Mojave National Preserve
Click here for a larger view Photo courtesy of Kim Seng.
Most of us tend to think of the world’s deserts as grossly inhospitable places that are hardly worth even a short visit, but in reality some of them offer enough natural beauty to keep a photographer busy for years on end. Today’s picture features one such beautiful desert scene, and here is photographer Kim Seng to tell us about it:
“While driving from Las Vegas to Long Beach, California, I snapped this HDR shot of the Mojave National Preserve. This HDR photo was taken at a rest area off Highway 15. It’s amazing how many things there are to shoot out in the desert.” –Kim Seng
Camera: Canon 5D Mark I
Lens: Canon 17-35mm f/2.8L USM
Focal length: 17mm
Shutter speed: 1/320 second
Aperture: f/9
ISO: 50
Lighting is super, love the texture of the ground and that beautiful cactus.The composition draws my eyes into the scene all the way to the snow capped mountains…Enticing and well captured!
Looks like my daughter’s back yard. I love it.
Beautiful image, Kim. The composition is perfect and the HDR work is masterful, as it is wonderfully unnoticeable. Great work.
Oustanding shot Kim. What beautiful colors!
I love the desert – and I LOVE this picture.
Lovely!!!
Aside from a slight halo between the sky and land, there’s no sign this was processed as an HDR image… I like the composition, with the snow-capped mountains in the background, and the Joshua tree for foreground interest. Nicely done! The desert is indeed far more beautiful and photogenic than most people realize, and offers a wonderful new world to explore and photograph.
This is one of the best desert photos that I have ever seen. Great job Kim.
I would also echo Rocky’s thoughts here. I see a slight halo, but nothing that ruins the photo at all. I think that you did a very good job with this one Kim!!
Excellent composition–I like how the snow-capped peaks provide both balance and contrast to the Joshua tree. Ditto on the HDR comments–very well done, bringing out the tonal range without going too far. I spent a little time in the Mojave and was always fascinated by the Joshuas; you’ve done a masterful job with this one!
Thanks everyone for all your kind comments, much appreciated! This is one of my HDR images that I’ve toned down on my processing. I prefer heavily processed images but with some images it doesn’t do it any justice. This was one of them.