Tag Archives: manifold

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Southern California

Folds and Strata, Zabriskie Point

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Folds and Strata, Zabriskie Point
Folds and Strata, Zabriskie Point

Folds and Strata, Zabriskie Point. Death Valley National Park, California. March 29, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Convoluted folds topped by some stratified material at Zabraskie Point, Death Valley National Park, California.

A new hobby for me when photographing Zabriskie Point is to forego the famous panoramic views of Manley Beacon and the Panamints – well, at least sometimes – and to instead focus on smaller details of the patterns in the fantastically folded terrain. Starting about a year ago, I also became intrigued by the idea of shooting here at unusual times of the day: late morning, early afternoon, and so forth. I started doing this when a year ago I shot somewhere else at dawn and then happened to stop her much later in the morning – only to discover that some of the shapes and forms that are in shadow early in the day are actually better-lit later on.

On my late-March trip I did shoot Zabriskie at the “popular” time of dawn on one morning, but on another day I spent a good amount of time shooting here during the less classically ideal time in the middle of the afternoon. I was lucky enough to get just a bit of high thing clouds which reduced contrast just a bit, but kept the interesting shadows and illuminated ridges that appear at this time of day. When I shoot this way I go straight for a very long lens and focus on smaller details of the scene, ignoring the larger and broader landscape in favor of bits of a gully, shadowed or sunlit ridges, or a bit of strata material sitting on top of the folded material as seen here.

Rather than amp up the contrast and saturation – an easy trap to fall for in the afternoon light – I decided to keep the softer and less saturated effect that I was actually there when I made the photographs.

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

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Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM at 250mm
ISO 100, f/16, 1/30 second

keywords: zabriskie, point, death valley, national, park, california, usa, north america, nature, landscape, geology, scenic, travel, form, formations, fold, gully, rock, strata, material, shadow, light, abstract, view, ridge, hill, manifold, overlook, desert, barren, stock

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Southern California

Star Trails, The Manifold, Zabriskie Point

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Star Trails, The Manifold, Zabriskie Point
The Manifold, Star Trails – Zabriskie Point

Star Trails, The Manifold, Zabriskie Point. Death Valley National Park, California. March 29, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Star trails above the Manifold, Zabriskie Point, Death Valley National Park, California.

One of my goals on my late-March trip to Death Valley was to do some night photography, in particular to take advantage of the nearly full moon near the end of my visit. Some of my plans did not quite work out – for example, on the night when I intended to do night photography of the moving rocks at the Racetrack Playa it was cloudy all night! However, on the final night of my visit the weather gods cooperated and I was able to make a few exposures from Zabriskie Point as the moon rose. As if to partially make up for messing up the intended Racetrack shots, the “cloud gods” were kind enough to provide me with a few high thin clouds at Zabriskie. This was one of those wonderful occasions when things actually did go as planned!

Anticipating the full moon at Zabriskie, I made a point of camping in the vicinity of Furnace Creek at the Texas Springs campground. (I expect that my habits mystified a few nearby campers. I drove in at about 2:00 p.m., grabbed a site and “marked” it by leaving a chair and a tarp, and almost immediately left – not returning until nearly 10:00 p.m. Then I was up and gone well before sunrise.) In any case, I headed down to the Badwater area in the late afternoon to photograph sunset light on the salt flats and evening clouds – following an impromptu “dinner” at the back of my car at the Badwater parking lot. It was getting fairly dark by the time I finished up at Badwater, so I headed straight up to Zabriskie. By the time I arrived the moon was just coming up over the mountain range to the east, with its light at times filtering through high clouds. During the hour I was there I made three exposures. With exposure times in the 8 to 12 minute range and followed by “dark frame exposures” of equal length, this was a slow and quiet process.

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

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Twitter | Friendfeed | Facebook | Facebook Fan Page | Email

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM
ISO 200, f/8, 787 seconds (not a typo!)

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