June 25th pic!

"On top"

Elevation 5,457 ft...Ryan Mountain, Joshua Tree. This morning Eva and I woke up around 5am and started our trek into Joshua Tree. After hitting a trail which led us to an old abandoned gold mine (of course she wanted to see it!, though no gold was found) we went to hike up Ryan Mountain. Without regard for time of day we hiked up it, even though the sign said the hike was treacherous (At Picadai I put my life on the line for good pics!) we decided to partake at high noon on empty stomachs. 

"Illusion"

We made it in about an hour after walking fairly briskly and taking some stunning pics of an awesome lizard (on Eva's camera, will be a title pic soon). On the way down we saw 3 people looking like they were about to die, asking how much farther they had to go. We told them 20 mins but sadly it would probably take them an hour...they were in bad shape! the heat was killing them! 

"Fools Gold"

The aforementioned gold mine. It was a fun hike up to see this site, meaning it was an easy hike! 

"Shooting for the Moon"

After our tiring hikes, we decided to head back to the hotel and sleep for a few hours then head back out for an evening session. After a nice dinner, we packed a bottle of wine along with some light snacks and headed to the park to find a nice spot to relax and enjoy the sunset and stargaze. The moon was awesome that night, as witnessed by the pic above. 

"Full Moon"

Trust me after coming home from a 4.5 mile run outside on a monday where every breath feels like hot fire you'll run out of interesting titles for the pics too! Enough with the excuses! I really like this pic...no matter what the title! 

"Painting with the Moon"

30 second exposure (meaning the shutter captures an image for 30 sec's) while I moved my camera in circles. You may ask..."Sid, you said you went stargazing, where are the pic's of the stars? all I see are sloppy pics of the moon, how drunk were you!?"

Well, that's an excellent question...A. I wasn't drunk because a moth flew into my glass of wine! :( and B. No star pic's because there was a FULL moon, it looked as if someone parked a semi behind us and with their headlights on the highest level!