Devil's Golf Course

26 January 2013:

This is the Devil's Golf Course, a large salt pan that covers much of the floor of Death Valley. It is reported to be 500 to 1000 feet thick. Pressure ridges form at the surface, creating these hexagonal-shaped craters that are about 2 to 3 feet wide. For some reason much of the salt pan had a dark brown color rather than salt white. This salt pan is well below sea level.

This image was taken a 4:18 pm, and not long after the sun disappeared behind the Panamint range seen in the background. Great clouds were in the sky all day, leftovers from an overnight rain.

Canon 5D

Sand Dunes

25 January 2013:
Today we spent early morning and late afternoon at the dunes on the floor of Death Valley. It was a fantastic spot. We had sun on and off in the morning. The upper picture is my best shot of the day, from the top of one of the tallest dunes at the end of the morning session. The lower picture was taken by one of the group leaders as we were headed back on a ridge towards the cars, also at the end of the morning session.

Canon 5D (upper), iPhone (lower)

Golden Canyon

24 January 2013:

 The image above was taken from the parking lot at the entrance to Golden Canyon, looking away from the canyon and north into Death Valley itself. It gives you an idea of what the valley looks like in January. There was some steady light rain during the day today.

This was taken inside Golden Canyon. You can see other photographers in our group working the rocks.

Canon 5D

Owens Lake

23 January 2013:

On the road to Death Valley today, soon after turning off of US 395 and heading east into the desert, I was rewarded with this view of the clouds over Owens Lake. The Sierra Nevada are off on the left, I think the White Mountains are over on the right, and Owens Lake is in between. It was a cloudy, cool day for the drive - just perfect, actually.

Canon 5D

Today's Composite

13 January 2013:

For the first class in advanced photography this year, we are supposed to show an image taken in December or January that was 'difficult to shoot'. Well, this is a piece of it. I have tried to build a composite image similar to those made by Ray Metzker in the 1960's. This was fun, but definitely hard. It needs to be printed big, and it also needs more work. I consider this a working copy right now.

Canon 5D and lots of thinking.

Clearing Showers

6 January 2013:
We had light early morning and then light late afternoon showers today. This was taken just before sunset from our bathroom window looking out over the Pacific.

iPhone, Olloclip fisheye lens

photos

5 January 2013:
Playing around with the macro lens.

iPhone, Olloclip macro, snapseed

Holiday Lights

4 January 2012:
Experimenting with the Olloclip fisheye lens I got for Christmas.

Bananagrams

3 January 2013:
We struggled to play bananagrams tonight without Rika or Lisa!

iPhone + Olloclip wide angle