"While I've Been Out..." is Kaput! Joshua Tree National Park

"Man maintains his balance, poise, and sense of security only as he is moving forward." 

~Maxwell Maltz 

While I've Been Out... blog is kaput.

It was created as a temporary way to share photos with you, taken when not working due to an on-the-job shoulder injury. Well, I never returned to work. Put out to pasture by my employer, I wasn't physically all there anymore to efficiently perform my duties. Some would even say I'm not all there mentally, but that's another story.

Since retirement, I haven't produced much as a photographer. Instead, interests ranged from becoming a gym rat of sorts, installing and maintaining the Container Butterfly Garden, and researching, purchasing, and outfitting a little teardrop trailer I named the Road Toad.

Being more of a landscape and wildlife photographer, I didn't venture out much shooting other venues such as event, street, or portrait photography. Did dabble a bit in product photography for my oldest daughter and her mom's flower arranging business, but that was the extent of it.

I'm very lax when it comes to updating my photography web site, so the decision was made to share photos via a blog that can be assembled and posted quicker than through a standard web site. Plus, I'll be in the business of revamping the whole site to bring it up to current photography web site standards.

*** For any fontaholics reading this: yes, the blog header features the overused Papyrus font, but hey, it does look cool, and at least it isn't Comic Sans MS! ***

Now that the Road Toad is here, and the time has finally come making travel possible, my first true photo adventure has manifested itself through a trip out to Joshua Tree National Park to photograph the Milky Way and get some shots of JT (Joshua Tree). I've been there before shooting and have longed to go back for some time now.

Joshua Tree National Park is home to a truly spectacular landscape. traveling there with the intent of photographing the Milky Way, that plan was foiled by cloud cover. One good thing about the clouds though, it made for interesting daytime skies as the panorama below attests. Panos are created by shooting a series of overlapping photos and then stitching them together in software to make one long photograph. 

This is the Hidden Valley area of Joshua Tree, shot early in the morning just after the sun rose over the mountains to the east:
 

Joshua Tree National Park Panorama, Hidden Valley

1. Click on the link above.
2. When the panorama (pano) loads, place your cursor over it. Your cursor will turn into a + sign.
3. Click the pano. It will then allow you to enlarge and contract the photo using the + and - signs at the bottom of your screen.
4. Zoom way in! 150% is good. Delve in deeper if you wish. Look around!
5. You can move around the pano by placing your cursor on it, holding down the left mouse button, and then moving your mouse around whilst holding down the left click button.

Please be patient if the photo takes a bit of time to appear, as it's a big photo, hence a large file.

I know I'll go back to shoot this same pano over and over again while the Good LORD lets me, because each time a photographer shoots a photo, edits, and then critiques their own work, they pretty much find there is always room for improvement.