Dunes, Dunes, and more Dunes…

Here are more images from the Mesquite Sand Dunes. As I have mentioned several times before, this is a special place, and a place that I will definitely return to some day.

The trouble with shooting the dunes in the morning is that when you first walk out there it is still dark! Without any city lights to pollute the darkness, without a full moon it is VERY dark and it takes a little while to get your bearings and “see” compositions that you are interested in, but when the sun comes up, the light moves pretty fast. Ideally you will have either scouted out some compositions the day before, or shooting here in the evening would allow plenty of time in the afternoon to explore the area prior to the arrival of the evening light.

Hopefully this series of images illustrates how fast the light changes, and how wonderful it was? It started out with a cool pretty pink hue, before bathing the dunes with a warm glow. The shadows soon receded, and I was left with a bright, hot sun that truly completed the feeling of being in a desert.

Manly Beacon and the Badlands

Now that I am not driving, I have the chance to go back through the folders of images that I made on this trip. As always, there are some that dropped through the cracks that might be worth sharing. Here’s a couple more from the morning spent at Zabriskie point.

Manly Beacon is an icon of Death Valley. Named after William L. Manly who guided Gold Rush prospectors out of Death Valley in 1849, this spire stands as a beacon overlooking the valley floor and the Golden Canyon Badlands. This is a very popular vista, and surely anyone who visits Death Valley has made a photograph from Zabriskie Point with it included?

In the image below, you can see the effects of intense rainstorms and their erosive power. Death Valley doesn’t get that much rain in any given year (less than 2 inches on average), but when it does, the power of the storms can be literally earth-moving.

This surreal landscape originated when sediment was deposited here from long-ago dried-up Furnace Creek Lake. With no soil or vegetation to help anchor the land, heavy rains attack the fragile mudstone. As the water rushes and seeks a quick way to lower ground, it creates gullies and troughs that remind us of the immense power of nature. In the background you can also see the snow-capped top of Telescope Peak in the Panamint Range, towering 11,049 feet above sea level.

Mesquite Dunes

Amazing place!

One quick photograph before I hit the road. Have to check out and drive down to Los Angeles, so I have to get out of here. Spent about 5 hours out on these dunes, and I am sure that I never even scratched the surface for compositional possibilities. This one was from the very first light coming over the Amargosa Range to the east… more to follow when I have time to work on them.

Running Out of Gas

Running out of gas is not something you want to do in this place. Call me paranoid, but the whole time I have been here I haven’t allowed the needle on my gas guage to get below half-full! The one running out of gas is me… the early morning starts and jet-lag are starting to catch up. Add to that the hot weather (which I appreciate but am not used to), and the 40 mph winds that blasted the valley all day today, and I am getting pooped.

Anyway… now for another photograph. I wandered out onto the salt flats at Badwater this evening. If you haven’t seen this place, it is well worth a visit. In addition to being at 282 feet below sea level, it is notoriously hot. Death Valley receives less than 2 inches of rain all year, but it has an evaporation rate of more than 150 inches total. What that means is that the sun literally bakes the ground, drawing up any moisture and leaving behind a salt-encrusted, baked and surreal landscape.

The last time I was here a couple of years back with my buddy Steve, the temperature was a stifling 121 degrees. The air was so heavy that evening that it really was a challenge to move at anything other than a snail’s pace. Staying hydrated was key to surviving that adventure, and even though it hasn’t come close to those searing temperatures this time around, water and sunscreen have again been essential.

When photographing the shapes on the salt flats, it can be challenging to “see” patterns that you like for the purpose of composition. I waited and waited for the magic to happen with the light, and I ended up staying out on the flats until after dark. I wanted to represent what my eyes saw, but the camera was unable to render the scene in one exposure. This image is a combination of two exposures… one for the foreground, and one for the sky. For the sky I used a neutral density filter to enable a longer shutter speed… and I think that helped deepen the colors. The salt flats reflect the color of the sky, hence the blue tint. It is always about the light, and when you combine a location like this with special light, you get great memories… and a nice photograph.

Needless to say, on this occasion there wasn’t a soul around for miles. The solitude and serenity afforded by being in a place like this is why I enjoy landscape photography.

I am hoping that the winds have died down by the morning so I can photograph the sand dunes near Stovepipe Wells. I wouldn’t dare take my camera out there with the sand blowing the way it was earlier today… that would be suicide for that little puppy. The good news? Well, the wind will have erased all footprints on the dunes, so if all goes to plan the area will be pristine by morning, and ready to be photographed.

Zabriskie Point

These images are from another Death Valley photographic icon. There aren’t many people who visit the park and don’t photograph this place… and I couldn’t resist either. The first is at the height of the sunrise and is the traditional take on Zabriskie Point, and the second is a little later, looking back into the sun a bit toward the folded and weathered hillside.

On the edge of the Funeral Mountains, Zabriskie Point offers an elevated overlook that looks out over a landscape of badlands with a foreground of gullies and hills, leading to the Badwater Salt Flats and across the valley to the Panamint Range and Telescope Peak.

I got here nice and early again, hoping that there would be some nice wispy upper-level clouds and a display of light as the sun came up. Although not disappointed with how things transpired, there was an absolutely amazing display of early light right behind me, overlooking the not-so picturesque parking lot! I couldn’t help wondering what things looked like down the road a bit at the Mesquite Dunes where one would have been able to incorporate the wonderful sunrise.

Lots of other photographers here this morning… everything from a busload of tourists to serious photographers shooting 8×10 format. Hard to do justice to the first shot with a wide angle lens, so I also shot some images to try to stitch a panorama together later.

Big Place!

Did you know that Death Valley is the largest National Park in the contiguous United States? There are more than 3.3 million acres of wilderness in this park, with a wide range in topography and climate throughout its expanse.

On the Western side of the park you have the still snow-capped Telescope Peak in the Panamint Range which towers at 11,049 feet, and directly below that in the barren salt flats of Badwater you can find yourself at the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere – 282 feet below sea level. There are giant sand dunes and twisting canyons, hidden waterfalls and glorious wildflowers. This is a park that requires some time to see… unless you want to spend a lot of time driving. The scenery is barren but beautiful, arid but amazing.

This image is from Dante’s View, an overlook perched at 5,475 feet atop the Black Mountains. Looking north through the valley you can see the Panamint Range to the left, the Badwater Salt Flats and the Devils Golf Course through the heart of the valley, and the Funeral Mountains bordering California and Nevada to the right.

On this morning in late March, the wind was howling at about 40 mph, and the temperature was noticeably cooler than down in the valley. A magnificent vista of what is a surreal landscape.

An Oasis in the Desert

Tucked away in a narrow and desolate canyon there is water to be found in Death Valley!

Another washboard drive – this time 2.5 miles in fear of a flat tire – and then a one mile hike found me looking up at this wonderful waterfall. Called Darwin Falls, it can be found by hiking along a dried up river bed that slowly gets narrower and narrower, and as it gets narrower, it also gets greener.

Running water can be heard as you clamber over rocks and around bends in the canyon. A welcome respite from the heat of Death Valley, this little oasis is a gem. The further I ventured into the canyon, the more life I encountered. I even saw some genuine wildlife – several lizards, some as large as about a foot in length crossed my path as they scurried about their business.

I didn’t take my tripod on the hike with me. It was pretty hot out – around 80 degrees which was hot for me having just come from 21 degrees in Bangor the day before. I bracketed three shots so that I could try to handle the dynamic range that comes from trying to make an image such as this on a sunny day in a canyon filled with shadows. The camera has a hard time exposing correctly when there is such a range between the light and dark areas in the scene. Our eyes automatically adjust to the scene, but the camera cannot… bracketing exposures allows me to “blend” different areas to create one image that best represent what my eyes saw in person. I would love to have slowed the shutter way down to “feather” the water, but there you go… with bright light and no tripod, this is what you get.

Longest Day…

Today was what one might safely call a long day! I was up at 4am EST to get to the airport, and even though all of my flights connected on time and everything went smoothly, it still made for a tiring day traveling. I hate flying. Not the actual flying, but the claustrophobic and stifling feeling you get when confined in the airplane seat. Never comfortable, I tried to doze but had a hard time trying to catch up.

Landed in LA and headed straight for the car rental place. After a brief delay, I set off on the “Freeway” in my shiny little PT Cruiser. It was quite cool to drive north on I-405 and see famous names like Sunset Boulevard, Mulholland Drive, and Santa Monica Boulevard in person.

I knew that I could not get to Death Valley before sunset, and wanted to try to at least shoot something on the way. I decided to stick to the plan and drive north toward the Trona Pinnacles. After a considerable drive, I arrived at the entrance to the 5-mile long dirt road leading to the site just before sunset. I drove faster than I should have on the awful road, just trying to get close enough so that I might be able to make a photograph or two before the light was gone.

As you can see, the light wasn’t anything special, but as always, just being there was really neat. Definitely a unique place – even otherwordly – but unfortunately I was unable to come away with a photograph that really did this place justice. Within 5 minutes of me grabbing my camera and scrambling to snag at least something, the shadow from a nearby peak had engulfed the scene. Rather than staying any longer to appreciate the scene and then having to navigate the dirt road back in the dark, I left pretty soon after taking this image.

I headed onward and upward, and am VERY happy to be off the road and able to rest. More to come… will be up bright and early and hope to be able to enjoy some more wonderful scenery.

On The Road

Well actually… I am going to be in the air first, and then on the road. I leave bright and early tomorrow morning for California, and am very excited for this day to have finally arrived. I have been thinking – and blogging – about this trip for quite a while… I started in the depths of our Maine winter, and now it is time to leave.

The image below is an example of the remoteness and uniqueness of the landscape I am going to experience. Death Valley National Park is a vast and sometimes inhospitable place, but that is why it intrigues me so much. My next post should be from somewhere other than Bangor, Maine.

Forecast Looks Good!

I am getting excited. I leave for California on Tuesday morning, and as I check the weather forecast things look to be shaping up nicely for the trip.

Looks like the temperatures will be in the 80’s, and even though the snow here in Maine has been melting recently, it will be very nice to feel the warm (OK… hot!) sun again.

While blue skies and sunshine are going to be very welcome, for landscape photography it is preferable sometimes to have clouds in the sky to provide a little drama. With this in mind, I was quite excited when I saw that the forecast was for at least “mostly sunny” and also for some”wind” – both elements might present opportunities for more creative compositions.

I am going to attempt to “stretch” creatively a little on this trip, trying some longer exposures with an ND filter, looking at creating some panoramic shots, and a real challenge for me… night photography.

The plan is to get there – Death Valley – and slow down… really take some time to explore and experience the valley as best I can in the time that I have. Too often not enough time is devoted to exploring a location, hurrying from place to place and spending way too much time in the car. Not this time…

I will have Internet access during the trip, so I will plan on updating the blog as often as I can. Would love to hear your thoughts as the trip unfolds. Should be fun!

Finally finalized… the itinerary!

OK, I have been waffling back and forth lately about the specifics of the itinerary for my trip… which by the way is only a couple of days away now.

I had been debating trying to squeeze more into this trip, but in the end feel that I should probably slow down a little, and spend more time in what is truly a unique place. I feel good about this choice, and am looking forward to the adventure.

I leave for California bright and early on Tuesday morning, and as I check the weather forecast daily these days, I see that it is expected to be between 88 and 91 degrees and sunny the whole time I am there. While I would love to have some clouds to add some drama for the photography part of things, I have to admit I am excited about feeling the warmth of the sun again. Here in Maine we won’t see anything above 70 degrees likely until mid-May at the earliest!

So… the plan is to stick with the plan! I am going to leave LA and head north toward the Trona area for Tuesday evening. After that I am going to move on toward Death Valley and spend the next couple of days exploring the park. There is so much to see and do there, and the unique and exciting landscape there will give me plenty of photographic opportunities.

Here’s a photograph of the Mesquite Sand Dunes taken the last time I was in Death Valley. This image was captured in the morning, but on this visit I hope to be able to spend some time on these dunes in both the morning and evening.

What to do..?

Alright… I have been thinking and re-thinking my trip itinerary. Should I go to Death Valley after all, or should I try to find something closer to LA to shoot for the couple of days I am going to be out West at the College Board conference? Reasons why I am second guessing the Death Valley part of the trip include:

• can’t seem to get any kind of affordable overnight accommodation in Death Valley. Would be happy to sleep in the car, and have been researching how to do this without getting a ticket – the Racetrack was one of the places I wanted to stay overnight in – but at some point I am going to want to sleep in a bed and have a shower – call me soft, but the idea of three or four nights roughing it puts me pretty much at my limit.
• renting a car from LA is surprisingly expensive. For me to get something that I can take to the Racetrack would be VERY expensive. Am thinking of opting for the cheaper economy car that would preclude me from taking the washboard road out to the Racetrack. Something with decent clearance is going to cost me about $350 just for three days!
• the playa at the south end of the Racetrack is being reported as wet at this time – this means that no-one should not walk on the surface. If I did walk on the playa surface when wet, my footprints would last for years, and I am not interested in creating that kind of impact. The Racetrack overnight was one of the main reasons I was heading toward Death Valley – that and the promise of warmer weather.

What to do? What to do? Should I stick to the plan? Or should I try to devise a new plan that involves exploring a different area? Having said that, even if I cannot get to the Racetrack there are many aspects of Death Valley that still make it a REALLY cool destination for photography. The Mesquite Dunes area, the Badwater Salt Flats, Zabriskie’s Point, and the many canyons to explore… these are but a few of the opportunities available in this wonderful place.

The image in this post has become one of my favorites… after wandering around the vast area covered by the Mesquite Dunes my head was spinning with trying to come up with a composition that I liked. When I saw this scene it sort of simplified things for me, and I was able to relax and go on to making several more images from this area that I liked.

Am going to have to do some thinking about where my final destination will be… though the good news is that regardless, on March 24th I am flying out of Bangor, Maine and the winter weather that I will leave behind to go to the left coast and have a couple of days to explore a different part of the country… it will be somewhere that will certainly be warmer than it is right now, and somewhere that will provide an inspiring and exciting landscape for me to try to capture with my camera.

Devils Golf Course

The Devils Golf Course is another unique and fascinating feature of Death Valley National Park in California. Located just off the road to the Badwater Salt Flats, it is a wide expanse of salt pan that was once an ancient lake. This ancient lake evaporated 2,000 years ago leaving an amazing landscape that even today is ever-changing.

The area consists of a jagged, salt-encrusted surface that is continually being shaped by wind, rain and sun. Salty water rises up through the mud where it evaporates leaving a dry, lumpy, and incredibly inhospitable surface covered with salt crystals.

It was named the Devils Golf Course in 1934 after a National Park Service guidebook described how “only the devil could play golf on it’s surface.”

As you can see from this photograph which I made on my last visit, I wasn’t able to be in this location at a time when the light favored photography. I still like this image though because to me it attempts to illustrate the vastness of this area of the park.

On my upcoming visit I am hoping to be able to spend some time exploring this phenomenon at a time when the light is a little more favorable.

There are only about six weeks left now before I leave for my trip, and am pretty excited about the adventure that I know I am going to have. Between then and now I am going to be preparing for the trip by making sure all of my equipment is in proper working order, and if I need any additional gear I will be purchasing it. More to come on the specific equipment that I will be bringing with me to use…

Another version of the Racetrack story

The last time I visited the Southwest was back in 2007, and during that trip I was lucky enough to have the company of a friend. Steve is very much the outdoorsy type, having climbed the likes of Aconcagua, Mount Hood, and our own Mount Katahdin on numerous occasions. He is an avid hunter and sportsman, detailing his experiences on The Rabid Outdoorsman blog that I subscribe to.

Despite the fact that he slept most of the trip, Steve was able to capture some of his own images from our travels around the Southwest, and it is always enjoyable to see someone else’s perspective. We toured several National Parks including Death Valley, Arches, Canyonlands… along with Deadhorse State Park. He even created a short video of our adventures, and if interested you can see it here

The Racetrack

A magical and remote spot located a long way from civilization, the Racetrack in Death Valley has to be one of the most intriguing places I have ever had the good fortune to visit.

It is tucked away in a fairly inaccessible part of the park, requiring a two hour drive at no more than 15-20 miles per hour along what can best be described as a sometimes dirt, sometimes rock, covered road. Advice given by past visitors mentions the need for 4 x 4 transportation, though the time I ventured there a couple of years back with my buddy Steve, we were in a mini-SUV without the luxury of any kind of advanced traction. We were lucky enough to have pretty decent clearance, and as we clattered along over the sharp and unstable surface, we wondered what damage we were doing to our rental car.

The temptation when driving to the Racetrack is to become impatient and speed up… some even say that the ride smoothes out if you go a little faster. The biggest lesson I learned from that last trip – other than to stay on trails that were actually on the map – was to go slow. In the six hours or so we spent on this journey we saw one other vehicle, so if you do encounter a mishap, you better be prepared to deal with it by yourself!

Steve and I were on a pretty ambitious schedule last visit, and we had places to go after visiting the Racetrack. Our intention was to visit the Racetrack and then head up into the Owen’s Valley for a few days. We meandered along the bumpy surface for what seemed like forever, and surprise, surprise… I was able to get us there in one piece. I remember the first glimpse we had of the playa and the Grandstand (the rock outcrop at one end of the playa). It was an eerie place – we were so far out in the wilderness, and the silence was very noticeable indeed. We were excited though, and the expanse of the view before us was quite awe-inspiring.

Unfortunately we were only able to be there during the middle of the day when the light was less than favorable for making photographs. We spent a couple of hours there all by ourselves wandering around inspecting the “moving” rocks that the Racetrack is so famous for, each of us grabbing our own photographic compositions. Many explanations have been proposed for how the rocks – some of which must have weighed 60lbs – had left behind a trail outlining their movement. The scientific explanation would be that a combination of strong winds and a thin layer of ice/water/mud enables these large rocks to slide across the playa leaving behind an obvious and unusual trail. The non-scientific explanations would mention something about magic!

After a brief but eventful detour at Teakettle Junction – let’s just say we explored some alternate routes out that didn’t quite pan out as hoped – we headed back toward Ubehebe Crater and a solid, paved road. The road back out from the Racetrack isn’t any better than the road going in, so I tried my best to maintain a steady speed. About an hour and a half after leaving the Racetrack, we finally rejoiced when we felt the smooth surface under our car that signaled we were at least on our way back toward civilization and a hearty meal.

As we zipped along the National Park road toward dinner, a warning light appeared on the dash… something wrong with the tire pressure in the back left. Sure enough… we had a slow flat tire. Maybe I should have driven even slower coming back from the Racetrack? We limped back to Furnace Creek where Steve was able to change the wheel.

Anyway, ever since that brief visit to the Racetrack, I have always wanted to go back there – this time to stay overnight to try to capture the wonder of this place under better lighting conditions. Needless to say I am especially excited about this part of the trip, and this time I will be a little more careful driving in and out.

For more information on the moving rock phenomenon and the Racetrack itself, check out these resources:

Racetrack Playa – Wikipedia

The Sliding Rocks of Racetrack Playa – Paul Messina

The Sliding Rocks on the Racetrack Playa – DesertUSA.com

The Plan…

I was recently invited to attend and present at a conference in Los Angeles, California at the end of March. Though excited about the conference, I immediately started wondering if I could spin this trip into a brief photo safari? Once I had determined that yes, in fact I could add a couple of days to the trip, the only thing left to decide was where I was going to go.

I love to visit beautiful places and try to make photographs of what I see there. Getting up early to catch the morning light usually means that there are few, if any, other people around. Enjoying the start of a day in a peaceful and tranquil setting is a moment to be treasured, and if I am able to come away with a photograph that does justice to the scene I witnessed, then that is a bonus.

When it comes to landscape photography, I am fortunate to live in a state as beautiful as Maine is. Right in my own back yard there is some of the most striking scenery any photographer could imagine. We have majestic mountains to the north and west, strong and powerful rivers throughout the state, and a rugged and scenic coastline that stretches for miles.

While I love the wonderful landscapes of Maine, I am also drawn to explore other parts of the world. Places that are different, special and unique… and Death Valley can certainly be considered one of the most impressive areas on this planet. The image in this first blog post was made back in the summer of 2007 on the Mesquite Dunes near Stovepipe Wells… the temperatures that week were running in the low 120’s! Looking at the average temps for when I am going to be in Death Valley in late March, it should be a very comfortable 80 degrees or so, and I am very excited about being able to make what I hope will be some cool photographs from this trip.

Check back again soon and I will begin to detail my preparations for what should be an amazing trip.