Thursday, August 8, 2019

The Car Wash at Night

As I mentioned last post, I headed out to Joshua Tree for a night hike (Thursday into Friday, and drove home midday Friday). I was joined by my intrepid hiking partner and experienced Milky Way photographer JL. I'm a total newbie at astrophotography, so it's great to hike with JL, who has significant experience and know-how.

I made two big mistakes on this trip. I try to look at mistakes as learning opportunities... so a lot of learning took place on this hike😉 My first major error had to do with the temperature estimation. We were leaving 29 Palms around 5:30 PM and driving out to a remote area in the Pinto Basin. I told JL that temps in the Pinto Basin are similar to 29 Palms... probably a few degrees hotter. It was in the high 90's as we left 29 Palms, and we figured things would be cooling off as it got later in the day. I told JL it would likely be low to mid-90's when we arrive at the trail head, and cooling off as the evening progressed.
WRONG!! Big time wrong, as you can see in the photo above. After 10 miles of dusty and washboard dirt road, we finally pulled up to our hiking location. Seriously, 110 degrees at 6:35 PM??

We were hiking out to a little-known location, kept secret by those in the know, to a place called the "car wash". There is no trail. I last visited the car wash in April of 2016 (here), so it had been a while. The car wash is just that... 7-8 old rusty derelict cars that, years ago, were swept into the local wash, likely during a flash flood, and remain there to this day. There's a lot of mystery about these cars: Who owned them, what were all these cars doing out here, etc. Just questions, no answers.

My hiking partner, JL, who also happens to be excellent at navigation. No big deal while hiking during the day, but on a moonless night in the pitch black with no trail to follow, it becomes a very critical skill!

Without giving away the location, I will say that if you come across this old gate, you are on the right path! It strikes me as funny and odd... an old gate in the middle on nowhere, with no fence on either side, holding nothing in or out.

Yours truly at "the gate". Photo credit: JL
At this point on the hike, I'm keeping one eye out hoping JL is not going to throw a rock at me (or worse) for talking him into this crazy hike. It's still well into triple digits and doesn't seem to be cooling off at all.

We eventually found the "car wash". So strange... you would never in a million years expect to find old cars out here!





This area if fun to explore, because there are also old wells and a mill in the area. At one time, this location was probably providing the water and milling of ore for some of the mining operations in the Old Dale Mining District.
An old stove that has, unfortunately, been used for target practice.
Did somebody lose a funnel?? This must have been used in the mining operations. It's about 6 - 8' in height and very heavy. So bizarre to find this out in the middle of nowhere!

Another interesting find. I wonder where the rest of it is??

Big mistake #2: Overuse of "Live View" mode. So this will take a little explaining. Live View allows you to look at the photo you're taking on the camera's LCD screen. It's particularly useful for night photography. As you can imagine, putting your eye up to the viewfinder doesn't allow you to see much at night. But looking at the viewfinder can help you see what you are photographing and better frame the photo. I'm not very comfortable using Live View because I haven't used it much in the past, so I decided to use it on this outing to increase my comfort level. As the night sky finally settled in and the Milky Way became visible, here's what all my photos looked like.
Yuck! What the heck?? Extremely noisy, poor definition, and some strange colors. Very disappointing, because nearly ALL my night shots for this outing looked like this and are unusable. It totally baffled me! JL's photos were looking good, and we were using similar to identical camera settings. 

In the fine print buried deep in the camera's manual, I found my explanation. It mentions something about being careful using Live View. It can cause the camera's sensor to overheat, which will introduce lots of "noise" and strange colors. Well, that would explain it! I was using Live View extensively, and along with the triple digit ambient temps, the poor camera sensor simply overheated! Oh well, live and learn. I will never make that mistake again!

Still a lot of "noise" from the overheated sensor, but this gives you an idea of what we were hoping to accomplish. We were trying to capture some of the old rusty cars under the beautiful Milky Way.

As we hiked back to the car, my camera sensor had a chance to cool off. Ironically, my best Milky Way shot of the entire evening was just an afterthought, taking a quick photo of Old Dale Road under the Milky Way sky when we had finished our hike.
Hopefully there will be future trips to the Car Wash, and when the temps aren't so crazy hot. It's a desolate and beautiful area with some of the darkest skies in Joshua Tree National Park!

Linking with Skywatch Friday.
Thanks for stopping by!!

48 comments:

  1. That is like an open air museum that you stumbled upon there. Nice to have a hiking buddy too.

    Worth a Thousand Words

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  2. Being in an area you know is used for target practice would scare the living daylights out of me. At at those temperatures I think I would stay home! But sounds as though, all in all it was a good experience for you, and that you have a whole new suite of photographic opportunities are opening up for you.

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    1. The target practice was likely many years ago, perhaps before this became a national park (which makes it illegal to shoot firearms). That said, there are still knuckleheads out there, and their actions can be very scary. I do what I can to avoid them!

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  3. A very informative post while keeping the mysteries intact. And the photos light the way to a great finale.

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  4. Your adventures continue to amaze me. What a find out there in the middle of nowhere.

    The only time I use live view is when it is too “glare” to see whether I need to adjust the fstop on the camera or not.
    Who would have thought live view would cause such problems.
    I’d love to capture the Milky Way. I am going to have to study up on it and try and find someplace without the light pollution we have here in town.

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  5. If the temperature was 110 degrees, I would have gotten back into the car and gone back home. Yikes. Sounds like this should be a winter hike. Or, at least a cooler fall. Ah well, experience is the best teacher.

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  6. Looking at the photos of the car wash, I'd say the hike was worth it, despite the heat. Great shots!

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  7. The temperature mistake could be really serious. Glad you guys did ok!

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  8. Awesome photos. Specially Milky Way sky pics. Happy Weekend.

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  9. The last one is gem. I too have yearning for capturing Milky-way timelapse. Not sure when will it be realized. You have fantastic partners to give you company.

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  10. I must agree with the first comment the last one is a beauty. The cars. For neophytes new to the desert and west in general, we find it hard to believe that sucn a wide open place with no water will have a flash flood, Thank goodness we all do not learn the hard way.
    That aside, I have really enjoyed the hike and shots. Good stuff.

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  11. The heat. Are you kidding me? I so not would get out of air conditioned car. But glad you did, nice set of photos and bit of a story to go with it. Pleasure as all ways.

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  12. I love the Milky Way shots. Very cool. I personally wouldn't be hiking on such a hot day. I need a very cool day to exert myself a bit. But you do get some glorious photos. It does make one wonder what the back story is to those old cars.

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  13. Very cool shots of the cars and night sky!

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  14. Never tried astor photograhy myself so did not know of the problem. The photos you took were great though can see the problem you had. Are you sure the heat did not help, over here it is cooler at night. PS what camer do you use I know it's a canon

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  15. Die Nacht Aufnahmen finde ich beeindruckend. Sie haben etwas mystisches!

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  16. Your first mistake was not going to the beach! Oh--- did I say that out loud? Actually I thought the second-to-last was the money shot today. Absolutely gorgeous, and worth a hot sensor.

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  17. That was a hot hike. I like the old cars. The last milky way capture is beautiful, well done!
    Hope your day is great, happy weekend!

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  18. Indeed you wonder where that all came from, Great shots as always.

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  19. Well, I'm glad you ended up with a couple good shots. Give JL kudos for your photo at the gate. I hope you've framed this shot.

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  20. Wow! You certainly had a good lesson on this shoot. The cars are so funny. I do wonder how they got there!

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  21. All that crazy stuff in the “middle of nowhere”! I don’t know how you can hike in that kind of heat.
    I have that live view feature on my new phone and didn’t even know it was turned on. Ran the phone battery down in no time and I thought something was wrong with my new phone. When i got back from the trip and started sorting out my photos I noticed each photo wasn’t one photo but up to 10 frames! No wonder the battery kept dying.

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  22. Most interesting photos that leave mysterious bits of tales to tell. I love the Milky Way and the lit vehicle beneath it.. I really have no idea how to describe that one but it is superb!

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  23. 110°! Nope, I'd be home in the a/c, or at the beach under a big umbrella :)

    You go to some of the most amazing places, I love all the photos!

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  24. Wow- first of all- yowza to triple digits in the desert. Great shots though and what a neat place!

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  25. Yes, mistakes are learning experiences. I would have been done at the "110 degree mark" You have tons more moxie than I do. This would be wonderful material for a short story writer. Very enjoyable post!

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  26. The Car wash is amazing... but the Milky Way shots are fantastic!

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  27. Wow, I would never have thought desert shots to be so interesting....WOW! Such a shame about the night time shots as they would have been just as amazing without the noise. Thanks for visiting Cath@Home and leaving me such a kind comment...much appreciated.

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  28. That's a shame about the night shots but you learned something new so it won't happen again. What an interesting sight seeing all those cars. Incredible photo opps.

    I came across this article in the Guardian this morning and thought of you. Don't know if you saw it but it is an interesting read about Joshua Tree.

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/10/joshua-tree-extinct-mojave-desert-climate-change

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    1. Thanks, Bill. Yes, I saw this. As you can imagine, it's creating quite a stir locally. Hard and scary to imagine Joshua Tree National Park without any Joshua trees :-(

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  29. Intriguing 'car wash' photos despite the high temps ~ (I would have passed out from the heat ~ LOL) Brave souls you are and the night photography is divine ~

    Happy Day to You,
    A ShutterBug Explores,
    aka (A Creative Harbor)

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  30. I can't imagine hiking in that heat. Good for you to capture such interesting images for the rest of us :)

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  31. Thanks for visiting my blog. Your Milky Way shot is fabulous!! I even like the shot that was overheated! What a strangely spooky place. I wonder if many years ago it used to be a junkyard? Sure is a great place to post about.

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  32. I'm loving the old cars, looks like a real dumping ground for them.

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  33. We all learn from our mistakes and you did have a good hike. You found the way to the car wash and found that the old cars are still there. It would be interesting to know how the cars and those things found their way there. The nights shots are beautiful!

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  34. WOW!! First at the temps; second at hiking at night (you are brave); third, my Nikon has "live view" too (thanks for the heads up about overheating, although I remember reading about excess "noise" so although still learning the camera, I don't use it for photos); fourth, your final photo is AWESOME; fifth (which I should have said sooner) that B&W of the chain is FLIPPING AMAZING as are the images of the cars at the wash!!!...:)jp (P.S. I signed up for a photog class this Fall...I'll learn something, I hope!)

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  35. Hot hot hot, oh my gosh. But what a crazy mysterious weirdly beautiful place. Amazing .... night photography must be so tricky to befuddle a pro like you ...no wonder I can never do it right.

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  36. The car wash is pretty awesome and the photos are fantastic!

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  37. Lessons are often learned the hard way - but, you know, these are "first world" problems! And I am sure you are disappointed (LOL) that you will have to return to the car wash. I am surprised the temps weren't dropping as the sun went down. We live in a dry environment, and regardless of the day-time temps, it gets chilly as soon as the sun disappears!

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  38. what an opportunity - such a landscape and an experienced friend!!! night photography is tricky but one more outing like this and you are mastering it :-).

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