“Reflected First Light, Panamint Mountains” — Shallow salt flat water reflects the first light on the Panamint Mountains.
During my late-February visit to Death Valley National Park, I spent two early mornings photographing the Panamint Mountains in the first light, with the salt flats and shallow water in the foreground. The water is not the ephemeral “Lake Manly” phenomenon that we saw in 2024. This is a slow, shallow flow of water that seems to continue all year, regardless of conditions. It is just enough water to produce these reflections.
These days I photograph almost exclusively with a full frame digital system. (Sometimes I use a smaller APS-C system, often for my street and travel photography.) I usually use a pretty straightforward set of lenses that work well for my landscape photography, but occasionally I bring out an adapted medium format zoom lens and mount it using the Mirex tilt/shift adapter — yes, movements with a zoom lens! That was pretty useful for this photograph given the low light and the extreme distance between the foreground and the distant mountains.
“Zabriskie to Rogers Peak” — Long morning view, from formations at Zabriskie Point to distant Rogers Peak in the Panamint Mountains.
Poor Rogers Peak doesn’t get a lot of respect. Despite being just under 10,000 feet tall, offering a rather impressive view from close up, and being snow-capped in the winter… it is eclipsed by its neighbor, Telescope Peak, the highest in the park. (You can see a bit of the shoulder of Telescope Peak at the far left.) It doesn’t help that a communications complex has been installed on its summit — which seems like a bit of an inappropriate insult in a national park!
The photograph encompasses a very long view, extending from rugged hills at Zabriskie Point all the way across Death Valley to the summit of the Panamint Mountains. I estimate that this is over 20 miles as the proverbial crow flies. Such distances are common in Death Valley National Park, a huge place with an expansive landscape.
“Desert Mountains, Morning Shadows” — Early morning light casts long shadows across desert mountains, Death Valley.
This photograph was sort of “unintended” — I made it after I finished with my primary subject for the morning. A plan to photograph shallow water near the edge of salt flats brought me to this spot well before sunrise. The Panamint range (behind the camera position in the photograph) catches the first light, and I photographed from its arrival on the highest peak until it worked its way all the way down and across the valley floor.
This was a period of focused and continuous photography which sometimes entailed working quickly as the light changed — and refocusing a tilt/shift lens setup that I was using. Eventually the light came to my camera position, and the landscape of light and shadow that I had come for was now behind me, literally and temporally. I paused, looked up, took in the full circle of the landscape, and for the first time noticed the morning shadows stretching across these desert hills and mountains.
“Desert Mountains, Evening” — Desert mountains tower above a huge fan and hills, Death Valley National Park.
First days in Death Valley are always a bit of a challenge. The day typically starts before dawn with a very long drive from the San Francisco Bay Area. It is at least mid-afternoon by the time I get to the park and find a campsite, and it takes an hour or so to get things set up. By this point evening isn’t that far away, so I usually pick a fairly reliable location for the first evening shoot. (I come back to camp for late dinner after dark.)
This time I headed for an area that I know pretty well, along a route that eventually leads out of the park and into Nevada. There are several locations here that I’ve been “working” for years, photographing them regularly on most visits. So I decided that the goal this evening would be to find different views in that familiar area. At my first stop I hiked to the top of a nearby hill without camera gear, just to get the lay of the land. From that elevated vantage point I could see this scene, so I headed back to my vehicle, got my gear, and set up as evening shadows stretched across the landscape.
Hi Greg. Thanks for following my blog and for leaving a comment!
I probably haven’t reached that 75 visit milestone yet, but I’d guess I’ve been there 35 or 40 times, most often for stays of five days or so. My first visit was in the mid to late 1990s, when I went with one of my kids’ school hiking clubs. In some ways, given the near disasters on that trip (it is a long story… ;-) it may be surprising that I ever went back. But as a long time High Sierra backpacker and cross-country skier, there was something magically different about this landscape. I still vividly recall my very first view of Death Valley itself. On the first morning I opened my tent door and looked down into the valley in the early morning light — I had never seen anything quite like it before, and I was hooked.
As to what inspires me to go back, that’s perhaps a complex thing. I love the immense space of the place and the profound silence and stillness once you get away from the more popular locations. I’m attracted to the way that this desert landscape is laid bare, not covered by trees and brush, letting us see the geology directly. It also appeal to me that we can go almost anywhere our feet will take us in this wide open landscape.
But this landscape is also incredibly diverse. People tend to associate Death Valley with sand dunes and barren places, and those certainly are found there. But there are also beautiful canyons, and high mountains. And there are fascinating examples of earlier human presence, ranging from the precious and fragile marks left by the first people who were already there when Europeans first arrived, up through the miners and prospectors, evidence of whose time there is all over the park.
Photographically, this is an outstanding place to work with light. It changes all day and between seasons, and because much of the terrain is not intensely colorful the light takes over and often becomes the main show.
Dan, I have been following your blog for a few years. Amazing photography. Thanks for sharing your experiences. It looks like you have been to Death Valley
75 times or so over the past couple of decades. I have only been 5 times in my lifetime. What inspires you to go back year after year. It is a very visual
landscape. I find it to be very peaceful. Have a great day. Greg
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