Hiking In Joshua Tree National Park – Part 1

In the spring of 2018, my oldest son and I visited Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California. We photographed in the park in the early morning, late afternoon and night. During the middle hours of the day we scouted for places to photograph and/or we hiked several of the easy to moderate trails within the park. This post is about the Contact Mine Trail with illustrations via iPhone photos.

The Contact Mine Trail is an easy one, with a gentle slope, gaining only 700 feet in just under two miles. As we hiked along the trail we began to notice a barrel type cactus with red spines.

A colorful California Barrel Cactus along the Contact Mine Trail, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

Later research revealed that this cactus is referred to by its obvious common name “California Barrel Cactus”. As we hiked along, it became obvious that this area had many of these attractive red cactus, some with yellow blooms. My iPhone shots of blooms near the bottom of one such cactus did not turn out well, so none are posted here. I have seen other images with blooms on the top, but I do not recall seeing any with blooms on the top and most did not have blooms.

A close up of the spines on a California Barrel Cactus along the Contact Mine Trail, Joshua Tree NP. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

In the early history of this area there were numerous mining operations, which have since been abandoned. Remnants of equipment and or housing remain at some of the mine sites.

The Contact Mine Site has remains of old mining equipment, other rusty evidence of human activity and mine shafts that have been covered with steel cages to prevent people from entering.

The remains of an engine at the Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.

Neither of us carried our heavy camera gear on this hike and I shot a number of iPhone photos just to record the scenes and the experience. I’ve edited the iPhone (jpg) images with some minor adjustments in Adobe LR, followed by edits in Nik software.

Rusty engine at the Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

I’m including duplicates of some images to show the variations between color edits and monochrome edits.

Remains of machinery at the Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
Rusty old mining equipment at the Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

Edits can bring out texture, contrasts and colors. I tend to like the monochrome versions better than the color versions. The monochrome versions depend mostly upon the composition, texture, contrast and shadows. While it is possible to manipulate the monochrome images in many ways to achieve artistic effects, these type edits just seem more appropriate to me, than the color software edits.

Mine equipment remains, Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
Rusty engine components at the Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

Color editing software can allow one to emulate the effects of the “Golden Light Hours” in photos taken outside these magical times of the day; but the emulation is never quite the same as the real light effects, getting into the more artistic edits of the images, about which there can be much philosophical discussion.

Mine equipment remains, Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
Rusty mine equipment at the Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

I’m not getting into the debate over photo editing, since that is a subjective matter. I used to be of the opinion that one could only get good images during the Golden Light Hours of sunrise or sunset and, while I prefer to photograph during those magic light hours, sometimes it is not possible to do so. Rather than pass up photographic opportunities in places, where I know I will never be during the golden light hours, I’ve reconciled to working with whatever light I have at the time, then editing to get an image that I find pleasing from an artistic point of view.

Mine equipment remains, Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
Rusty gear at the Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

I do still feel that the color editing is more unreal than the monochrome edits; but maybe that is just because monochrome images have been in existence in photography for many more years and we study the works of the early pioneers in photography, whose work was entirely in monochrome.

Mine equipment remains, Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
Rusty mine equipment at the Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

Anyway, the early photographers manipulated the monochrome images in the dark room, just as modern digital photographers manipulate the images via computer software.

Mine equipment remains, Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
Rusty gear box at the Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

I would like to hear readers’ opinions on this matter as well as critiques of any of my images (composition and/or edits).

Beaver Tail Prickly Pear in bloom, Contact Mine Trail, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
Remains of a winch at the Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
Remains of a winch at the Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
Equipment remains at the Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone Photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
Contact Mine winch remains, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone Photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
Old mine cart rails at the Contact Mine Site, Joshua Tree NP, California. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

A final note:  I reverted to an older version of the WordPress editor for this post, since I could find no way to insert links into photos with the “improved” editor.  Verifying that the links were correct, even with the classic editor, proved more awkward than previously.  Please let me know if links do not work or are not correct.

Until next time,

Ken

2 thoughts on “Hiking In Joshua Tree National Park – Part 1”

  1. Your editing is interesting to see on these photos and I certainly have no problem with a photographer interpreting and editing photos as desired. The only exception would be a news story where it might alter the information being presented.

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