Tag: Joshua Tree

Photography

The decisive moment. It’s in the imperfections.

editor

There are so many things wrong with this photo, but so much for me to thankful for.

While videotaping an event at a ranch just a stone’s throw from Joshua Tree National Park this weekend, a rare musical treat happened when 86-year old Harriet Allen, a local music legend, stepped on stage to join the band for her rendition of The Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin.”

For those who don’t know Harriet, in 1982, Harriet and her husband, Claude “Pappy” Allen, opened, “Pappy + Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace.”

Because I was running with video at the event and didn’t have my “real” camera at hand, I grabbed my phone and hoped for a decisive moment when Harriet wasn’t kissing the microphone, and to include the drummer (who was teasing me for using my phone to photograph).

FYI, Pappy’s became the “dive bar” place to play an impromptu set when musicians came to Joshua Tree, with legends like Paul McCartney, Lizzo, Belle & Sebastian, Orville Peck, Patti Smith, Taking Back Sunday, The Psychedelic Furs, Lorde, Lucinda Williams, Arctic Monkeys, Robert Plant, Peaches, The Dead Kennedy’s, Gregory Alan Isakov, Jesse Daniel, Everclear, Ani Di Franco, The Zombies, Coheed and Cambria, and countless others who jumped onto the stage.

Those “tricks” professional photographer David Bergman tried to teach his students, including me – it’s not the camera (it’s the eye), wait ’till the singer pulls her mic away from her face, include the drummer in the composition, add a little drama to the composition – is what makes this photo, with all the imperfections, a favorite from the day.

P.S. the photo is straight from the phone, with the black & white conversion completed using DXO’s SilverEFX.

Photography

My name is Joshua Tree.

editor

Made fertile by a yucca moth, my mother cast her seed which became me onto the desert floor in your year of 1871. Over the following ten summers, I reached just 30 inches from the ground, while providing shelter from the wind and sun to countless tiny insects and reptiles.  

It took another 30 winters to double my height. Thereafter, as I slowly grew, branches began to emerge and ever-larger animals and birds began to find shelter and food among my canopy. The ancient ones would carefully harvest my flowers and seeds for food, and shape my leaves to make baskets to carry their burden and make sandals for their feet.

As the countless seasons passed overhead, I saw humans from other worlds trample my home, cutting down my sisters to fence off the land and fuel their fires. But, as if by divine intervention, I missed their fate and survived.

My summers of late have grown longer and hotter. The soil beneath me slowly dries and loses the moisture that nurtures new life.  

Now, one hundred fifty winters have gone by and I stand and watch the flames of fire edge closer, as an endless line of machines of a human world pass by. I stand evermore alone, scarred and twisted by the ages. I will survive.