{"id":625,"date":"2010-10-04T07:35:26","date_gmt":"2010-10-04T14:35:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.kurtlawson.com\/?p=625"},"modified":"2010-10-04T07:35:26","modified_gmt":"2010-10-04T14:35:26","slug":"lightning-and-star-trails-in-joshua-tree-national-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.kurtlawson.com\/?p=625","title":{"rendered":"Lightning and Star Trails in Joshua Tree National Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have now visited Joshua Tree National Park twice. Contrary to what one might expect from the desert, both visits (February<\/a> and October) have involved rain and lightning. I just yesterday returned from this second trip to Joshua Tree, and ahead of the other pictures I thought these deserved their own post. I have always wanted to shoot lightning pictures. I have never had the opportunity to do so from a safe distance. As luck would have it, yesterday morning afforded me the opportunity I had long waited for. I was on a backpacking trip to summit Quail Mountain, the highest peak in the Little San Bernardino Mountains. Starting around 4am, a huge light show played out to our east. I just had my 5D Mark II, 24-105mm lens and a tiny Gorillapod Focus (with the ballhead X). A rock outcrop provided a high platform for this setup so I could get a good view of the action from camp. I kept the camera close enough that I could keep an eye on it from my tent, and run out and fetch it if it started to rain, which it did twice.<\/p>\n

\"Thunderstorm
Thunderstorm and Star Trails at Joshua Tree<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wow! That’s what I thought when this exposure finished. I decided that I would pretty much spend the rest of the morning taking pictures instead of sleeping. Who needs sleep when you’ve got this going on?<\/p>\n

\"Thunderstorm
Thunderstorm and Star Trails Take 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As the storm moved north it got closer to us. The lightning became more and more visible. The storm was so electrically active that there was almost a strike or cloud to cloud bolt every second, with a faint distant roar of thunder. It was really quite a show.<\/p>\n

\"Pre-sunrise
Pre-sunrise glow with lightning<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here the sun was beginning to rise on the distant horizon. The horizon was 99% blocked by the storm except for a brief time where I could see a little red on the left.<\/p>\n

\"Lightning
Lightning 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Lightning
Lightning 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Lightning
Lightning 3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Lightning
Lightning 4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Lightning
Lightning 5<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Lightning
Lightning 6<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Lightning
Lightning 7<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In this last one the lightning almost seems to wrap around a cylinder of rain. All in all I’m ecstatic about my first ever lightning pictures. What an amazing trip this was!<\/p>\n

Finally, here is a star trail picture I took earlier in the evening when the skies were clear.<\/p>\n

\"Star
Star Trails at Joshua Tree<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Which lightning picture is your favorite? Let me know in the comments please!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have now visited Joshua Tree National Park twice. Contrary to what one might expect from the desert, both visits (February and October) have involved rain and lightning. I just yesterday returned from this second trip to Joshua Tree, and ahead of the other pictures I thought these deserved their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,27,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-desert","category-joshua-tree","category-night"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kurtlawson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kurtlawson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kurtlawson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kurtlawson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kurtlawson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=625"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kurtlawson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":640,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kurtlawson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625\/revisions\/640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kurtlawson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kurtlawson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kurtlawson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}