Joshua Tree, 2020

What a treat to be able to visit Joshua Tree via road trip. We visited on a girls’ trip a couple years ago, and we even had a whole portrait session in the desert. This time was a bit different, thanks to the pandemic, with Courtney and Jackson in town for work and Cassie and Michael driving down separately from Alex and me to meet at Joshua Tree. But it was so wonderful to stand amidst the strange trees and the dangerous cacti, walk in the desert, and even squeeze in a new portrait session.

Day one, a lovely hike with Courtney and Jackson before they had a family session to photograph there.

Love!

The best desert sunsets.

And a full moon too.

Day two, we visited the cholla cactus garden and were very careful to not touch anything! They look fuzzy but are vicious velcro-like sharp things that will impale you!

Such interesting plants, with a very strange looking ‘skeleton’

With Cassie and Michael!

Up above the valley at Keys View. Definitely less windy this visit than when we almost blew away two years prior.

A hike with Cassie and Michael.

And then, reprising our headshot session just before the sun went down!

And we ended on a full moon with spectacular sunset!

Such a lovely visit to Joshua Tree. Let’s do it again.

Anna Wu is a wedding and portrait photographer based in San Francisco. She compulsively documents and blogs all of her daily adventures, even in quarantine. Follow her on instagram and view more of her professional work at annawu.com.