Kee Woo Rhee
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gdanmitchell wrote:
I'm virtually certain that Zabriskie Point is the location of the observation area, on which many people stand to view the other stuff that surrounds it, and not one of the features in the surrounding terrain. It is generally more accurate to speak of the view from Zabriskie Point than the view of the point.
As you stand there, to your far right are the Red Cliffs, and then as you scan back from right to left your eyes will pass across Manly Beacon (It named after "Manly" but I've seen it spelled Manley, too.). The general drainage here heads down toward Golden Canyon, and hiking up Golden Canyon can give you another perspective on these features that helps you sort them out.
Directly in front of you is a small area of Death Valley itself below the massive Panamint Range on the far side of the Valley. At dawn, the light starts on the summit of the Panamints, works its way down to the Valley and across it, and then finally arrives at the nearer features such as Manly Beacon. Below you is Gower Gulch, comes from behind you and to your right before dropping toward the Valley in front of you. The famous furrowed feature with the darker rock near its top, located across Gower Gulch to your right and in front of you is The Manifold. The gully shown in this photo heads back toward Twenty Mule Team Canyon and the mountains dividing it from Death Valley - the Black Mountains if I recall correctly. It rises on the far side of Gower Gulch. Sometimes this whole area of convoluted geology is referred to as the "badlands."
The coloration of this rock is much paler than what you see in most photographs, including this one. (Though here we can chalk the dark and dramatic coloration and tones at least partially to a photograph made in near darkness.) It isn't easy to get an effective photograph of this very light material - which continues on in a long vein up into 20 Mule Team Canyon. Consequently, quite a few (most?) of the photographs of the feature have enhanced contrast and saturation considerably in post. (I think some might even be a bit disappointed to see it "in the flesh" if their experience has been with photographs.)
Death Valley is not predominantly a place of vivid and saturated colors - with a few exceptions. Most of the features are somewhere between gray and tan and a haze-caused bluish tone. Even the vegetation is paler than what we are used to from other locales - with the green leaning more toward blueish-green, tan, a dusty gray-green, or just plain gray. Even a location with a reputation for color like Artist Palette turns out to be less intense that you think it will be. The salt flats are nearly white, though they can also be intensely blue when photographed under open sky in low light. One of the real challenges of shooting in Death Valley is coming to terms with the colors that are actually there. Many photographers never do, and they continue to saturate and push contrast to levels that can create a false sense of what the place is like rather than dealing with what it actually is.
There are some sources of color, from subtle to intense in this place. Some of the wildflowers can be very beautiful and color for a week or two in the right year, but they only rarely form large patches of color and are usually best if shot close up. (There are exceptions, but they are unusual.) Then there is the astonishing color that can be produced at the beginning and end of the day in the right conditions. These sunrise or sunset (or pre-dawn and post-sunset) colors can occasionally verge on just plain unbelievable, and they paint this drab landscape with intense colors at times. I have a few photographs that are so wildly colorful that I got tired of having to explain that, yes, it really did look like this.
Dan...Show more →
Dan,
I am learning a great deal from your explanation. I whole heartily agree most of your opinion here and appreciate that.
Especially the color scheme of Death Valley, being to the pale side. Quite often people including myself go overboard the intensity of the contrast level. I need to remind myself of that. Thanks again. -Kee
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