We started off the day back at Zebriskie Point for sunrises. This first image was shot during twilight, before the sun has risen, and there was still a glow on the western horizon. The two black specs on the hills below are two photographers. Since I couldn’t find a composition, with the glow in the sky, and without them; I decided to include them for a sense of scale.
But the magic doesn’t start to happen at Zebriskie Point until the sun is up and over the mountains. The warm color temperature and low angle of light brings out the colors and textures of the hills that line the wash.
Here is the shooting metadata for this image:
D200 with 24-70 @ 24mm
1/8sec @ f/3.5 ISO 100
Matrix, Aperture Priority, Comp +1/3
3 Stop GND
I spent a good part of this morning shooting a time-laps sequence of the sun light slowly moving over the hills below. Still not sure what I’m going to do with them. But I did take time to do a couple of detail shots that show the color and texture I was talking about.
This is a blend of two exposures; on for the sky and one for the rest of the image. Here is the shooting metadata for this image:
D200 with 24-70 @ 24mm
1/10 & 1/20sec @ f/8 ISO 100
Matrix, Aperture Priority, Comp -2/3 & -1 2/3
2 Stop GND
Here is the shooting metadata for this image:
D200 with 80-200 @ 80mm
1/15 sec @ f/8 ISO 100
Matrix, Aperture Priority, Comp 0
Mid-afternoon we decided to scouted out Dante’s View. This was the only grand view that we got to on this trip. But it is hard to imagine that there are any quite so spectacular as this. Directly below us is Badwater. Dante’s View is at about 5500 feet in elevation and Badwater is some 280 feet below sea level. The thin black line is Badwater Road. You can see where it “T”s with the main road, Rt 190, near Furnace Creek (center of the picture). For a sense of scale, that’s about 17 or so miles.
Here is the shooting metadata for this image:
D200 with 12-24 @ 24mm
1/160sec @ f/7.1 ISO 100
Matrix, Aperture Priority, Comp +1/3
2Stop GND Handheld
That afternoon we were back at Mesquite Flats. The idea I had with this image was to emulate the look you get doing a close focus wide angle underwater shot of a large growth of brain coral. I like how the low light angle creates the alternating highlight and shadow on the ridges. And how these give the image a sense of movement from low to high. But that dark ridge is all that there is at the top. The lines get the viewer’s eye to move from bottom to top but once the eye gets there is nothing there to capture it. However, for some reason I still like it. So I thought I would see what happens with monochrome. The B&W version allows a stronger adjustment of the tones than the color version. Here the sand is lightened a lot and the sky darkened a bit. Now the sky plays very little role in the image and the dark ridge at the top is a contrasty enough to carry the image. What do you think?
Here is the shooting metadata for this image:
D200 with 12-24 @ 14mm
1/15 sec @ f/14 ISO 100
Matrix, Aperture Priority, Comp 0
2 Stop GND
Just before the sun went behind the mountains of the Amargosa Range the moon began rising. Moments after this was taken the sun do go behind the mountains and the light almost instantly went flat.
Here is the shooting metadata for this image:
D200 with 24-70 @ 70 mm
1/15 sec @ f/14 ISO 100
Matrix, Aperture Priority, Comp +1
2 Stop GND