What a day!
Whilst my buddy stayed behind in the morning to catch up on some work emails - I set out to find a quick bite for breakfast on Sunset Boulevard.
Walking through the streets, I get more an more enamored by the architecture and the lack of cohesion between the individual lots on which buildings stand on. Next to a baroque dwelling of nondescript origin stands a saloon straight out of a spaghetti western. Probably pure terror for anyone with OCD tendencies.
Sometimes I think I should start a series called: “Pictures that look like Albumcovers”
After my first proper American breakfast burrito and a coffee (and a morning cocktail, don’t judge, I’m on holiday). I head back to return to unfinished business - Stuffing the car full of the camera gear we neglected to use yesterday. An hour or two later, we set off towards Joshua Tree.
I opted to drive first, as my buddy was still working and needed more time, and who am I kidding, I get to drive in the US! Many firsts for me there!
Setting off through LA city to get to the highways, I get a quick crash course driving in the US, from right hand turns on red, steering into oncoming traffic on lefts and acquainting myself with the notion that stop signs in California are merely a suggestion. Hello “California Roll”.
Making our way through Pasadena and further away from Hollywood, we eventually hit the highway and the infamous LA rush hour traffic commenced. As a seasoned veteran of Hong Kong rush hours, I found myself immediately in my element of bumper to bumper traffic. By the way, that 2h47m drive time indicated in the picture above is from today - our estimated travel time yesterday was more or less in the three hour thirties.)
It’s like a fast food safari park
After about two hours of bumbling straight down the highway, we decided to take our chances of finding a quick bite to revitalize our senses again. Fortunately for us, we didn’t have to search for long. Immediately after pulling off a highway we were in, we found what I can only describe as rest-stop heaven - surrounded by the finest stomach-testing fast food joints the eye can see.
And to my utter excitement there was also a drive-thru. I felt like I have just entered a 1950’s comic book, full of muscle cars, milkshakes and enough hair pomade to become a fire hazard. Absolutely surreal.
A scene straight out of a Quentin Tarantino movie
After leaving the 50’s behind and rejoining the current traffic-ridden decade, we resumed our drive towards the desert. Unfortunately by this time, the sun was already beginning to set and darkness would soon envelop the scenery. After a quick discussion, we decided that we weren’t to blame for our late departure, it was in fact daylight savings time that was to blame for early onset of night. Shame on it.
Eeeeventually, we made it to Joshua Tree.
Originally we set our location to the infamous Invisible House, an Instagram / Tik Tok ridden hotspot of a property in the middle of the desert made of two way mirrors - reflecting everything on the outside to give the illusion that, well it’s invisible.
What we expected to see:
What we saw:
Great.
So we set off to scout out a new location for at least some pleasant photos of Joshua trees in the national park.
After another hour or so of driving up and down pitch black winding roads, we eventually ended up in a clearing with enough discernible features that would offer at least some interesting framing for a photo shoot.
As we exited the vehicle, we were instantly reminded that us Hong Kong boys have the survival instinct of a pet rock.
The wind was howling past us, dropping the temperature to a close 0 degrees centigrade. Back in Hollywood, we were contemplating on how much warm gear we should bring - playing with the notion of, “ah, it shouldn’t be too cold”. Yes. Not too cold if you don’t account the windchill factor… (we did eventually bring cold weather gear, as we didn’t have any space limitations. Lucky us!)
Shooting in this location was an absolute dream and produced some stunning pictures.
I will share more pictures of this trip in the future, we took most of the pictures with my Buddy’s camera.
Standing around in the pitch black darkness, eyes slowly adjusting to the surroundings, you can start making out shapes and rough terrain in the distance. The starry sky was incredible, being able to discern the different constellations clearly whilst the slow blinking of aircrafts traced through the periphery. It was tranquil. We were the only people here in many miles. WE WERE THE ONLY PEOPLE HERE IN MANY MILES.
Oh no, brain going into slasher film/ horror movie mode. What’s that noise? Did that bush just move?
I jest, but that thought did cross my mind whilst we were snapping shots. We were in the perfect horror movie scenario. Replace the two blond chicks with two guys from Hong Kong and the script writes itself.
I digress. Naturally, growing up watching Bear Grills and Steve Irwin, we did check the surrounding areas for signs of wildlife. Mainly checking the arid ground for rattlesnakes.
Occasionally, I’d do my cursory sweeps of the area with the torch to see if I can see any reflections of eyes. Which did happen, we stared, it stared, we took one more picture, heard a noise and yeeted ourselves back into the car.
Next location, pronto.
Deciding that a car park is as good as a clearing in Joshua Tree National Park, we set up our second location about a 20 minute drive from the four-legged voyeur we encountered before.
We spent around an hour at this location, this time undisturbed by the local population when we decided to call it a day and head back to Los Angeles.
I took the wheel for a second time, as my chief navigator assisted us in finding the right route. I was still hyped from driving to the location, so naturally I wanted to experience the return leg as well. I believe in an alternate life, I would have made a great intercontinental truck driver as I absolutely enjoy driving!
We arrived home just after midnight and looking at the trip computer, we drove just over 300 miles in a day. Talk about maximizing the holidays!
