San Francisco • Joshua Tree • Death Valley Rush RanchAngel Island UC Berkeley Extension
Joshua Tree National Park
With Tim Baskerville and Lance Keimg - May 13-14-15, 2011

Yucca Brevifolia (Joshua Tree) #3
© Tim Baskerville


"The cities aflood,
And our love turns to rust.
We're beaten and blown by the wind,
Trampled in dust.
I'll show you a place,
High on a desert plain
Where the streets have no name."

Where the Streets Have No Name
from Joshua Tree by U2




Yucca Brevifolia (Joshua Tree) #2
© Tim Baskerville



"Cold hearted orb
that rules the night,
Removes the colours from our sight.
Red is grey and yellow white.
But we decide which is right.

And which is an illusion? . . ."

Late Lament
by Moody Blues




 

"I dream of rain.
I dream of gardens in the desert sand. I wake in pain.
I dream of love as time runs through my hand.

"Sweet desert rose
Each of her veils, a secret promise. This desert flower,
No sweet perfume ever tortured me more than this sweet desert rose.

This memory of Eden haunts us all. This desert flower, this rare perfume is the sweet intoxication of the fall."

Desert Rose by Sting and
Chab Mamey
The Place
Joshua Tree National Park, at nearly 800,000 acres, lies at the point where two deserts, two large ecosystems (whose characteristics are determined primarily by elevation) meet - the Colorado Desert, below 3,000 ft, in the eastern part of the park, and the higher, moister, and slightly cooler Mojave Desert in the western part of the park, and habitat of the Joshua tree, Yucca Brevifolia. The western part of the park, where we will be photographing at night, also includes the very surreal geologic features that have become associated with the Joshua Tree area. Joshua Tree became a National Monument in 1936, remaining mostly a local or regional attraction, a well-kept secret, but since becoming a National Park in 1994, its popularity has rose and the numbers of visitors each year has increased.

As legend would have it, Mormon pioneers saw the limbs of the Yucca trees and recalled the upstretched arms of the biblical figure Joshua, leading them to the promised land, and named them, Joshua Trees. Country-rocker Gram Parsons, whose name has become synonymous with Joshua Tree, was similarly inspired by this strange landscape, and traveled here often in the 1960s. The band U2, who in 1987 immortalized the area with their LP - simply entitled Joshua Tree - saw similar connections between this surreal, somewhat threatening landscape and the actual, fragile ecosystem it represents and our own frail attempts to find solitude, love, liberty, and freedom, realizing often times that "We still haven't found what we're looking for."

This is the dramatic landscape we will find ourselves visiting this May (during the Full "Flower" Moon) - to photograph the nocturnal beauty of Joshua Tree! We will photograph around such picturesque and iconographic sites as Cap Rock, Split Rock, Hidden Valley & the Live Oak areas.

Read an LA Times article (PDF) about one of our similar Death Valley Workshops, which appeared in the L.A. Times in October 2003.

Instructors
Lance Keimig is a Massachusetts based photographer and educator who specializes in night photography. Lance studied Night Photography with Steve Harper at San Francisco’s Academy of Art University in the late ‘80s and cofounded The Nocturnes Night Photography Workshop Serieswith Tim Baskerville in 1998. His new book, Night Photography: Finding your way in the Dark - a Second Edition will be published in February 2011.

Tim Baskerville, B.F.A., received his degree in photography and liberal arts from the University of San Francisco. He has been photographing at night for more than 25 years, and has taught Night Photography at U.C. Berkeley Extension in San Francisco and Berkeley, U.C. Santa Cruz. College of Marin, Photographic Resource Center at Boston University, Boston; RayKo Photo Center, San Francisco; and the Cape Cod Photographic Workshops on Cape Cod. He has written articles about Night Photography for Camera and Darkroom, the Friends of Photography with Nazraeli Press, and Photo Metro magazine. He originally curated The Nocturnes, a Night Photography exhibit, in 1991, and founded the subsequent critically acclaimed Web site - www.thenocturnes.com - in 1996.

Tuition and Schedule
Tuition $900 - Daily schedule for this three-day/night Workshop (see the review of our Death Valley Workshop from the LA Times) runs from 1pm to midnight - and later! This includes PowerPoint lectures and discussions of technical considerations, before we go out to photograph.

Participants are responsible for their own lodging and meals - though we can make some recommendations where to stay in Twentynine Palms, CA, at the entrance to the Park. Camping is available within Joshua Tree National Park also, but you need to reserve early - see links below.

Registration
Deadline to register has been extended to May 20, and more information is included in our Registration Form - which you will need to print out, and send or FAX in to Pacific Media Arts.
Payment by check, Visa, Mastercard, or Paypal.

To Pay in full:



Pay deposit or balance:


Once you secure your spot by paying with one of the Paypal buttons above, you will be contacted with detailed information about the workshop. Refunds, less a $50 cancellation fee to cover time and Paypal costs are available until the payment due in full date. You can make a deposit at any time, but space is available on a first come basis. Payment is due in full by April 15, 2011. You can still sign up after April 15 if there is space available, but you need to pay in full at that time. If you need to cancel after April 15, 2011, you will be refunded the amount you paid, less the $300 deposit. If the workshop is cancelled for any reason, you will receive a full refund.


Additional Information about Joshua Tree


Some inspirational links about the Joshua Tree area

  • Twentynine Palms - The definitive Hwy 62 music video by Robert Plant
  • Big Log - Robert continues his search for his desert muse
  • Joshua Tree - Emigre's book tribute to Gram Parsons; JT National Park
  • A Desert Trilogy - Interview with Rudy VanderLans by Van Dyke Parks


We hope to see you in Joshua Tree this May!