Pot O’ Golden Sand
Pot O’ Golden Sand
Behind the Scenes of this Photo
Taken in Death Valley National Park, California, on November 17th, 2012
Yes, it does actually rain from time to time in Death Valley.
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Tag Archive for: landscape
Zebra-skie Point
Zebra-skie Point
Behind the Scenes of this Photo
Taken from Zabriskie Point, Death Valley National Park, on November 17th, 2012
Zabriskie Point showcases some of the most interesting textures and forms in Death Valley, especially when painted with stripes by the rising sun.
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Burst of Life
Burst of Life
Behind the Scenes of this Photo
Taken at Death Valley National Park, California on March 5th, 2016
Death Valley, despite its name, is actually a place bursting with life. Every spring wildflowers bloom throughout the park, and there is a surprising variety of plants in the different regions. In spring of 2016 that flowering life was demonstrated grandly as the previous fall’s flooding helped set the stage for a profusion of wildflowers.
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Hospitable
Hospitable
Behind the Scenes of this Photo
Taken in Death Valley National Park, California, March 5th, 2016
Just when you go and think a landscape is totally inhospitable and incapable of supporting life, something like this happens to surprise you. Just goes to show, it’s hospitable after all, given the right conditions.
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Apocalypse Wow
Apocalypse Wow
Behind the Scenes of this Photo
Taken at Death Valley National Park , March 5th, 2016
During Death Valley’s 2016 super bloom I was driving somewhat aimlessly around the park looking for patches of flowers. Spying a good clump about 1,000 feet from the road I popped on my flip flops and padded out into the sand to check them out. Needless to say I was stoked to discover a large playa shot through with fractured chunks of mud adjacent to the flowers. After sunset the wind whipped the blue hour clouds into a fury of undulating textures and shapes and it was all I could to keep the drool from pouring out of my mouth onto the camera.
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Devil’s Cornrows
Behind the scenes of this photo
Taken in the salt marsh a mile or so west of Mustard Canyon in Death Valley National Park on February 19th, 2013
Here’s a little history I recently learned: borax was heavily mined (err, shoveled, as the case may be) in Death Valley around 130 years ago. Chinese immigrants were paid to push this slop into neat rows which could then easily be shoveled into wagons for processing. Once the borax was extracted it was hauled by 20-mule teams from the heart of Death Valley to Mojave. The 20-mule teams became the symbol for borax nationwide, an image that persists to present day. And if you walk out into the Death Valley salt marsh far enough you can still find remnants of those old “cornrows,” as they were called, that the Chinese shoveled into place.
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The Brainmelter
Behind the scenes of this photo
Taken in the Cottonball Basin in Death Valley on November 14th, 2013
In November 2013, on the night just before our Death Valley photo workshop began, my workshop partner, Jim, and I decided to visit one of our favorite places in the park, [location redacted to help preserve its fragility]. Not only is this area full of psychedelic forms, colors, and geology, but that night we were also treated to a mind-bending sunset, with undulating layers of pink, purple, and orange. The scene, with all its blobs, shapes, and colors, was so unreal that it actually melted my brain a little.
Mirror Imaging
Taken in Death Valley National Park on February 20th, 2013
Water isn’t hard to find in Death Valley if you know where to look. There is a little-known spring near Furnace Creek where water forms myriad rivulets and channels through the salt pan. The water is only a few centimeters deep and flows at a snail’s pace, making it serenely still and marvelously reflective. Quite a lovely thing when you have a sky as wonderfully textured as this one. On this particular morning I felt surrounded by water, for as I photographed these watery mirrors below me a huge rainstorm was soaking the mountains above me, and a few minutes after I took this shot the pitter patter of little raindrops reached the valley floor, disturbing the reflections and forcing me to cover up my camera.
The Road to Heaven is Paved with Gold
Taken at an unnamed spring near Furnace Creek, Death Valley National Park, California on November 15th, 2012
Death Valley is an absolutely huge park and there is much more to see and photograph than just the iconic spots. This little-known spring was found by my friend Jim Patterson while we were scouting for our 2011 Death Valley workshop and it has quickly become one of my favorite destinations in the park. Thanks to the amazing lines and amazing reflections here it’s a fantastic place to shoot, and was heavenly indeed on this evening back in mid-November.
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