The Canyon: Gimmick or ingenuity?

During our Palm Springs getaway last week, my fiancée took a couple hours in the late afternoon to go to one of the spas and get a massage. However, because that's not the sort of activity that does much for me, I instead relaxed in the hotel room for a while. Then about 5:30 I realized that the sun would be setting soon (Palm Springs is built to the west of a mountain, so in downtown the sun disappears earlier than areas on the other side of the mountain) and on a whim decided to grab my camera and see if I could drive the couple miles south to Indian Canyons (which I'd seen on the map) before losing the sun.

I didn't make it. Heck, I didn't even get to the car in time. Nonetheless, I still trekked down to see what there was to see down at the canyon, if for no other reason than I was already in the car.

The road was not exactly parking-friendly, so I decided to invent a new activity: Ph-auto-graphy. (Still working on the name.) It's taking pictures without getting out of the car. It increases the challenge by limiting the available shots to what one can get out the driver's window, only from spots where one can safely pull over momentarily.

In that (shall we say) impressionistic spirit of the shooting, the photos have not be cropped or enhanced in any way; these are exactly what I got (well, the better ones of what I got).

You decide whether it worked.
Mountains to the west in shadow.


Mountains to the east still in sun.


Indian Canyons was already closed, but down by the gate it was quite windy.







For this last one, I'd driven out of the valley and down Palm Canyon Drive. This is the back of those mountains that were to the east of the canyon in the shots above. From a parking lot. Hooray, nature!

Egad, this was self-indulgent. Sorry.

2 comments:

  1. Doug:

    I agree: it worked.

    And didn't you know that all artists are self-indulgent? Join the club!

    What's really hard is taking photos from a moving bus on the highway. The bus windows are tinted and so you end up with a slower shutter speed, especially with an overcast day. Everything near the bus ends up as a blur. Only things in the distance end up sharp.

    Of course, when the bus stops for a moment, you line up the shot but just before squeezing the shutter, the bus jerks forward.

    That's not to say that briefly parking and shooting from a car is that easy, considering how a window can limit your view.

    Maybe you could call your work car-topgraphy (don't forget the hyphen or someone think you're a mapmaker).

    Ray

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