Summer in Death Valley

coscorrosa · July 3, 2011

Some things are worth 122 F (aka 50 C)

After Yosemite and Mono Lake I spent three nights in Death Valley (hoping that less people would mean less footprints and more solitude), here are some of my favorites.

#1

#2

#3 Night Visitor:

#4

#5 - Palm tree and the Milky Way (the stars at Death Valley are incredible, I want to revisit during a new moon when the nights are longer):

#6 - Badlands

#7 - Solstice Sunrise from Zabriskie Point (there's a trail to get to this spot which I think has more pleasing compositions than the main view point):

Doug Solis · July 3, 2011

Great series Ron, I think your first image is just stunning. Fantastic lines, light and shadows, and wonderful textures. I don't see any footprints either.

David_S85 · July 3, 2011

Wonderful images, all of them, Ron. The 2nd image, when scrolled slowly, has an optical rippling effect as seen on my monitor.

schmoo · July 3, 2011

DV very clearly is a goldmine for beautiful nature abstracts. These came out great!

Glad to see you made it back to your swank urban pad safely

dlplumer · July 3, 2011

clap

Sam · July 3, 2011

I only go to Death Valley in the spring or fall.

I like #1 that's a good shot.

Sam

WernerG · July 3, 2011

These are all wonderful. The night shot and #1 are my favorites.

wolf911 · July 3, 2011

oh my gosh, awesome, can't even pick a favorite

coscorrosa · July 3, 2011

Doug Solis wrote: »

Great series Ron, I think your first image is just stunning. Fantastic lines, light and shadows, and wonderful textures. I don't see any footprints either.

Thanks Doug - there were footprints out there, but none on this dune (which was taller and further away). It was also taken at sunrise so there was a few hours for the wind to re-shape things a little bit. I didn't know that it would be footprint free or what the comps would be like until I reached the top about 2 minutes before the sun broke the horizon! I made a mess of that area with my own footprints ruining any chance for sunset from there but that's OK

David_S85 wrote: »

Wonderful images, all of them, Ron. The 2nd image, when scrolled slowly, has an optical rippling effect as seen on my monitor.

Thanks David!

schmoo wrote: »

DV very clearly is a goldmine for beautiful nature abstracts. These came out great!

Glad to see you made it back to your swank urban pad safely

The sand dunes are my favorite thing to photograph there, an infinite amount of compositions and most of them "don't suck" :P

I've almost recovered enough to start another trip!

dlplumer wrote: »

clap

Thanks Danny!

Sam wrote: »

I only go to Death Valley in the spring or fall.

I like #1 that's a good shot.

Sam

This was my first trip in summer, it's actually not so bad as long as you're prepared for the weather. There were quite a bit less people than normal, although Death Valley never seems too crowded compared to some other parks.

WernerG wrote: »

These are all wonderful. The night shot and #1 are my favorites.

Thanks! I wish I had more chances for night shots but as it was the solstice there wasn't a lot of night time hours to begin with, and even less that had no moon.

wolf911 wrote: »

oh my gosh, awesome, can't even pick a favorite

Thanks!

bryanj87 · July 3, 2011

Those first three are the best of the series, but #1 is the winner overall. IMO, that's pretty much a perfect dune shot. And I'm still waiting for the shots of the drunk Ewok.

Fred W · July 3, 2011

Great pics Ron,

Brings back memories making me wanna go back out there.

thumb

dogwood · July 4, 2011

Which dunes are those? How hot is it in July? Great pics.

Manfr3d · July 4, 2011

Sexy time! I've never seen something like #4 before (and I've looked at gazilions of death valley pics). Thats why it would be my favorite of this set.

joe-bob · July 4, 2011

Beautiful!

coscorrosa · July 4, 2011

bryanj87 wrote: »

Those first three are the best of the series, but #1 is the winner overall. IMO, that's pretty much a perfect dune shot. And I'm still waiting for the shots of the drunk Ewok.

Thanks - Do a google search for drunk Ewoks, you won't be disappointed

Fred W wrote: »

Great pics Ron,

Brings back memories making me wanna go back out there. thumb

I want to go back there too and I was just there! Next time it will probably be in fall or winter.

dogwood wrote: »

Which dunes are those? How hot is it in July? Great pics.

The Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes (the primary and largest dunes at Death Valley). They have a parking area now (as opposed to the shoulder of the road like before) and most of those dunes are covered in prints, but if you go to the east or west you can find some lesser visited dunes. July is the hottest month of the year, I believe the average highs are something like 117 F.

Manfr3d wrote: »

Sexy time! I've never seen something like #4 before (and I've looked at gazilions of death valley pics). Thats why it would be my favorite of this set.

Thanks! That mini-dune was located about a mile to the east of the main dunes and taken near sunset when the temps were still around 120! Felt good to get back to the air conditioned car afterward.

joe-bob wrote: »

Beautiful!

Thanks!

redleash · July 4, 2011

Superb set, Ron! My favorite is #3--may be one of my favorites I've seen of yours. The abstract shapes and lines are wonderful.

Lauren

Emancipator · July 4, 2011

Breathtaking! I wanted to ask, what is DVNP like in the winter? I plan on going this Dec and figured it would be less populated? Did you hike pretty far out to get these shots? I imagine that some of the highlights of this park such as Ibex and Eureka are foot printed a lot and you stayed away from those? Lastly, what focal length did you find best for these dunes? Great work, I am impressed!

coscorrosa · July 4, 2011

redleash wrote: »

Superb set, Ron! My favorite is #3--may be one of my favorites I've seen of yours. The abstract shapes and lines are wonderful.

Lauren

Thanks, Death Valley is definitely a great place for abstracts with the dunes, badlands, salt flats, playas, etc.

Emancipator wrote: »

Breathtaking! I wanted to ask, what is DVNP like in the winter? I plan on going this Dec and figured it would be less populated? Did you hike pretty far out to get these shots? I imagine that some of the highlights of this park such as Ibex and Eureka are foot printed a lot and you stayed away from those? Lastly, what focal length did you find best for these dunes? Great work, I am impressed!

According to http://www.nps.gov/deva/planyourvisit/seasons.htm, Thanksgiving to Christmas is the least visited time for the park, and I might return then. I've been there late September and mid February and it was busier than middle of summer. For the dunes shots (Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes near Stovepipe Wells), I don't think I hiked more than 2 miles out from the road for any of them, but it's not easy walking up and down dunes, and you really don't know until you're at the top of one of them if any of the compositions are going to be good. You have to watch out for footprints (not just from other people but your own too!). Mornings are better than evenings for footprints. The smaller dunes to the east are much less trafficked - and work good as abstracts but aren't as good for the wider type shots.

Emancipator · July 4, 2011

coscorrosa wrote: »

Thanks, Death Valley is definitely a great place for abstracts with the dunes, badlands, salt flats, playas, etc.

According to http://www.nps.gov/deva/planyourvisit/seasons.htm, Thanksgiving to Christmas is the least visited time for the park, and I might return then. I've been there late September and mid February and it was busier than middle of summer. For the dunes shots (Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes near Stovepipe Wells), I don't think I hiked more than 2 miles out from the road for any of them, but it's not easy walking up and down dunes, and you really don't know until you're at the top of one of them if any of the compositions are going to be good. You have to watch out for footprints (not just from other people but your own too!). Mornings are better than evenings for footprints. The smaller dunes to the east are much less trafficked - and work good as abstracts but aren't as good for the wider type shots.

Thanks, great tips. Maybe I'll see you out there, who knows? I'll be there around Early-Mid Dec. Most images of DVNP are just washed out day shots. I like what you did out there. I've been to whitesands and had a hard time composing there.

annnna8888 · July 5, 2011

I have to go to Death Valley.

And thanks for stating the temperature in C, too. :P

Ana

coscorrosa · July 5, 2011

Emancipator wrote: »

Thanks, great tips. Maybe I'll see you out there, who knows? I'll be there around Early-Mid Dec. Most images of DVNP are just washed out day shots. I like what you did out there. I've been to whitesands and had a hard time composing there.

I forgot to tell you the focal lengths, on all of the dunes shots I was using a 24-105 lens. I could see a need for going longer but not wider. Composing is the fun part, especially when you don't know what to expect around the next dune

annnna8888 wrote: »

I have to go to Death Valley.

And thanks for stating the temperature in C, too. :P

Ana

Maybe Dgrin 3.0 can ban the use of imperial units?

chrismoore · July 5, 2011

Nice job as always, Ron. #1 takes the prize!

Emancipator · July 6, 2011

Thanks for the FL info. Do you think the 28-300mm would have been better? Do you think a 10-20mm would have been useless for the dunes? I wonder how an 85mm 1.2 would do on those dune abstracts with a shallow DOF.... hmmmm.

coscorrosa · July 6, 2011

chrismoore wrote: »

Nice job as always, Ron. #1 takes the prize!

Thanks Chris! What's the prize?

Emancipator wrote: »

Thanks for the FL info. Do you think the 28-300mm would have been better? Do you think a 10-20mm would have been useless for the dunes? I wonder how an 85mm 1.2 would do on those dune abstracts with a shallow DOF.... hmmmm.

There are a few cases where a wide angle would come in handy. 85mm would work with the right composition, but you may have to crop. By far the most flexibly is a medium zoom (24-70, 24-105, 70-200). I don't know anything about the 28-300 but I don't think any lens with that focal range is going to be very sharp (I could be wrong).

crow · July 6, 2011

beautiful series, you captured rich colors and textures on your sand dune shots. I have yet to visit the sand dunes even with 3 trips to DV, that Park is so big and there is so much to see, its like a kid in a candy store.

Summer in Death Valley

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