Sand

[abraxas]

 

[Flower Child]

wow. the sky color and the sand color complement each other beautifully. i have really enjoy looking at your desert photography. i have a couple questions for you, i hope you dont mind----do you do this professionally for money? are you employed by someone to go out and do this or do you do it for you studio or do you just do it for fun?

i greatly admire your work

 

[jdjd1118]

Beautiful shot! I agree with flower child, the colors are amazing and really compliment each other.

 

[Coldow91]

I really like the colors and the square crop!

 

[abraxas]

Beautiful shot! I agree with flower child, the colors are amazing and really compliment each other.

Thank you. I was very fortunate to be there that morning. I couldn't have asked for better.

I really like the colors and the square crop!

Thanks. Although the morning sun is never low across the nearby dunes or this sand field, it seems the color comes out rich anyway.

wow. the sky color and the sand color complement each other beautifully. i have really enjoy looking at your desert photography. i have a couple questions for you, i hope you dont mind----do you do this professionally for money? are you employed by someone to go out and do this or do you do it for you studio or do you just do it for fun?

i greatly admire your work

That is quite the complement. Thank you very much.

How I profit from my work is an odd combination of sources. First, a Mojave Desert website(s) I produce and have been working on for 14 years now. Other sources are sales of prints, photos for books, and other promotions (stills for TV/documentaries). This year I feel I finally have a large enough body of substantial work to apply for exhibitions. The next year should be interesting. I'm also working on photos for my own book(s) about subjects/places related to the desert. I also do real estate photography, but that is dying as I type. I'm following my passion, compulsion, obsession or whatever it is called. Truthfully, I don't know anything else to do, so I'm going for it. I have faith that it will all work out for me.

Back to the desert- Over the last 14 years I've attended many classes, seminars, workshops, tours, symposiums and conferences to learn as much as I can about this disappearing wilderness and it's natural and human history. I like to think I can describe what's going on in each of my photos to either someone with a passing interest or a professional in the respective field.

For example;

The sand in this photo is made up of granuals of rose quartz. The source of this quartz is nowhere to be found in the Mojave. Some scientists hypothisize that since this source is not to be found, and there is no increase in other minerals gathering in the area, that these dunes are no longer being replenished. Over time and as the wind blows they will ultimately disappear and no longer exist. These are also known as 'booming' dunes. Each step someone takes can produce a booming sound (sort of like the wierd noise snow can make). A look at a granual through a microscope show each grain being nearly perfectly spherical. I think of the sand and dunes as being a huge pile of rose-colored marbles. This probably accounts for the coloring in the photo. In these dunes lives the Mojave fringe-toed lizard. You don't see these too much. They have long toes which act pretty much as snowshoes in the soft sand. They hide under the sand to regulate their body temperature. They are only seen during certain times/temperatures of the day (probably when they need warmth or food). They have a very narrow sustainable liveable temperature range. They get too cold, they die. They get too hot, they die. Indians lived nearby and utilized the ricegrass that you see growing. I know the relations these Indians had with other native people in the desert. I know their interaction with white men and how they were destroyed. I know the modern history of the area, ... Anyway, there's so much more, and I could write a book just about this photo and what's happening/happened around it, but I got to run.

 

[Flower Child]

your welcome and thank you for your response and i have a few more things to add. i definetly think you will be ready for an exhibition soon just from seeing all the photos youve posted on here. how do you go about getting your name and work out there for books and other sources to see? is it solely from your websites? do they simply look at your work and contact you and say---i would like to use this for my book?

the reason im asking all of these questions is that im pretty young in this business and i dont really know how this whole thing works. and would love to pursue a career much like yourself only in a alaska setting. i like how you are very interested in what your photographing, the history of it, and the reason for it. i think that adds something special to your photography.

 

[abraxas]

Pretty much due to the website. Lately, I've been getting the requests from authors I network with through the trips, etc. mentioned previously. I think it has to do with how much I enjoy what I do. The people I learn from and associate with see that. I think they understand that I try to understand what drives them. If you're young, now's your time. Make good use of it. Find and follow your passion;

Here's two of my websites;

Mojave Desert
Mojave Desert

They're sort of the same site spread across several domains. I still have a long way to go.