A Desert Storm - Alabama Hills Part Two
Phone pic of the weather from my buddy a couple hours ahead of me.
Driving over Tehachapi Pass on my way to Alabama Hills, the clouds started looking a bit… ominous. The weekend forecast was clear and sunny, so the stormy scene ahead gave me pause and puzzlement. Then I got a text of a photo.
Rain? In the desert in May?
I knew we were in for some amazing opportunities to take photographs of the landscape.
The drive up Hwy 395 on the eastern side of California was breathtaking. Multiple times, I either wanted or tried to pull over to take photos of clouds that hung vertically, like ghosts washing the dry plane.
I get a lot of joy out of driving on an open highway with no cars around - where you can see for miles and miles. I’m lucky there weren’t any speed checkpoints that day. Ha!
Similar to the first time I drove into Alabama Hills last year, I was hit with a sense of awe as the mountain range came into view. It’s beautiful, desolate: inspiring a feeling of smallness relative to the great world around me.
I got to the campsite, unloaded my gear, and settled in to make plans with two other photographers. We decided to head out to scout for places to take Milky Way photos and get some sunset shots.
We first hit up a gulch that neither of us has been to before. Although the place was appealing and we had planned to get Milky Way shots there, we ended up not going back to that area. We found ourselves coming out of the gulch to see sunbeams shining through the storm clouds in an awe-inspiring way.
From my last post, you know I got to experience the Aurora Borealis in the desert of California in this special place. That was a once in a lifetime experience. But I also truly loved getting to see a storm amble its way through a desert landscape. And pretty happy it wasn’t pouring rain at the same time. :-D Still can’t believe both experiences happened on the same weekend!
I hope you enjoy these moments I captured and turned into my personal works of art. Click the smaller images to see the full scale.
