Flora, Fauna And Landscapes Of The Mojave Desert

[James B.]

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Folks, it’s Pencil Cholla. Expansive desert floor beyond. They had a bunch of the desert flora named like this, will take pics next time and post them. Onward...


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Mitchell Caverns visitor center. Cool place, incredible views, very exclusive; only six camp sites at $25 a night; ya gotta want it. The maintenance guy was really nice, he came down and visited a while. Was the only guest there, going back to visit again. Soon.


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Trail to Mitchell Caverns. Two dark holes, right is Cavern entrance.


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Hiking the trail. Cavern is supposed to be really spectacular. Guided tour only at $6/each.


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End of the road. Another cavern entrance closed up. There is a whole story about the caverns. Save that for another trip.

Camping is good therapy for me. Seems to really help. Get away from all the excess stimulation, another trauma memory surfaced, vague but “audible”. Revised strategy; make more trips of shorter duration. Two day one night trips, easy to plan and prep for. Sincerely hope with all my heart each and every PTSD and CPTSD sufferer can find some peace and tranquility in their lives. Thanks so very much for letting me share, for checking out my pics. Best wishes to everyone on their path to a better life.

My “camping mantra”; go simple, go cheap - have fun!
James B.

 

[Jline]

Right on James! Great pics, cool place!

 

[amethist]

Go simple, Go cheap, makes it all more fun James.

We camped a few years back on a cliff top camp site for 4 days and nights. Total cost of trip including site charges, food and petrol for motorbike, £70. We even came back with a bit of money left. We had good weather and fine clear nights, wonderful walks on the cliff tops and on the beaches.

I am love seeing your photo's, don't get that type of landscapes here in the UK. Rolling hills, moorland and open fields, yes, but no deserts.

keep having a simple life James, it is so idyllic, on your good days anyway.

Amethist

 

[James B.]

Hello everyone.

Got my new camera. It shoots 4000x3000 pixel images at around 2.4 to 3.4 megs or so, per image. It came with enough on-board memory to shoot about 7 pics, and expands with an SD/SDHC card. I loaded the 4 double-A batteries into it, tied on the shoulder strap, walked outside - just to check it out - and shot these pics.

Very easy to use camera, the zoom is terrific.
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A healthy Roadrunner.
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Bunny hopper! I thought this pic would be too small, too dark. Nope. Shot on full-auto, 16x zoom at max.
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The Long Billed (California) Thrasher, my favorite song bird.
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Plugged the camera into my PC, turned it on and Ubuntu Linux recognized it immediately. Copied the pix off, cropped them, resized them to 800 pixel max, then reduced their size to about 80 KB per image. Images posted here are set to "Large" in the forum dialogue box.

Got some garden shots coming up too.

 

[goingonhope]

These pictures are great! I don't know which one's my favorite, there all great. That bunny is something though.

James, I'm so happy for you!

I was hoping you'd get a camera you liked, because I know you really wanted one. Great News!

.........And, thanks so much for sharing this beauty with us. Your enthusiasm is catchy, which is all good stuff! Watching you is convincing me of the idea of possibly getting into some photography.

Great Stuff!!!!!!


Hope

 

[Iam]

AWESOME James! Well maybe that is the way I should go. I looked at Canons online yesterday. Anywhere from $550 to $2,000. Think you are right. The photos came out great! Thanks for sharing!

 

[James B.]

Thanks you two.

Again, just standing there like some dork, gut hanging out, not trying to be “Joe-photo” or anything. Point the freaking camera, zoom in, push the button. This is what I got; my land lord’s garden.
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Is it “Photoshop”?, no it’s a sprinkler with afternoon sun back light. Pretty fun.
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Kind of a...fuzzy Roadrunner, looking sort of pissed off. Might have had a “bad hair day”.
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Correction, this is a Curved Billed Thrasher, not Long-Billed as stated up-thread. Every morning and every evening they show up and sing their brains out. Very cool bird.
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As things cool off, more animals and birds are showing up. Thanks again for checking out my pics. Wishing each and every PTSD and CPTSD sufferer everywhere much strength and good luck on your path to a better life.

Sincerely,
James B.

 

[James B.]

This morning’s image harvest.

Sure enough, this AM the Curved Bill Thrasher was out in numbers, singing for all they’re worth. This one gave me a definitive pose.
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Another garden shot (from yesterday). Aloe and flowers detail.
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A large Mojave Jackrabbit. Check out the back legs on that sucker, and those ears! This rabbit is about as big as a small dog.
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I hope these images are a spot of brightness, and help bring a smile to those having a rough day.

 

[Iam]

I used to love seeing the Jack Rabbits when we lived in the SF Bay Area. I LOVE the sprinkler shot James....I did think you photo shopped it until I read your label. So COOL! Were you surprised when you saw how it turned out? Incredible, really ;o) I'm envious now.....I so want a new camera!

 

[James B.]

Thanks Iam. Yes, I was surprised when I saw the sprinkler shot. No edits, just straight-up cropping and JPG compression. Think my eye’s bugged out when I saw it. Glad you liked it. I’ll post up on my new camera, and share some details down the road.

A large ant-hill beside my place. There’s several of them. My goal is to use the Macro and Super-Macro settings to take detailed pics of insects. This was taken standing there, with the zoom. It is a cropped section of a larger pic.
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Think this is a female House Finch. It’s exploring an area I raked under a Pepper tree.
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Wanted to get a shot of the back of this Butterflies wings, but no cigar. It did pose well for this face shot though. Very slight adjustment with the Curves command in Gimp; this bumped the contrast and saturation a tiny bit.
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That concludes today’s “image harvest”. Thanks for checking out my pics.

 

[amethist]

No stopping you now James. Who needs photoshop when you can get images like this.

These may just be photo shots of your back garden, but who would not be impressed by these. Can't wait for the change of season shots.

Amethist

 

[seedling]

These pictures are great. Can get all wigged out on the other threads, then come here to cool down and mellow out!
Thanks, can almost smell the dirt.