Death Valley, Always Colorful, Always Photogenic
©Bert Gildart: Death Valley is a land of abstractions, one that offers photographers what may well be one of the best places in America to create unique interpretations. Here are four photographs that represent what I believe to be some of my better work from this vast California national park.
Teakettle Junction
Three of the photographs come from the past several weeks during which time Janie and I have been camped in both Stove Pipe Wells and Furnace Creek. The fourth, the photograph of Tea Kettle Junction, I made about five years ago. Janie and I had wanted to see Tea Kettle when Eric and Sue were here several weeks ago, but we found the road to be in horrible condition. Washboarding went on for miles and each rut was deep, perhaps six to eight inches in places.
As a result, we turned around, not able to see if this famous, hard-to-reach junction still retains all of its tea kettles.
Hanging tea kettles was once an old park tradition started perhaps by some old prospector. Because it says something about old ways and the passage of quirky people, it remains one of my favorite photos.
COMPRESSING SCENES
Two of the other photographs were made at one of the park’s several sand dunes, specifically, the Death Valley Sand Dunes near Stove Pipe Wells. The image of the couple on the dunes was made with a 600mm lens, which provides great compression.
Sun and Sand Dune Photographers
By stopping the camera down, probably to about f-45 in this case, depth of field is immense, even with a telephoto. I underexposed several stops to make sure the couple was completely back lit. The lens I used was not one dedicated to digital photography, so exposure data was not digitally recorded.
DETAILS
Another technique is to focus on the details of a subject, such as the actual ripples created in the dunes by the sun at it most extreme angles, in this case, early in the morning–just as the sun popped over the horizon.
Sand Dune Patterns
Each granule was illuminated, and that is what I believe endows this image with impact.
HUMAN HISTORY
Finally, I include the following photograph because it recalls a TV series, “Death Valley Days.” Ronald Reagan was the narrator and he helped make the park famous. One of the major industries described in the program certainly had to have been the 20 Mule Team wagons that transported borax, “White Gold,” from Harmony Borax. The site is located an easy one-mile bike ride from the campground at Furnace Creek.
Borax Works
Normally I don’t like light that streams from directly behind, but in this case the color of the walls contrasted nicely with the mountains, and the yellow in the Desert Gold plant. The species has remained with us for the entire three weeks we spent in the park and gives every indication of remaining another week or two.
If you’re in the area, you can not go wrong visiting this park, and we leave with much regret.
