Twice the Palms

A rock-edged pond fills the bottom half of the frame, so still that it returns a flawless mirror image — palm trunks running down into deep blue, fronds inverted, a scatter of boulders doubled at the waterline. Above, four impossibly slender fan palms rise on bare trunks against a clean blue gradient, with lower palms and feathery desert trees massed behind, their crowns catching warm late light. On the right, a whitewashed stucco wall and a dark timber balcony frame the edge; far back between the trunks, a pale mountain ridge closes the view. Shot on the grounds of a desert resort in Borrego Springs, California, at the edge of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. The palette is unusually cool for desert work — deep blues and greens with warm gold only in the treetops — which makes this a genuinely restful image rather than a dramatic one. The vertical format and top-to-bottom symmetry suit a narrow wall, a stairwell, or a pair hung either side of a bed. Reflection images reward size; this one holds up large.