Congratulations to Ross Martin for winning Feature Thread of the Week with 7 votes - View Previous Winners
I’ve been processing more images from my Death Valley visit and am struck by the limitless compositional possibilities in this vast, ruggedly beautiful Park. This set includes dunes, clouds, mountains, badlands, and a rainbow. Each time I leave here I feel that I have not even begun to scratch the surface, and yearn for the next opportunity to experience and photograph this special place.
It is an immense place, and if you go to the right locations at the right times the silence can be astonishing. The landscape is remarkably varied — from the well-known and accessible landmarks to the less-visited backcountry.
I appreciate that you turned your camera left at Zabriskie — there’s a lot of lovely landscape in that direction, isn’t there! That may be my favorite of the set. I also like the one with the warm toned blowing sand in the dunes.
For anyone considering following Ross to DEVA, a little report on relatively current conditions: We’re just back (yesterday) from our second visit in the past couple of months. (I hope to share photographs soon.) Right now the stars of the show (to quote my friend and fellow photographer Franka M Gabler) are Lake Manly and the wildflower bloom. The lake is still there though likely to diminish soon, but the wildflowers are putting on one of the better shows that I’ve seen…and I’ve been photographing every yer in the park for over two decades.
(Someone just sent me a photo of myself on my first visit to DEVA, and it confirmed that this is the 30th year that I’ve been photographing there!)
EDIT: Realizing that I said nothing about Ross’s photos, I have slightly revised this post on 3/4/25 to identify one that particularly caught my attention.
guidostow wrote:
How is the knee repair working for you? Have a great trip!
I'm four months post-op and the knee is great. In addition to the PT I had a therapeutic massage specialist work with me on it and it progressed ver well. The Doc was happy!
Al Trujillo wrote:
I'm four months post-op and the knee is great. In addition to the PT I had a therapeutic massage specialist work with me on it and it progressed ver well. The Doc was happy!
Sounds like you are happy too, which is wonderful. Enjoy!
Al Trujillo wrote:
Truly inspiring images! I'm leaving to DEVA on Tuesday for my first ever visit and looking forward to our week there.
Al
Al, thanks for your kind comment, I’m excited for you to experience Death Valley for your first time! Please let us know how you like it and I look forward to seeing your images. You should get in on some spectacular wildflower conditions.
jcw1982 wrote:
Beautiful Ross! The first one is my pic; really wonderful!
Thank you, Jeff! I initially overlooked that first image, it took going back through the files again a couple months later to realize it was worth working up, especially in monochrome.
