Hall of Horrors

“Ma flesche (asseure toy) n’espargnera personne
Vous danserez trestout ce balet, que je sonnne”


....... unless my lens won't focus properly.  Then my arrow may miss drastically, which is what I will have to deal with on Monday.

This was one spot in Joshua Tree that I always drive by and never stop, usually because there is a specific spot I'm going, but mostly because there are always at least a half a dozen cars there, and I don't like dealing with people.  This is a spot like Hemingway: gorgeous, but right on the highway so it's a lazy tourist and climber hot spot.  Last time we went through, Hemingway was empty, but we only got a good 15 minutes before a car full of Canon Rebels pulled up.  When I checked out this spot today there were the usual dozen or so cars, but I spent almost my entire scout alone, well, aside from mini-me, whom I had to carry most the way because it's starting to get pretty hot out here.  I did not find any grand fissures, like I would assume a place called Hall of Horrors would have (more like stacked rocks of horrors), but I found a bunch of little caves.  The rocks here look like some giant being just dropped a bunch of rocks in little piles, and they fell where they fell.  There is one obvious problem here, though: the previously mentioned focusing problems with the 24mm.

ALL of these little spaces require a wide lens, otherwise I might as well be shooting the model by ANY rock in open shade.  I tested closing down the ap to see if the fogging is isolated to it being wide open.  The clear photos were in much sharper focus with a greater DOF, but the clear ones were still few and far between.  Not to mention I had the shutter pushed to 60, at 2pm on a clear day, and I'll be shooting at 6 in the morning, so these caves will have no light.  I can try to push the ISO, but it really looks like I'll be making the most of my 50mm.  Being able to shoot 1.2 is better than having to check focus on every single frame to see if my lens shit itself or not.  Plus, checking focus on a 5dMKii is also a crap shoot, so I won't really even know until I get home.  This will be an expensive experiment, and it will likely end with me throwing a Canon 24mm/2.8 as far of the highest cliff that I can find, which I will also document.  You're welcome.