With a new job in Seattle, I was missing the sun and the desert, so in February I took a flight down to Vegas and headed over to Death Valley for the President's days week. I got some good light a couple of nights, but had mostly clear skies. (Perhaps I should have headed over to Moab and Capitol Reef where Kane was hanging out!) Mostly it was nice to revisit some old haunts and go running on the backroads under sunny skies, but I got in some pictures as well. Sony finally released a new camera that I was interested in, so I now have live view and good high-iso capabilities five years later than just about everyone else. I was mostly shooting with an adapter that lets you use medium-format lenses as if they were tilt-shift lenses, so I was exploring tilts for depth of field.
That said, this shot is a more typical telephoto panorama. There were no clouds this morning, so this is shot after "sunrise" but before the sun hit the dunes.
Here's a 20mm shot with two exposures; one for the foreground and one for the mountains and sky; both an exposure-blend and a focus-blend. I need to practice more with this and learn to compose with the super-wide angle lens. I like this one, but most of my other attempts were... ah, less impressive. I like the mix of white salt patterns and twilight/stars, though.
Another 20mm focus- and exposure-blend. Not as compelling as "Badwater Twilight", but I thought I'd post it. It was quite hard to find good sections of salt flats to work with; perhaps the severe drought in CA has meant that that salt pan development has stagnated, while people keep walking on it?
Probably my favorite of the week, or at least the one I was most excited by as I was taking it. This is a three-shot image, tilted for depth of field and shifted for a panoramic stitch.
About fifteen minutes later, after [4]. The last of the color was still hanging out in the clouds. A four-image composite; a two-panel stitch with two shots exposure- and focus-blended in each panel.
I'd talked with NPN member Jackson Frishman (formerly of New Mexico and now living and working at Deep Springs College near Bishop) and while we weren't able to meet up to photograph, we did cross paths for lunch in Bishop. I had also wanted to check out how bad the snow conditions were in the Eastern Sierra with a view towards potential backpacking there this summer. The Sierras have scarily little snow, but it was good to meet Jackson and trade stories over lunch. I ended up camping just outside of town and caught these trees in pre-dawn light. I like the idea of this one, but the actual image isn't quite there for me yet. I might have to go back some time for another try at this one.
From my last evening out. A three-image shifted stitch, with tilt for depth of field. Like I said, it was hard to find good salt flats to work with, but I like the S-curve in the "creek" here.
Thanks for checking these out. Comments and critique welcomed.
Always nice to see interesting shots of Death Valley since I've never been there. I also prefer #4 out of the set primarily the composition with the sweeping dune ridge creating some real interest. Only suggestion I might have for improvement is adding more curves/levels to bring out more contrast? I wonder how that image would look as a B&W?
Also nice to see some images from a Sony A7 I presume? After experimenting with a Panasonic mirrorless last winter, I am getting more interested in a new direction with my gear. Nikon seems to be heading toward mediocrity and not keeping pace with innovation.
Soubhik,
You should definitely go at some point. It's only 2-3 hours drive from Las Vegas, so it's pretty easy to get to. If you have the flexibility to set your own dates, I'd go before the President's days holidays, though, because I was seeing a lot of footprints... It's worth it, though. If you're going for the first time, I'd recommend picking up Sarah Marino's excellent e-book guide over at http://naturephotoguides.com/; just recognize that she had excellent conditions (in terms of clouds and salt flats) and you might not see the same if you're there. Still worth it!
Ken,
I generally prefer the "straight" representation of color, so I haven't looked at [4] as a black-and-white. I'll try it with some more contrast. If anything, I like the overall/global contrast, but I can certainly see trying to increase the texture in some spots. With some time after the shot, I'm liking the giant middle section less and less, but I don't know if there's much detail in there to accentuate. I'll take a look.
I'm now shooting an a7r after almost five years with an a850 (and a brief flirtation with a NIkon d800). The a850 was a tremendous camera for me, but I didn't go for the a99. So I'm happy to have live view and the low-light capabilities; going from 24MP to 36MP wasn't actually that much of a change, particularly since I was often stitching anyway. The live view helps tremendously with trying to use the tilt-shift lenses for critical focus. The consensus that I'm seeing on more gear-centric forums is that Nikon's d800e is still the king of the hill at the moment, with Sony's a7r a close second (at least in terms of landscape work). I just never felt comfortable with Nikon's layouts and user-interface and got a good offer to sell the outfit of camera and lenses for almost what I paid for it and decided that was my cue to get out of the system. Both this set and my last set from the Olympics are using the a7r and so far, I like it.
Posted by Bill Pelzmann on March 18, 2014 at 1:18 PM
I really like your "Badwater Twilight". The light and composition work well even without dramatic skies.
Posted by Monika Chace on March 18, 2014 at 2:37 PM
Mark,
Nice set. I've been out in winter & had the same problem with trying to find a decent composition at the Badwater Salt Flats. Ended up with better luck on the Westside road, though it was blowing like crazy. The disadvantage to going in winter is that some of the backcountry roads aren't open.
Bill,
Thank you. "Badwater Twilight" didn't jump out at me at the time I shot it, but as I've had the chance to get some "mental distance" from the shooting, I'm liking it more.
Monika,
Thank you, too. I'd rented a "normal" car in Las Vegas, so I knew that I wasn't going to head down any of the serious backroads, although I don't think the Westside road is usually that bad. Washboarded, sure, but not usually that bad. I haven't been over on that side for a long time; I'll have to check it out next time. Do you mean that you've had better luck with the salt flats in the Spring, Summer, or Fall? This time, at least in my exploration, the salt flats were pretty meager. Badwater, in particular, was mostly muddy-brown and walked all over. I'm very curious about what conditions lead to "good" development of the salt flats and salt polygons. What I know of geology would imply that you would need to have a wet period to dissolve the salt, followed by a sustained dry period to evaporate the saltwater and give the polygons time to develop.
What? 36mp and still stitching away eh? Ah yes, there's nothin in the world like a good stitchin session! Hey I'm right there with ya!
I'm picking #1 and #6 as my favorites. Although for both I would prefer more background above the dunes. Essentially I feel they are both cropped a bit tight up high above the dune.
I like #4 too but a wider perspective allowing for additional shadow area in the dunes would help balance the image to my eye. Currently I'm guessing you're at 80% glowing sand vs 20% shadows. I thinking 70 vs 30 might give it a bit more balance. Your camera did a great job showcasing its dynamic range capabilities in that image.
Kane,
Well, one of the intents of buying the a7r was to move up to 36MP so that I wouldn't need to stitch and I could get back to composing the full image in the viewfinder or on screen. I don't know that, technically, a two-image or three-image stitch really helps all that much... except that I'm used to it and haven't broken myself of the habit yet. Especially when I'm using a tilt-shift lens where it's so easy to shift left and right.
I agree with you that both [1] and [6] are cropped tight; I would have like to have had more room, but the horizon was just above each. I suppose that, since the horizon goes up and down, I could have included some sky and then used content-aware fill to clone out the sky, but I haven't started down that road.
For number [4], that's a case where the light was so good and changing quickly enough that I wish I'd thought a bit more while I was shooting. If I could go back to it, I'd try to move (physically) backwards and down a bit, so that I got more of the shadowed foreground and the band of gold light on the dunes was a little narrower (shorter vertically).
Thanks, everyone, for the comments.
Posted by Monika Chace on March 22, 2014 at 2:49 PM
Mark, what I meant was that the salt flats on the Westside Rd weren't walked on like the ones at Badwater. I've only been to DV in winter, so I can't speak to the other seasons. Westside Rd is suitable for passenger cars and the salt flats were near the beginning.
Discussion
17 repliesWith a new job in Seattle, I was missing the sun and the desert, so in February I took a flight down to Vegas and headed over to Death Valley for the President's days week. I got some good light a couple of nights, but had mostly clear skies. (Perhaps I should have headed over to Moab and Capitol Reef where Kane was hanging out!) Mostly it was nice to revisit some old haunts and go running on the backroads under sunny skies, but I got in some pictures as well. Sony finally released a new camera that I was interested in, so I now have live view and good high-iso capabilities five years later than just about everyone else. I was mostly shooting with an adapter that lets you use medium-format lenses as if they were tilt-shift lenses, so I was exploring tilts for depth of field.
That said, this shot is a more typical telephoto panorama. There were no clouds this morning, so this is shot after "sunrise" but before the sun hit the dunes.
Here's a 20mm shot with two exposures; one for the foreground and one for the mountains and sky; both an exposure-blend and a focus-blend. I need to practice more with this and learn to compose with the super-wide angle lens. I like this one, but most of my other attempts were... ah, less impressive. I like the mix of white salt patterns and twilight/stars, though.
Another 20mm focus- and exposure-blend. Not as compelling as "Badwater Twilight", but I thought I'd post it. It was quite hard to find good sections of salt flats to work with; perhaps the severe drought in CA has meant that that salt pan development has stagnated, while people keep walking on it?
Probably my favorite of the week, or at least the one I was most excited by as I was taking it. This is a three-shot image, tilted for depth of field and shifted for a panoramic stitch.
About fifteen minutes later, after [4]. The last of the color was still hanging out in the clouds. A four-image composite; a two-panel stitch with two shots exposure- and focus-blended in each panel.
The next morning, in soft sunrise light. I like the composition of this one. A simple two-vertical-image shifted stitch to give the 4x5 aspect ratio.
I'd talked with NPN member Jackson Frishman (formerly of New Mexico and now living and working at Deep Springs College near Bishop) and while we weren't able to meet up to photograph, we did cross paths for lunch in Bishop. I had also wanted to check out how bad the snow conditions were in the Eastern Sierra with a view towards potential backpacking there this summer. The Sierras have scarily little snow, but it was good to meet Jackson and trade stories over lunch. I ended up camping just outside of town and caught these trees in pre-dawn light. I like the idea of this one, but the actual image isn't quite there for me yet. I might have to go back some time for another try at this one.
From my last evening out. A three-image shifted stitch, with tilt for depth of field. Like I said, it was hard to find good salt flats to work with, but I like the S-curve in the "creek" here.
Thanks for checking these out. Comments and critique welcomed.
Also nice to see some images from a Sony A7 I presume? After experimenting with a Panasonic mirrorless last winter, I am getting more interested in a new direction with my gear. Nikon seems to be heading toward mediocrity and not keeping pace with innovation.
You should definitely go at some point. It's only 2-3 hours drive from Las Vegas, so it's pretty easy to get to. If you have the flexibility to set your own dates, I'd go before the President's days holidays, though, because I was seeing a lot of footprints... It's worth it, though. If you're going for the first time, I'd recommend picking up Sarah Marino's excellent e-book guide over at http://naturephotoguides.com/; just recognize that she had excellent conditions (in terms of clouds and salt flats) and you might not see the same if you're there. Still worth it!
Ken,
I generally prefer the "straight" representation of color, so I haven't looked at [4] as a black-and-white. I'll try it with some more contrast. If anything, I like the overall/global contrast, but I can certainly see trying to increase the texture in some spots. With some time after the shot, I'm liking the giant middle section less and less, but I don't know if there's much detail in there to accentuate. I'll take a look.
I'm now shooting an a7r after almost five years with an a850 (and a brief flirtation with a NIkon d800). The a850 was a tremendous camera for me, but I didn't go for the a99. So I'm happy to have live view and the low-light capabilities; going from 24MP to 36MP wasn't actually that much of a change, particularly since I was often stitching anyway. The live view helps tremendously with trying to use the tilt-shift lenses for critical focus. The consensus that I'm seeing on more gear-centric forums is that Nikon's d800e is still the king of the hill at the moment, with Sony's a7r a close second (at least in terms of landscape work). I just never felt comfortable with Nikon's layouts and user-interface and got a good offer to sell the outfit of camera and lenses for almost what I paid for it and decided that was my cue to get out of the system. Both this set and my last set from the Olympics are using the a7r and so far, I like it.
Nice set. I've been out in winter & had the same problem with trying to find a decent composition at the Badwater Salt Flats. Ended up with better luck on the Westside road, though it was blowing like crazy. The disadvantage to going in winter is that some of the backcountry roads aren't open.
Thank you. "Badwater Twilight" didn't jump out at me at the time I shot it, but as I've had the chance to get some "mental distance" from the shooting, I'm liking it more.
Monika,
Thank you, too. I'd rented a "normal" car in Las Vegas, so I knew that I wasn't going to head down any of the serious backroads, although I don't think the Westside road is usually that bad. Washboarded, sure, but not usually that bad. I haven't been over on that side for a long time; I'll have to check it out next time. Do you mean that you've had better luck with the salt flats in the Spring, Summer, or Fall? This time, at least in my exploration, the salt flats were pretty meager. Badwater, in particular, was mostly muddy-brown and walked all over. I'm very curious about what conditions lead to "good" development of the salt flats and salt polygons. What I know of geology would imply that you would need to have a wet period to dissolve the salt, followed by a sustained dry period to evaporate the saltwater and give the polygons time to develop.
What? 36mp and still stitching away eh? Ah yes, there's nothin in the world like a good stitchin session! Hey I'm right there with ya!
I'm picking #1 and #6 as my favorites. Although for both I would prefer more background above the dunes. Essentially I feel they are both cropped a bit tight up high above the dune.
I like #4 too but a wider perspective allowing for additional shadow area in the dunes would help balance the image to my eye. Currently I'm guessing you're at 80% glowing sand vs 20% shadows. I thinking 70 vs 30 might give it a bit more balance. Your camera did a great job showcasing its dynamic range capabilities in that image.
Well, one of the intents of buying the a7r was to move up to 36MP so that I wouldn't need to stitch and I could get back to composing the full image in the viewfinder or on screen. I don't know that, technically, a two-image or three-image stitch really helps all that much... except that I'm used to it and haven't broken myself of the habit yet. Especially when I'm using a tilt-shift lens where it's so easy to shift left and right.
I agree with you that both [1] and [6] are cropped tight; I would have like to have had more room, but the horizon was just above each. I suppose that, since the horizon goes up and down, I could have included some sky and then used content-aware fill to clone out the sky, but I haven't started down that road.
For number [4], that's a case where the light was so good and changing quickly enough that I wish I'd thought a bit more while I was shooting. If I could go back to it, I'd try to move (physically) backwards and down a bit, so that I got more of the shadowed foreground and the band of gold light on the dunes was a little narrower (shorter vertically).
Thanks, everyone, for the comments.