My latest article “Desert Song” is featured in the March 2011 issue of Popular Photography! The article gives suggestions for photographing California desert locations including Anza Borrego Desert State Park, Death Valley National Park, the Alabama Hills Recreation Area, the Antelope Valley Poppy Preserve, and San Elijo State Beach, all of which are best photographed this time of year. The article is 6 pages long and showcases 6 of my images, including the double page opener of wildflowers in bloom from Anza Borrego. I created this image almost exactly 2 years ago. This was first trip using a digital camera to photograph landscapes rather than with my beloved Pentax 67II medium format film camera. I used my Canon 5DmkII body, Canon 17-40mm f4 lens, and Singh-Ray LB Warming Polarizer. It required minimal processing using Aperture 2. I also clearly remember signing up for Twitter during that trip at the urging of my client-friend, Mark Teskey. Wow! That seems like a lifetime ago back in the social media dark ages.

Click here to purchase a print of this image.

Since I won’t be visiting the desert this spring, I won’t be able to offer my own wildflower reports, however, you can read about the latest conditions by visiting the Desert USA Wildlflower Report.

This is my favorite image from my recent 10 day trip to California.  I spent the first half of my trip in Anza Borrego Desert State Park.  The wildflowers were not blooming as I had hoped, but I still put in a few days effort scouting, hiking, & patiently waiting for something interesting to happen at sunrise.  On my third day, I awoke to my ideal lighting conditions.  In the pre-dawn light I could see stars over the desert to the east and the faint glow of the approaching sunrise.  To the west, clouds hovered patiently over the mountains eagerly anticipating the first golden rays of sunlight.  I drove up to the park visitor center, grabbed my gear, and headed straight towards the base of the hills.  I spent about 20 minutes searching for the perfect foreground for the wide-angle shot that I envisioned that included the mountain & cloud background.  Once I found this group of 4 barrel cactus, I had my total composition.  All I had to do was wait a few more minutes for the clouds to light up, which gave me enough time to refine my tripod placement, test my depth of field, and perfectly place my Singh-Ray LB Warming Polarizer & 2-stop Hard Graduated Neutral Density Filter.

I visited the Pumpkin Patch during my recent visit to Anza Borrego State Park in California.  I was unsuccessful finding it during my first attempt last year, but this time I got directions from Ron Niebrugge.  I was underwhelmed to say the least.  These crazy boulders are surrounded by a fence to keep the off-road drivers out.  There is only one angle that eliminates all of the motor vehicle tracks & most of the fence.  (In the interest of full-disclosure, I took the small liberty of cloning the last bit of fence out of the horizon.)  As the sunset turned into purple twilight, the boulders began to glow orange like pumpkins.

Last night was my last night trying to shoot wildflowers here in the desert. We went back to the same location as the past 2 nights to try one more time to get it perfect. We had some wispy clouds in the air that looked very promising, but ultimately did nothing as the sun set. This was my favorite image from the night. We even had to deal with jet contrails a few times, which usually ruins a picture. The flowers in this location are done! If I were to stay here a few more days or come back this weekend, I would check out the lupine at the end of Di Giorgio Rd at the base of the moutains in Coyote Canyon. It looks like it will be good next week. We are headed back to San Diego today to check out the poppies at Lake Elsinore and to shoot the city skyline tomorrow night. I know that is something new for me, but with the video in my new 5D mkII, I am looking forward to experimenting more with my photography.

Last night we finally got to shoot some beautiful flowers without wind. We saw a posting on the SoCal wildflower report a few days ago that mentioned walking about 2 miles north of the road to find sand verbana and dune evening primrose flowers. After we scouted this location 2 days ago during a windy sunset, we went back to shoot it last night and got some beautiful light. I am very pleased with the shoot, but I think that we are going back there tonight. I would really like to shoot this scene with my 6×12 panoramic camera.

Speaking of 6×12, I got accepted into the Bellevue Art Festival this summer! I got an email last week that said I got in this year, after 4 years of rejections. I am very excited since it was such a good show for me 5 years ago. I submitted 4 of my panoramic images to the judges and that is what helped me get in. So if you come visit me at the show this July, I will definitely have a number of my panos on display.

Lastly, Mark made me sign up for Twitter yesterday. I am going to try and figure out how to integrate it into my business. If you are interested, you can follow me on www.twitter.com/CornforthImages.

Mark and I did some exploring yesterday and finally found what I consider to be the 2 best flower displays in the area. In the afternoon, we hiked part way up Palm Canyon and found tons of brittlebush on display, so that is where we went back to this morning to shoot the sunrise. I also played around a bit with the video function on my new camera as well as my 6×12 panoramic camera. I don’t think that I did either of them justice. We are going to go hiking again this afternoon and are really looking forward to sunset tonight when we are going to photograph our secret stash of flowers that we located yesterday afternoon.

Back home last week, I ran out of time and never got the chance to share that I was heading down to the California desert for a week with my friend and previous workshop client Mark Teskey. We met in San Diego on Friday night and then drove out to Anza Borrego Desert State Park on Saturday. When we got here it was a zoo with weekend gawkers as we scouted for flowers ourselves. The bloom is at its peak, but does not seem to measure up to some of the previous years displays. We’ve been scouting the area and last night finally captured a few images worth sharing. I am shooting for the first time with my new Canon 5D mkII, now that I sold my Pentax 67 medium format camera system. It is taking some getting used to after shooting landscapes only with film for the past 8 years. This morning we had a beautiful sunrise, nice clouds and flowers, and unfortunately 20 mph of wind! We are in the area for the rest of the week, so as I continue to get new images I will try and post them during the day.