We just returned from Death Valley — my second visit this month. Things had changed quite a bit. The previous visit was just after an atmospheric river storm dropped copious rain on the park, and snow on the higher peaks, producing a lot of flooding and closing may areas of the park. This time much of the water had dried up — though many roads were still closed — and the vegetation was responding to the rain. Many areas were as green as I've ever seen them, and I've been photographing there for a couple of decades, and by the time we left on Friday wildflowers were starting to come out in earnest.
That sounds lovely, but at times the photographic conditions were challenging, too, though that isn't unusual for Death Valley. We had strong winds, including sand storms on two days. One of these storms was fairly powerful, though far from the worst I've seen. It was also frequently cloudy. That can be a great thing in this place that usually features "perfect" blue skies, but at times there were more clouds that I might have wished for.
Here are the first few photographs I've worked up from this visit.
A bit more information about the photographs in case anyone is interested.
#1: The afternoon light was being obstructed by incoming clouds. We drove south to try to get beyond the edge of the cloud bank, and as we drove I noticed this scene but we did not stop. The drive proved less fruitful than we had hoped — a thicker bunch of clouds in the west shaded that area — so we quickly turned around and headed back here since it looked like the light might be a bit better. When we arrived it was (as is often the case in DEVA) extremely windy. No tripod is stable enough for this sort of condition, so I switched to handheld shooting with IS enabled, and worked in the wind shadow of my vehicle.
#2: This was an ephemeral bit of light. We had gone up into an isolated canyon in the middle of the day to escape wind and crowds, and as we sat eating lunch I saw this layered rock face. The light was too harsh for the photograph I imagined, but when thin clouds softened it a bit I had just enough time to put my camera on the tripod and move into position. As I photographed the harsh light came back — this is the middle of three photographs, made as the light was halfway between cloud obstructed and full sunlight.
#3: This was an extremely windy day — not the worst I've experienced in DEVA but seriously challenging for photography. We saw a sand storm starting in the Mesquite Dunes area and blowing northeast over the Amargosa Range... so we headed that way. The plan was to shoot with a long lens from just outside the worst of it... and then drive into the sand plume and descend to its source in the valley. Arriving near the dunes the wind was screaming. We first tried photographing from inside the vehicle, but I eventually got out and worked quickly, again from the leeward side of the vehicle, shooting for a few minutes as twilight color came to the sky over the Amargosa Mountains.
#4: I made this photograph on the same evening that I made #1, again working quickly (and handheld!) in strong wind conditions. The wind was so strong that it was impossible to hold the camera still, so I used IS and made a series of exposures at slightly faster-than-usual ISOs in order to ensure at least one sharp image. This was the final good light of the day.
#5: I made this photograph on the last morning of this trip, in conditions that appeared initially to be distinctly unpromising. I was up before dawn and heading to a high place from which I knew I would have some long-distance views of Valley subjects. However, haze in the valley, plus clouds overhead and to the east killed the sunrise light. This was one of those moments we all have when we fight the urge to say, "Lights' no good — I'm outa' here," and instead stick with it in the hope the something will happen. And eventually "something" did. The clouds thinned enough to allow bands of sunlight to pass over the landscape.
And if no one is iinterested, it is still here... ;-)
gdanmitchell wrote:
#3: This was an extremely windy day — not the worst I've experienced in DEVA but seriously challenging for photography. We saw a sand storm starting in the Mesquite Dunes area and blowing northeast over the Amargosa Range... so we headed that way. The plan was to shoot with a long lens from just outside the worst of it... and then drive into the sand plume and descend to its source in the valley. Arriving near the dunes the wind was screaming. We first tried photographing from inside the vehicle, but I eventually got out and worked quickly, again from the leeward side of the vehicle, shooting for a few minutes as twilight color came to the sky over the Amargosa Mountains....Show more →
This one is my favorite, although they are all very nice.
Sounds like you had fairly unique conditions. Unfortunately I missed the entire spring season because of various issues. Always wanted to shoot Badwater during a flood.
On a somewhat related note, great minds think alike. Here is an image of mine from a few years ago. It was an overcast morning.
GroovyGeek wrote:
Sounds like you had fairly unique conditions. Unfortunately I missed the entire spring season because of various issues. Always wanted to shoot Badwater during a flood.
On a somewhat related note, great minds think alike. Here is an image of mine from a few years ago. It was an overcast morning.
PS FM mangles redirects to my website so just paste the TEXT of the URL into sa browser
Dang! That's basically the same photograph as my first one, though in quite different light. I like it — a very different effect with even softer and blue-toned light. And, yes, too bad about that awful URL.
I arrived (on my first visit this year) just after the heavy rains and flooding. I've been there in rain and snow — even photographed spring wildflowers in snow in the park once! — but I've never actually been there during a flooding event. This time the after-effects were quite obvious: there was mud all over, there were scores of places where the debris from flooded washes still covered the road, Panamint Lake was actually a lake, and almost every place that wasn't on a main, paved road was closed.
Can't hold out that long :-). Will probably go in Novembe, polygons should have reformed by then and yet not fully trampled. Cottonball ought to be great too.
I personally like #2 of your series the best.
That morning was fairly unique for the half dozen or so times I have been there. Early morning gray and overcast, with very soft light. Artists Palette and the Gulch were glorious in that light, before the clouds burned off around 10am
GroovyGeek wrote:
Can't hold out that long :-). Will probably go in Novembe, polygons should have reformed by then and yet not fully trampled. Cottonball ought to be great too.
I personally like #2 of your series the best.
That morning was fairly unique for the half dozen or so times I have been there. Early morning gray and overcast, with very soft light. Artists Palette and the Gulch were glorious in that light, before the clouds burned off around 10am
I'm glad you like #2. I do a lot of these smaller scale photographs of features in such places, but they often don't play as well with the broader audience compared to the large scale landscapes. (I love large landscapes — they are sort of my native mode — but after visiting a place like DEVA for over two decades I spend a lot of my time looking for these non-iconic subjects now.)
When I think of this light I always recall Charlie Cramer speaking of his love for the light of conditions with "high, thin clouds," and suggesting that it might be the best sort of light. In DEVA this can often be true, I think. The light here is often so stark, with cloudless blue skies most of the time. Several of the photographs in this group were made in that "high, thin clouds" light. This was intentional. The one you first noted resulted from driving some distance to arrive at exactly that light, and #2 was timed carefully as the edge of a cloud shadow arrived. (The versions of #2 made just before and after this one are either too bright or too flat... but this one — as the baby bear once noted — was just right.)
By the way, I took a look at your whole set of DEVA images at that URL, and I congratulate you on a collection of very beautiful images.
My favorite morning ever in DEVA involved clouds. I was alone (!) on the Racetrack back then, having camped nearby overnight. I was out there before dawn in extremely unpromising conditions — very high winds and thick overcast. But eventually, just about at the time that the sun rises above the mountains to the east, the clouds began to break up. In their wake, cloud shadows raced across the playa and lenticular clouds stood above the mountains to the north.
