“Playa and Plants — Imaginary Landscape” — An imaginary desert landscape with dry mud and spring plants.
This is another of the “imaginary landscape” photographs. They all begin with the actual landscape, but then I treat the images freely, modifying them in a variety of ways, though always with the the original source material at least somewhat identifiable.
“Southern Death Valley” — Desert gold wildflowers, dark hills with ancient Lake Manly shoreline terraces.
There is something. a little unusual about this post. I didn’t pick this photograph so much for aesthetic reasons as for its inclusion of some fascinating features in this part of Death Valley. Let’s start with the obvious. There are desert gold wildflowers in the foreground, but if you look closely you can see many more of them across this broad Vally on the dark hillside. Keep reading to learn something about that hillside.
“Lake Manly, Morning Clouds, Reflection” — Panamint Range and morning clouds reflected in Lake Manly, Death Valley.
This season I took advantage of the rare opportunity to photograph reflections of desert mountains in Death Valley. We were there just before Christmas 2025 and then again near the end of February 2026. The Lake Manly was there both times, though it had visibly diminished on the second visit. But from up close its surface still reflected the surrounding mountains and sky.
“A Red Rock Canyon” — A rocky canyon filled with trees twists through the landscape of Capitol Reef National Park.
The photograph comes from a trip some years back that took me to Capitol Reef National Park. Although it was challenging to find the right composition, I wanted to get a photograph of this bend in an anonymous red rock canyon where trees were tucked into the edge of hollowed out rock. The feature is fascinating, but it is more or less unmarked, like so many similar features in this landscape.