculptures, I decided to have some fun with them. I added star trails and a Milky Way arch(both taken at Fossil Falls) to the north facing and east facing panorama respectively.
Read MoreGalleta Meadows is probably the most photographed feature of Borrego Springs and the surrounding park. The sculptures are on non-contiguous plots that are all around Borrego Springs. They were produced by local artist Ricardo Breceda(we passed his studio on the drive in) and were commissioned by the late Dennis Avery(of Avery Label fame) and placed on land that he'd bought around Borrego Springs and now administered by a trust after Avery's death in 2012. They're open to the public 24 hours a day, are mostly off the paved road, and are very popular foreground for astrophotographers. The sculptures in Galleta Meadows cam be packed during nights near the new moon by photographers trying to get the perfect shot of the of the Milky Way core with the sculptures as a foreground. We saw no other photographers but the 4 in our group since we visited on a night with 85% of the Moon illuminated. While this provided great lighting(almost daylight) of the sculptures, the view of the sky definitely suffered due to the natural light pollution from the very bright Moon.
The first set of sculptures that we visited were the T Rex sculpture. It's about 3/4 of a mile off the paved road and the dirt road to the sculpture is pretty rocky, so we decided to park my Prius along a side road and I joined the rest of the group in higher clearance vehicle. We finished our shots at T Rex, I shot two panoramas from the north and south, and headed back to my car. We couldn't find it. We thought we were on the same road that we'd came in on, but we'd made a turn too early and were a bit to the west. We finally ended up on the main road and re-entered the dirt road we'd originally traveled in on and found my car(next time I'll mark it on Google Maps).
Next up was the grasshopper and the scorpion sculptures, they're in a field just off the main road, so there was little chance of losing my car this time. Again, I shot another panorama along with shots of the scorpion and grasshopper. Finally, we headed north about a 1/4 of a mile along the main road to the most photographed of the sculptures, the Chinese Sea Serpent. The sculpture appears to move in and out of the desert sands. I shot a panorama as well as some shots of the head with one including the faint and desaturated(due to the moonlight) Milky Way core.
Having the moonlit photos of these sculptures, I decided to have some fun with them. I added star trails and a Milky Way arch(both taken at Fossil Falls) to the north facing and east facing panorama respectively.
