As usual, we awoke early so we could get to our destination before sunrise. I was still hoping to get to the sand dunes when the sun was low. Unfortunately a quick look out the window confirmed that the wind was still bowing….hard. So this ruled out the sand dunes for another day. So we opted to return to Zebriskie Point. Early on I shot HDR brackets and then switched to shooting with a GND (Graduated Neutral Density) filter. I must be one of the last dinosaurs shooting that way. Most guys just continue to shoot the HDRs and do not bother with the GND filter.
Much like several of the Zebriske Point images in ealier posts, I like the way the tonal differences make the different elements stand out. This also gives the image a sense of depth.
The meta data for this image:
D200 with 24-70 @ 34mm
1/25, 1/13 and 1/6 sec @ f/5.6 ISO 100
Matrix, Aperture Priority, Comp +1
Prior to this pano sequence I shot a horizontal pano of the same scene but did not like it because it didn’t include the clouds. This is a two shot vertical pano. I then cropped it to a square format. In haind sight, I wish I had thought to shoot a two row pano while I was there. But, for whatever, reason it didn’t occur to me at time. (The haze in the background is dust from the wind that had been blowing for two days.) The meta data for this image:
D200 with 12-24 @ 12mm
1/20 sec @ f/10 ISO 100
Matrix, Aperture Priority, Comp +1 1/3
2 stop soft GND filter
In the afternoon we went back to the Badwater area. This is another salt polygon. It’s shot facing the opposite direction from the one from Day 2. The repeating patterns help visually simplify what would otherwise be a very busy foreground. Shooting metadata for this image:
D200 with 12-24 @ 12mm
1/250 sec @ f/5.6 ISO 100
Matrix, Aperture Priority, Comp 0
The next image was shot at Rhyolite, a ghost town between Death Valley and the town of Beatty NV. This is an old caboose that had been removed from it’s wheels. I guess at one time it was someones home. Probably left over from the Las Vegas-Tonopah Railroad that, back in the day, ran through town.
The B&W conversion really accentuates the textures in the wood. And removing the color does away with the color contrast between the red caboose and the sliver of blue sky making the sky a less prominent part of the image.
Here is the shooting metadata for this image:
D200 with 12-24 @ 24mm
1/160 sec @ f/7.1 ISO 100
Matrix, Aperture Priority, Comp 0
Handheld