I was asked about what type of camera I used for the Joshua Tree photography I posted earlier.

All photos were taken using a Canon Rebel XTi digital SLR camera, either with the 18mm-55mm kit lens (which isn’t especially sharp or fast, but is versatile and works fine on a sunny day) that came with the camera or a 50mm f/1.8 prime lens (a common cheap-but-great-for-portraiture lens informally known as the “Nifty Fifty”).

I’ve been really happy with the camera itself, though I’m in dire need of some specialty lenses for it. Lenses, truth be told, have more to do with image quality than the camera body itself.

My main interest is landscape photography, so a good wide angle lens - which I don’t have - would help immensely in capturing wide vistas. The XTi, like most lower-end DSLR cameras, has a smaller image sensor than one might find on higher-end cameras. While this generally doesn’t impact image quality except in low-light situations, one side-effect of this is that on this camera there is a “cropping” factor of 1.6, effectively causing an 50mm lens to behave like an 80mm one.

Long story short, one of these days I need to get myself a lens with an extremely short native focal length - say, starting at 14mm or so. This would put me right in the sweet spot for landscape photography, which generally calls for focal lengths between 21mm-35mm.

On the other end of the spectrum, I also plan to get a good telephoto zoom lens. This is particularly handy when photographing things that you can’t get close to (a good example would be the rock climber in the Joshua Tree photos) or things that you don’t want to get close to (bears!). I spent much of our recent trip to the San Diego Wild Animal Park cursing my lens’ short focal length. Unfortunately, these lenses tend to be among the most expensive due to all those moving parts and expensive glass.

There are some interesting specialty lenses out there as well. One of particular interest to me is the Lensbaby, a bizarre-looking lens allowing for some interesting effects through the use of selective focus. This is something I would probably mostly use for artistic macro photography - for example, the close-up shots of flowers and cacti that I posted earlier.

The one unfortunate thing about DSLR photography is that it’s a pretty expensive hobby, especially with all these wonderful lenses you can buy. Alas, this has kept me using my kit lenses more than I would like. Even so, given the right conditions (aka. lots of light) they work fine.

As for the shoot itself, I’m very happy with it. Over half of the photos turned out, a success rate far better than I am used to. The lighting through much of the day was kind of challenging - overhead light is generally the least interesting to a photographer - but overall I think those came out nicely. Later on in the day the sun began to dip lower in the sky, adding warmth and contrast to the photos. It was around this time I experimented more with shooting into the light (tricky!) and the results aren’t quite as consistent, but it was an interesting exercise all the same.

On Memorial Day, Glenna and I went hiking with our friends Paul and Laura in the Joshua Tree National Park (located a couple hours east of us, encompassing part of the Mojave desert). We mostly stuck around the Hidden Valley and Barker Dam areas.

I’ll leave the detailed explanation of the trip up to Paul, but I did spend some time taking some photos (click on any of them for a closer view).

First thing I see when we get out of the car. Damn. This is not a landscape prone to subtlety. Note the tiny climbers at the top.

This is a Joshua tree - the park’s namesake - so named by Mormon missionaries in the mid-1800’s. As you can tell (due to Paul, Laura and Glenna unwittingly serving as a reference!), they can get pretty large.

A ground-up view. The desert sky was bright, mostly clear and beautiful. We were lucky, though - temperatures were in the mid-70’s most of the day. Perfect for hiking.

Joshua trees aren’t the only flora to be found, however. What desert would be complete without cacti (in this case, a prickly pear)?

In what was truly a “WTF?!” moment, Glenna spotted this scraggly little coniferous tree. How it ended up in the middle of the desert - or survived - is beyond me. Apparently some junipers and even pine trees can survive in the high desert, but from what I saw they weren’t exactly commonplace.

I’m not entirely sure what kind of tree this particular specimen was, but it turned out to be one of my favorite photos.

Some people have a death wish, it seems - we encountered this rock climber mid-ascent.

With Paul’s help (as he’s skilled in such things), Glenna decided to give it a shot. What this photo doesn’t show is that she’s only about 3 feet off the ground, but that’s not sufficiently dramatic, is it?

A close-up of one of the many flowers dotting the landscape. It may be surprising, but the desert can be pretty colorful at times.

Ladybugs feasting on a Mojave Yucca plant.

Petroglyphs originating from the area’s original inhabitants, years ago. Apparently these are known as the “Disney petroglyphs”, as they were painted over by a Disney film crew in the 1950’s in order to show up better on film.

Most of the hike was pretty easy and straight-forward - nothing like, say, a hike up Mount Baldy. Whenever we deviated from the more well-established trails the terrain could become a bit trickier, though.

Here is a pool of water we found, held back by Barker Dam. The water level was a bit low, but apparently this area is a well-worn congregation area for wildlife (including birds and desert bighorn sheep).

By the time we left the dam, it was getting on in the day and the lighting and contrast were starting to take on a fairly dramatic appearance.

Leaving this little guy - standing only a foot tall - for last. I think it’s some sort of cholla cactus - possibly a “teddy bear” cholla, though the spines look a little sparse for that particular species.

You can view all of my pictures from this hike in the photo gallery.