Since I’ve been doing my camera roll inspo posts, I’ve noticed I often collect larger numbers of photos from travel because the sights are novel to me. The photos may not be great, but they each show some aspect of place that I want to remember, and that I would combined to use if painting that location. So I’ve decided to sequester unused “possible future reference photos” from each trip into its own post.
This post contains photos is from my trip to Nevada in November 2022. More photos and travel sketches from this trip can be found at Travel Sketches: Las Vegas/Mojave Desert.
Clark County Wetlands Park
A river flowed through the park in a ravine.
This view shows water rushing through the park and the plants flourishing alongside. This is one of the few riparian habitats in the desert. The perfectly triangular mountain the background loomed much larger in person.
I love the gold of the reeds against the gently gold-tinged blue sky. The mountain range in the background appeared larger and more dominant in person.
This zoomed in view is blurrier, and the gold of the reeds isn’t as magical, but I like the focus on the single reed that sticks out.
Reed detail. What color(s) would you use for this? Quin Gold? Yellow Ochre? Naples Yellow Deep? One of the yellower Raw Siennas? A combination of things?
This view shows how the reed heads seemed to glow when the light hit them just right.
Spring Mountain Ranch State Park
Unsplash photos from this trip include: red rock mountain, gold shrubs.
I like the blueness of the distant mountains (though I would make them bigger in a painting), the shrubs dotting the midground, and the the halos of light on the foreground plants. I also like the distant spots of yellow from ash trees, which echo the gold in the foreground shrubs. The sky color is pretty accurate, and the wispy clouds are nice.
Though generally a worse-composed photo, this shows the midground shrubs and background mountains better.
The surreal goldness of those shrubs.
I love this photo featuring my partner which I think illustrates the magic of this place.
Here I am so excited to see some prickly pears.
I was also excited to see joshua trees.
This is a zoomed in photo so it’s not as high quality, but it shows the brightness of the yellow ashes.
I like the goldness of the foreground bushes, the crags in the rock and the path leading into the mountains, with shadows falling across. The camera over-saturated the blueness of the sky, and because of the harsh shadows you can’t really see the red colors in the rocks.
Here’s a weird selfie where you can see those rock colors!
Conclusion
This was a truly beautiful location at a gorgeous time of year to walk around! I highly recommend November for a visit. Avoid Las Vegas, just go look at birds. Don’t forget to bring sunscreen, water, and a big hat.