Never has so dramatic a sky of natural beauty been accompanied by so bland a human foreground of golf courses and subdivisions, but that’s the paradox of California for you.
Ultimate California Sky
Tag: Mountains
Sunset on 2025
We’ve reached the end of 2025 and I’ll celebrate with what I think is one of my best shots of the year—and also just chronologically one of the last shots of the year. The tiny camper van and far-off lights add a sense of scale, saying “goodbye” to the distant events of that past time. Happy New Year!
Ending the Season with the San Jacinto Mountains
Though the tiny lights of the Coachella Valley set the scale for the mighty size of the San Jacinto Mountains, even that range is dwarfed by the mighty scope and expanse of the sunset.
Winter Farm Sky
Before the advent of drones with front-mounted cameras that can point up (without photographing the bottom of the drone body above them), I never thought of capturing a big dramatic sky so completely while flying.
Artificial Green
An aerial view of Coachella Valley reveals the artificial irrigation-induced greens amid the natural desert.
Cloudy Nightfall at Empire Polo Club
A rainbow of colors extend across the earth and into the sky during blue hour above Empire Polo Club.
Trilogy Panoramas
Drone panoramas have really opened up the kinds of images I can capture with a light, fixed-focal-length-lens drone like the DJI Mini 3 Pro.
These panoramas from Coachella Valley, covering the Trilogy subdivision and its adjacent golf course, capture a dramatic expanse of sky and wet, reflective surfaces following a rare rainstorm.
The New Bombay Beach
Like a full-time Burning Man, Bombay Beach shifted from its origins as a sort of “California Riviera” in the 1950s to something with more the feel of an artists’ colony. The town’s little grid of streets amid the emptiness of the desert valley brings to mind open-world video game maps, but the eclectic nature of the beach itself makes reality (as usual) far more interesting.
Empire Polo Club Panorama
A big panorama of Empire Polo Club helps one to understand a bit how this site can hold both Coachella and Stagecoach.
Sun Drops Behind the Mountains
Winter days in the desert are short enough already, but the tall San Jacinto and Santa Rosa mountains cut the light off even sooner. High up with a drone, there are still some final rays to be harvested.
Water Hazard
For something termed a “hazard,” this body of water looks pretty placid in the evening light.
Best Wishes for a Fast Recovery, Coachella Valley
“Coachella Valley was just battered by Hurricane Hilary.” — What an odd sentence to write. Today, we’re looking back to times when the idea of this dry lake bed being hit by a hurricane sounded like science fiction.
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Agriculture in Thermal
Traveling southeast into the expanse of Coachella Valley, more and more of the regions farms still remain.
Though suburban sprawl may eventually make its way down here, “California rural” remains for now.
High-end homes nestle between groves of date trees.
Night Arrives Above Empire Polo Club
I guess I’m still discovering new tricks up the DJI Mini 3 Pro’s sleeve. I’ve never managed to create a panorama (much less one looking up) from drone images before, but this massive shot of the sunset over the San Jacinto Mountains has changed all of that. The pink clouds arc above and the Empire Polo Club (home of the Coachella Music and Arts Festival) spreads across the foreground.
(You’ll definitely want to click through for full resolution on this one.)
Off for a Hike
My favorite images are those that contrast (apparently) natural and human-populated places. Escaping all of the noise of the holidays to a hike in the desert has a certain appeal at this time of year.
Decaseconds 