Gully, Morning Light, Zabriskie Point. Death Valley National Park, California. April 3, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning sun lights the folded earth of a gully at Zabriskie Point, Death Valley National Park, California.

I know Zabriskie is an “iconic” photographic location, and it has “been done” many times, but somehow I find myself unable to complete a Death Valley trip without an early morning visit to shoot a Zabriskie sunrise. (When I think of photographing Manley Beacon I’m reminded to the joke about photographing Yosemite’s Half Dome – it goes something like this: “When you photograph Half Dome be sure to open up about one stop to compensate for all of the light that has been used up by previous photographers.”) But for me the real interesting subject at Zabriskie is found in the nearly infinite variety of shapes, textures, and shadows of the tortured terrain below and to the left of the Point. Long after the sunrise is over and almost all the other photographers have left, I’m still there photographing the continuously changing light as it picks off the top of this small ridge, creates a reflection that lights up that fold, and so forth. I’ve photographed the gully that is shown in this photograph as late as 9:30 in the morning.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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