Jet Blue Adventure!: Bright, Shiny, Dry & Prickly

Howdy! I few days ago, I flew into Las Vegas after changing my itinerary from one night to two nights and postponing Seattle in order to get home a day sooner for my short break.

Vegas is still bright and shiny, and filled with pumped-in oxygen and the *pling*pling* of slot machines in full use.... I wasn't there to throw away money, though, so after getting checked in I headed out for a few hours of shooting at dusk and after dark on The Strip.

It was fun to experiment with long shutters and was my first attempt at an extended night shoot. That being said...be kind as you peruse the handful of photos I've posted:).

After a good session of night shooting, I took the opportunity to use the extra day in Vegas to head down to the Mojave National Preserve and spend some time in the desert and try to get a decent sunset from Teutonia Peak. I'll have to admit, the desert wasn't what I expected. Hot while the sun was up, yes... but definitely more vegetation and wildlife than I thought I'd see. I didn't know it, but this section of the Mojave has one of (if not the) biggest and densest concentration of Joshua Trees in the world. I saw desert night lizards, darkling beetles, blacktail jackrabbits, and even what I think was a kit fox yelling at me and scratching his ear with his back leg on a boulder about 50 yards from where I was standing near the peak.

After a short detour from the trail on the way back down from the peak (thank you iPhone compass app:)), I stopped for a while perched on a sizable boulder and took some sky shots and enjoyed a cool, quiet, clear night of solitude.