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... ;-)
Dan
Apr 08, 2019 at 03:39 PM
Previous versions of gdanmitchell's message #14815312 « Death Valley »
