Sunset of a Lifetime

I just turned 46 years old in January. I have always had an appreciation of nature, and over the past ten years or so since I became semi-serious about landscape photography I have seen more sunrises and sunsets than the average person. So when I say that the sunset we witnessed tonight was the best I have ever seen, I hope you can fully understand how spectacular our evening on the dunes near Stovepipe Wells was.

It started out pretty grey and blah, the dunes were wet from the rains last week, and there were footprints all over the place – all making me less than enthusiastic about our chances for some good shooting. Despite this, we were more than happy to enjoy the exercise as we hiked up and down all of the major dunes, all the while searching for a pleasing composition. Even in these conditions, the dunes here are truly amazing, stretching for what seems like miles and miles within the valley.

We had pretty much given up on getting any real “keepers” when we noticed some nice light way off in the distance. We hoped that maybe the sun would get under the layer of clouds and provide us with a last minute show, and boy did it ever. I have never seen a sunset like this in my life. Both Sam and I marveled at the show that was going on in the sky, and I was especially pleased that he was here to share it with me. Perched high on top of the highest dune, we didn’t really have time to go look for an interesting foreground to include in a composition. We mostly just sat in awe, admiring what was going on around us, but here is a taste of what we saw…

Early Morning Reflections

The five o’clock alarm came around quickly this morning.

Deep, dark skies engulfed us as we made the short drive to the Badwater Salt Flats, and we were both very impressed with the clarity of the starlit skies here in this part of California. We wanted to try exploring a little further away from where we had been the night before, so we parked about half a mile past the parking lot and ventured out maybe half a mile onto the valley floor from there. Everything was still pretty wet, though we were hoping to use that to our advantage and capture a reflection of the morning light hitting the Panamints across the valley floor.

The light came very quickly… truth be told before I was ready for it. I was still scrambling around looking for a decent composition where I could frame a reflection when the whole sky above us lit up with warm pink light. I knew I only had seconds before the light would hit the snow capped peaks, so I hurriedly set up my tripod and tried to capture the wonderful scene presented to us. The trouble I was having settling on a composition came from my inability to make sense of the chaos of the foreground and frame the broken ridges in a way where the reflection worked. I couldn’t get low enough to really accentuate the reflection, so the wide angle lens I was using doesn’t really convey how exciting it was to see the mountains reflected in pools of water in the salt polygons. The great light didn’t last long, though it was still incredible to hang out and watch the shadows continue to race across the mountains and then the valley floor.

After shooting at this location, we followed the Badwater Road away from our hotel and explored the path through the valley toward Shoshone. We had fun shooting the high desert landscape and the long and straight roads that went as far as the eye can see.

Here’s me and the boy posing for a self-portrait – we were the only people on the flats this particular morning, and we both appreciated the splendor and serenity of the scene before us. We’re off the the sand dunes at Stovepipe Wells for an evening shoot… more to follow.

Badwater, Death Valley

On the one hand leaving home a day early to avoid the bad weather on the east coast was incredibly exhausting as we crisscrossed the country over a two day period going from Bangor to New York to Indianapolis to Charlotte to Las Vegas… but on the other hand we earned ourselves a bonus afternoon and evening in Death Valley.

As we neared our destination, it quickly became obvious that the park had not yet recovered from the winter storms that ravaged the area a few weeks back. There was standing water in many places along the roadside, with mud and debris often strewn across the blacktop. When we reached the valley floor, we were greeted with some warm sunshine and high clouds which was a nice change from the weather we would have been experiencing back in Maine. We were happy to be here enjoying the relatively warm temperatures, and we both marveled at the vastness of the landscape before us. After scouting a less-traveled trail just to the right of Zabriskie Point for another morning, our first task was to choose a location for our bonus evening of shooting. We both agreed that seeing the unique and surreal salt flats at Badwater would be a great way to start our adventure.

At 282 feet below sea level, these salt flats are an amazing sight. Blistering temperatures throughout much of the year usually mean that this landscape is parched of all water, leaving behind incredibly interesting polygon shaped ridges of salt scattered over a very wide area. As we ventured out onto the flats this evening though, we realized we were seeing this place in an even more unique state, with pools of water covering much of the valley floor.

Sam and I both set out to explore the area, looking for pleasing compositions that might capture the grandeur of where we were. It was VERY cool to see him working with a tripod for the first time, and he totally embraced the process of trying to represent the beauty that we were seeing with his camera. It was funny though to see him pack up his camera right after the sun went down only to be completely surprised and delighted by the spectacular light that arrived about 10 minutes later. He hurriedly set everything back up again and was able to take advantage of the late magical light show we were blessed with, learning a very valuable lesson about the fleeting nature of good light. All evening he worked the scene like a pro, and I was a very proud father seeing him get so excited about something I too love to do. He truly does have a wonderful sense of how to compose an image, and I will share some of his photographs here in the next few days. I am hoping that he will write about his experiences too.

As the sun set to the west behind Telescope Peak (11,049 feet), the skies above us absolutely lit up with an amazing array of colors. We saw a range of warm winter light, cooler blues and pinks as the skies overhead were reflected on the ground, and as the last light faded we were treated to a final blaze of color leaving behind silhouetted shapes of the rugged and dramatic mountains that surrounded us. The salt flats creaked and hissed as if they were alive, making for an eerie after dark experience as we navigated back to the car. This was an awesome start to our vacation together, and I am eager to see the rest of our adventure together unfold. The alarm clock is set for 5:15am, and our intention is to return to the salt flats again, this time to witness the morning light illuminating the snow capped and majestic Panamint Mountains. Here are a few from this evening…

A Night in Indy

Bangor to New York to Indianapolis… despite the potential for disruption, our traveling adventure today could not have gone any smoother. It is almost midnight as we hunker down in Indy to try to get some sleep in the airport. Our flight to Charlotte (and then Vegas) is scheduled to leave Indy at 5:20am, that is of course dependent on the weather. It is snowing as I write this, with more expected through the morning, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that we will get away on time. On the plus side, Indianapolis airport is spectacularly clean and modern, and if I absolutely had to spend a night in an airport… this would be the one!

Off and Running to Death Valley

Here we are at 16,000 feet soaring over the mid coast of Maine on a puddle-jumper of a plane… one day early. We were supposed to be flying out of Bangor at 7am on Wednesday morning, but a mid-atlantic snowstorm 800 miles to the south of us has derailed those plans. The airline was so sure about the impact of the pending storm on Philadelphia that they had already cancelled our flight, leaving us scrambling to salvage the front end of our trip.

The airline reservation phone number was swamped with people all trying to re-schedule their travel plans making it impossible to get through, so I decided to make a personal visit to the airport to see if I could make alternate arrangements. Luckily we live about five minutes from the local airport, and when I approached the airline ticket counter I was pleasantly surprised to be the only person there. You gotta love small, regional airports and the service you can get there!

I was told that things weren’t looking too good, and that if we wanted to re-schedule our reservation for after when we were originally scheduled to fly out, we probably wouldn’t get away for another couple of days… obviously not what I wanted to hear. Optimistically, I inquired about maybe getting out this afternoon – a day early – and the very courteous US Airways representative instantly went to work to try and make that happen.

It was 1:30pm on Tuesday when she informed me that we were booked on a 4:24pm flight to La Guardia, connecting from there with another flight to Indianapolis. We would be staying overnight in Indy before grabbing an early morning flight to Charlotte, where we would then connect and head to our final destination, Las Vegas. Not the perfect scenario for the journey by any means, but when faced with the alternative of being stuck in Bangor for another couple of days and having to eat the non-refundable hotel reservations etc., this seemed like a pretty good option. Besides, we should get to Vegas about 10 hours earlier than originally scheduled, giving us more time to enjoy the vacation, and more importantly, another sunset opportunity to shoot.

As soon as our new itinerary was confirmed, I immediately called Sam’s high school to have him excused and we hurriedly finished packing so we could make our new departure time. Our taxi got us to the airport in plenty of time, and here we are… on our way. My guess is that by the time we eventually get to Vegas we will be totally exhausted, but right now that isn’t even on our minds as we are both very excited that our adventure has finally started… even if it is a day early!

Sam and me reflected in some really dirty glass as we waited in LaGuardia airport for a connection to Indianapolis.

Death Valley (and Eastern Sierra)

Taking a break from the Superbowl hype…

OK… am officially a little worried about the impact the recent weather in Death Valley might have on being able to access some of the more remote parts of the park. After the last round of winter storms washed through DV, there apparently is still a lot of mud and debris around, especially on the dirt and washboard roads to places like the Racetrack, the Devil’s Golf Course, and Titus Canyon. With more showers possible in the next few days, things aren’t looking good for being able to get to some of the more isolated locations in the park. On the plus side though, atypical weather conditions might make for some interesting photographic opportunities in the desert.

Even though the road to the Racetrack is open, the playa is still wet, and NO-ONE SHOULD EVER WALK ON THE PLAYA WHEN IT IS WET – footprints left there can last for years, so with that in mind it unfortunately looks like we will not make it there on this trip. Over the next few days we will be examining our options… maybe we see the iconic sights of DV and then wander on over to CA 395 and explore that region for a couple of days? Last year I had a chance to briefly visit the Alabama Hills behind Lone Pine, and found it to be an incredibly beautiful landscape. At 14,505 ft, Mount Whitney and the Eastern Sierra tower over a desert-type landscape that flows over huge rounded rocks and down into the Owen’s Valley – a landscape that definitely lends itself to photography. I have always wanted to explore from Lone Pine up through Bishop and on to Mono Lake, and this might be a great time to do that.

Not being completely familiar with the area, I have been using Internet social networking tools like Flickr and photography forums to reach out to others with experience from these regions for advice on shooting locations and weather conditions. It never ceases to amaze me how generous people are with sharing information and ideas. Photographers like Ben Horne, Dan Mitchell, Kevin McNeal, Phil Kuglin, Jim Fox have all been incredibly generous with their knowledge and expertise, so thank you to everyone who has helped.

The image in this post was made on a previous visit to Death Valley, and is from the dunes near Stovepipe Wells. This is a morning shot, and I loved the patterns and textures that were accentuated by the early light. I was lucky on this occasion that there weren’t too many footprints to deal with – a sandstorm had come whipping through the previous afternoon erasing all evidence of human presence. Am very much looking forward to getting back here, this time with Sam.

Four days and counting until we leave…

Earth from space – sort of

This is a photograph I made of the earth while standing on a space station… seriously!

Before you ask, I did not spend the $20K that Richard Branson and Virgin will soon be charging to fly into space, and contrary to popular belief I do not possess NASA astronaut skills that would have granted me access to the international space station. So how did I make a photograph of the earth from space?

As part of my ongoing formal education, I am currently enrolled in a very interesting graduate class in which we are examining the implications for teaching and learning in virtual worlds. Only a couple of weeks into the semester, I have already become intrigued by the possibilities for creating innovative and purposeful learning spaces in this medium. As a class we do not meet in the traditional face-to-face fashion, instead we gather every Monday evening on Black Bear Island in Second Life.

Becoming familiar with our surroundings and the virtual environment has been a focus of the first few weeks, and in our most recent class we participated in “An Amazing Race” (in SL) designed to expose us to many educational and interesting places. One of the places I “visited” was Spaceport Alpha, the International Space Station Museum, and that was where I snapped this image of the view.

Who knows, perhaps one day it will actually be possible for the common man (and woman) to view the earth from space like this – wouldn’t that be a sight?

Preparing for Death Valley

About a week to go now, and part of preparing for a trip like this is to take inventory of my camera gear and make any necessary adjustments such as cleaning, replacing, and adding anything I think I might need.

Number one on my list would be to add a new camera, but alas, that is not to be at this point. I have been chugging along with my trusty old Canon 20D for several years now, and having seen various upgrades come and go – 30D, 40D, and 50D – I never really felt the need to buy a new camera… until recently that is.

Two Canon models have fairly recently hit the market, and to be honest I would admit to having just a tad of camera envy. The 5D Mark II is a full frame, 21MP camera that was introduced maybe two years ago and is now the camera of choice for many landscape photographers. Every review and every online discussion board thread raves about its performance. However, with Sam getting ready to go to college, and the camera retailing at around $2500 it is not quite within reach right now. What’s the big deal about college anyway?

Another Canon model released recently is the more affordable 7D ($1600 ish). Again a big step forward with research and development, and a camera that I would like to get my hands on. Both of these cameras sport many new features including authentic HD video that I would love to take advantage of, but most importantly, their image quality appears to be significantly improved over my faithful 20D. I have created large 20×30 prints from the 20D that are quite something, but I would love to see the detail obtained from either of these two bodies. Enough camera envy…

Things I am able to do to prepare include cleaning the sensor of my camera, cleaning the joints on my tripod legs, making sure all of my batteries are holding a charge, formatting all CF cards, making plans for backing up on the road, and generally confirming that everything is in good working order.

One new purchase I did make is a remote release which, in addition to the functionality of the manual version, will allow me to program the camera to trip the shutter remotely over time creating opportunities for doing some time lapse and star-trail photography. This is new and exciting to me… it is always good to try new things, and I am looking forward to both the process and the outcomes.