As if their arms came back to life

2 min readDec 2, 2020

As soon as Thanksgiving arrived, I left town. Although I wanted to hit up the Sierra Nevada, considering how much time I had, it made sense to head for the desert. But I didn’t want to go to the Mojave desert, or Joshua Tree, both of which I had already been. Instead I found myself driving farther south of Joshua Tree and ended up at Salton Sea, which is a salt lake sitting at 236 feet below sea level. It had been on my list for quite some time.

My first stop was Three Sisters. Oh boy, was I expecting too much… Because it had been awhile since last rainfall, the field was bone dry and filled with crusts of salt deposits. Nonetheless, what is unique about it is that there are no other trees nearby. It makes it easy to isolate them as subjects, particularly for astrophotography.

My plan to capture the Milky Way though was ruined by the Moon as soon as it got dark. I was hoping for even a faint galaxy sight, but it was almost completely washed off that bare eyes could not make out its shape.

The shadows cast by the moon though was perfect for timelapse. As the stars traveled across heaven, the shadows also crawled across the barren field as if their arms came back to life…

Salton Sea, CA

Sony A7RIV
Sony FE 24mm F1.4 GM
24 mm / 3 sec at ƒ/1.4 at ISO 400
Taken 11/26/2020
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