Archive 2025 · Death Valley NP: Grand Landscapes
p.1 #1Death Valley NP: Grand Landscapes
Congratulations to gdanmitchell for winning Feature Thread of the Week with 9 votes - View Previous Winners
In contrast to my recent set of photographs made in the confines of Death Valley canyons, these focus on grand open spaces and big features of this immense park. These all come from my (relatively) recent late-February visit to the park.
Enjoy
Dan
*FWIW, there will probably be on more set of photographs from this year's 5'day visit to the park, a set from a one hour "accidental shoot" at Zabriskie point. I'll explain later.
Sand Dune Abstract
Desert Mountains and Sky
Fractal Landscape
Dunes and Desert Hills
Salt Flats to Mountain Peaks
Morning Dunes 
Desert Mountains, Evening
Salt Flat Reflections 
Desert Mountains, Morning Shadows 
Funeral Range, Last LightEdited on Apr 24, 2025 at 09:35 PM · View previous versions
Apr 24, 2025 at 03:28 PM
p.1 #2Death Valley NP: Grand Landscapes
This was a very productive visit Dan! Great series, all pictures are good but I am drawn to the abstract with the pastel colors...thanks for posting these.
jacob
jacob
Apr 24, 2025 at 03:40 PM
p.1 #3Death Valley NP: Grand Landscapes
Beautiful collection of impressive classic landscape images
Apr 24, 2025 at 04:18 PM
p.1 #4Death Valley NP: Grand Landscapes
Wow! Excellent series of photographs.
Tom
Tom
Apr 24, 2025 at 04:48 PM
p.1 #5Death Valley NP: Grand Landscapes
All gorgeous. I still appreciate how you post processing keeps it real. Eric.
Apr 25, 2025 at 11:50 AM
p.1 #6Death Valley NP: Grand Landscapes
Dan, this is a very fine set of art from DV, one of the best I’ve seen on this forum. Especially # 1 amazes me, the feel of movement like waves on an ocean is remarkable. As always, your compositional skills are equaled by your subtle and natural processing (which actually take a lot of work and skill to achieve - garish and unnatural is easy). Congrats. There is outstanding competition right now for the May 2 thread of the week, but your exemplary work has earned my vote.
Apr 25, 2025 at 01:56 PM
p.1 #7Death Valley NP: Grand Landscapes
Dan, another great set of images. The first image is absolutely amazing. I like how you used the daylight to capture different subjects. Nice work and easy vote from my end. Thanks for sharing these.
Apr 26, 2025 at 12:41 PM
p.1 #8Death Valley NP: Grand Landscapes
keepclicking wrote:
Dan, another great set of images. The first image is absolutely amazing. I like how you used the daylight to capture different subjects. Nice work and easy vote from my end. Thanks for sharing these.
Thanks.
There's bit of an ironic story about that first one.
I had spent the day in an entirely different and more remote location, but late in the day I knew I'd be returning past the dunes and I figured that I'd photograph them in the late-day, sunset, and dusk light. However, the sky gods had a different idea, and high clouds came in and killed the light.
I knew of this location since I've shot from it for well over a decade. I figured that I could work with the softer light on that subject. It took a very long lens to narrow the field of view down to that small section of the dunes, so instead of using my full frame system I was shooting with my APS-C camera (Fujifilm XT5) with the longest lens I have and and a 1.4x TC.
Meanwhile a nice lady and her husband arrived and we started talking. She was the photographer and he was the driver. She seemed to be new to this whole photography thing but enthusiastic about it... and was struggling with her camera and a (less than optimal) lens... so I popped the long lens from by full frame system onto my second tripod and invited her to attach her camera and see how she liked it.
She liked it. ;-)
Dan
Dan, another great set of images. The first image is absolutely amazing. I like how you used the daylight to capture different subjects. Nice work and easy vote from my end. Thanks for sharing these.
Thanks.
There's bit of an ironic story about that first one.
I had spent the day in an entirely different and more remote location, but late in the day I knew I'd be returning past the dunes and I figured that I'd photograph them in the late-day, sunset, and dusk light. However, the sky gods had a different idea, and high clouds came in and killed the light.
I knew of this location since I've shot from it for well over a decade. I figured that I could work with the softer light on that subject. It took a very long lens to narrow the field of view down to that small section of the dunes, so instead of using my full frame system I was shooting with my APS-C camera (Fujifilm XT5) with the longest lens I have and and a 1.4x TC.
Meanwhile a nice lady and her husband arrived and we started talking. She was the photographer and he was the driver. She seemed to be new to this whole photography thing but enthusiastic about it... and was struggling with her camera and a (less than optimal) lens... so I popped the long lens from by full frame system onto my second tripod and invited her to attach her camera and see how she liked it.
She liked it. ;-)
Dan
Apr 27, 2025 at 09:28 PM
p.1 #9Death Valley NP: Grand Landscapes
gdanmitchell wrote:
Thanks.
There's bit of an ironic story about that first one.
I had spent the day in an entirely different and more remote location, but late in the day I knew I'd be returning past the dunes and I figured that I'd photograph them in the late-day, sunset, and dusk light. However, the sky gods had a different idea, and high clouds came in and killed the light.
I knew of this location since I've shot from it for well over a decade. I figured that I could work with the softer light on that subject. It took a very long...Show more →
Those are the best experiences. Finding someone super enthusiastic and eager to learn. Awesome that you were able to share the lens and give her a whole new experience and probably love for the desert.
I had a similar experience on a MW shoot years back on a beach. The instructor had left everyone that was on his tour and a few participants remained behind and we were all shooting together. Their settings were all off and we spent an hour tweaking their cameras and compositions and they were super happy. Also showed them how to light paint the foreground. They were ecstatic and I had a great time.
keepclicking wrote
Dan, another great set of images. The first image is absolutely amazing. I like how you used the daylight to capture different subjects. Nice work and easy vote from my end. Thanks for sharing these.There's bit of an ironic story about that first one.
I had spent the day in an entirely different and more remote location, but late in the day I knew I'd be returning past the dunes and I figured that I'd photograph them in the late-day, sunset, and dusk light. However, the sky gods had a different idea, and high clouds came in and killed the light.
I knew of this location since I've shot from it for well over a decade. I figured that I could work with the softer light on that subject. It took a very long...Show more →
Those are the best experiences. Finding someone super enthusiastic and eager to learn. Awesome that you were able to share the lens and give her a whole new experience and probably love for the desert.
I had a similar experience on a MW shoot years back on a beach. The instructor had left everyone that was on his tour and a few participants remained behind and we were all shooting together. Their settings were all off and we spent an hour tweaking their cameras and compositions and they were super happy. Also showed them how to light paint the foreground. They were ecstatic and I had a great time.
Apr 27, 2025 at 09:38 PM
p.1 #10Death Valley NP: Grand Landscapes
All of these are great. The first one from that dirt road turned out absolutely fantastic. I have not been to DV since Lake Manly. Have the Badwater polygons reformed?
Apr 28, 2025 at 12:02 AM
p.1 #11Death Valley NP: Grand Landscapes
Stunning light and compositions Dan!
Apr 28, 2025 at 06:25 AM
p.1 #13Death Valley NP: Grand Landscapes
GroovyGeek wrote:
All of these are great. The first one from that dirt road turned out absolutely fantastic. I have not been to DV since Lake Manly. Have the Badwater polygons reformed?
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fotografur wrote:
Stunning light and compositions Dan!
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morris wrote:
A delight to view Dan
Morris
Thank you to all three of you!
Groovy, I kind of think of that first location as the one by the utility poles... Using a very long lens allowed me to limit the frame to just sand with no extraneous stuff included this time.
I can't give you an update on the polygons since I didn't go that way on this visit. I did cross the playa on my way to a road into the backcountry that I hadn't driven to its end before, but that section of the playa is more the Devil's Golf Course kind of texture.
Dan
All of these are great. The first one from that dirt road turned out absolutely fantastic. I have not been to DV since Lake Manly. Have the Badwater polygons reformed?
---------------------------------------------
fotografur wrote:
Stunning light and compositions Dan!
---------------------------------------------
morris wrote:
A delight to view Dan
Morris
Thank you to all three of you!
Groovy, I kind of think of that first location as the one by the utility poles... Using a very long lens allowed me to limit the frame to just sand with no extraneous stuff included this time.
I can't give you an update on the polygons since I didn't go that way on this visit. I did cross the playa on my way to a road into the backcountry that I hadn't driven to its end before, but that section of the playa is more the Devil's Golf Course kind of texture.
Dan
Apr 28, 2025 at 10:55 AM
p.1 #14Death Valley NP: Grand Landscapes
Another great collection of photographs. I appreciate your use of a tele for landscape scenes.
Apr 28, 2025 at 04:26 PM
p.1 #15Death Valley NP: Grand Landscapes
First one is a winner all on its own for me Dan 
Morning Dunes follows along
as does Fractal.
Awesome on mountains and sky, that is sweet!
Karl
Morning Dunes follows along as does Fractal.Awesome on mountains and sky, that is sweet!
Karl
Apr 28, 2025 at 06:44 PM
p.1 #16Death Valley NP: Grand Landscapes
I keep coming back to look at these. Voted!
Apr 29, 2025 at 08:00 PM
p.1 #17Death Valley NP: Grand Landscapes
All of these are excellent images, but something about the first one keeps bringing me back to it.
It invites me to see the desert as an ocean in (very) slow motion.
It invites me to see the desert as an ocean in (very) slow motion.
Apr 29, 2025 at 08:16 PM
p.1 #18Death Valley NP: Grand Landscapes
Karl Witt wrote:
First one is a winner all on its own for me Dan Morning Dunes follows along as does Fractal.
Awesome on mountains and sky, that is sweet!
Karl
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fotografur wrote:
I keep coming back to look at these. Voted!
---------------------------------------------
ElvisD wrote:
All of these are excellent images, but something about the first one keeps bringing me back to it.
It invites me to see the desert as an ocean in (very) slow motion.
Thanks to all of you.
Karl, I've been working on the subject of the "Fractal" photograph for a few years, and I'm pretty pleased with what I got this time. I think maybe I've figured it out!
That first one does seem to "work" for a lot of people. It is another subject that I've been working on for years, having first photographed it over a decade ago. I like that "desert as an ocean in slow motion" notion is really very, very accurate.
Dan
First one is a winner all on its own for me Dan
Morning Dunes follows along as does Fractal.Awesome on mountains and sky, that is sweet!
Karl
---------------------------------------------
fotografur wrote:
I keep coming back to look at these. Voted!
---------------------------------------------
ElvisD wrote:
All of these are excellent images, but something about the first one keeps bringing me back to it.
It invites me to see the desert as an ocean in (very) slow motion.
Thanks to all of you.
Karl, I've been working on the subject of the "Fractal" photograph for a few years, and I'm pretty pleased with what I got this time. I think maybe I've figured it out!
That first one does seem to "work" for a lot of people. It is another subject that I've been working on for years, having first photographed it over a decade ago. I like that "desert as an ocean in slow motion" notion is really very, very accurate.
Dan
Apr 29, 2025 at 09:56 PM
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p.1 #19Death Valley NP: Grand Landscapes
Beautiful work Dan , the contrast between the tight canyons of Death Valley and the park must offer a fascinating perspective ,it’s indeed a productive visit ,I like the colors
Apr 29, 2025 at 11:57 PM
p.1 #20Death Valley NP: Grand Landscapes
gdanmitchell wrote:
GroovyGeek wrote
All of these are great. The first one from that dirt road turned out absolutely fantastic. I have not been to DV since Lake Manly. Have the Badwater polygons reformed?fotografur wrote
Stunning light and compositions Dan!morris wrote
A delight to view DanMorris
Groovy, I kind of think of that first location as the one by the utility poles... Using a very long lens allowed me to limit the frame to just sand with no extraneous stuff included this time.
I can't give you an update on the polygons since I didn't go that way on this visit. I did cross the playa on my way to a road into the backcountry that I hadn't driven to its end before, but that section of the playa is more the Devil's Golf Course kind of texture.
Dan
I looked at my own rendition of this location. I like the colder tonality of yours better, shows off the inherent color of the dunes better, especially the blues. Like you I rarely shoot from there. It's like shooting fish in a barrel. Put on a 400mm, point in the general direction of the dunes and press the shutter. Almost impossible to screw up the comp 😀
https://bboyanov.com/gallery/_data/i/upload/2020/06/10/20200610151328-0a9dbf77-la.jpg
Apr 30, 2025 at 10:10 PM