Looking at this aquatic scene it is hard to believe the normally here we would be looking at arid salt flats extending toward the horizon, not the reflective surface of a very large lake. But this is Death Valley, a place of astonishing variety, and sometimes that arid landscape is full of water.
Continue reading Desert Reflections, Lake Manly
This photograph includes a short list of superlative features. Telescope Peak, at just over 11,000′, is the highest point in Death Valley National park. From the peak one can see the highest point in California, Mt. Whitney (in the Sierra Nevada) and the lowest point (Badwater Basin). In the photograph Badwater Basin is submerged beneath Lake Manly, which forms only in very wet years and generally evaporates quickly. Snow on Telescope Peak and the Panamint Range is not unusual in winter, but in this photograph it has reached a rather low elevation.
Continue reading Lake Manly and Telescope Peak, Dawn
This is a photograph from over a decade ago. (More on how it ended up here today below.) A small group of us spent time photographing in Utah, often in remote places. One day we dropped into a canyon and followed this stream. As so often happens in these narrow, winding canyons, “one good turn led to another,” and we kept going as each bend revealed another interesting section. We finally stopped very close to this scene, made some final photographs, and headed back upstream.
Continue reading Stream and Sandstone Cliff
Arriving at Lake Manly to photograph on this late-February morning, I would have rated the conditions as “OK but not stupendous.” I was hoping for a colorful desert sunrise over the reflecting waters of the temporary lake, but clouds muted the intensity and color of the light. My practice is to not give up but to instead find other ways of seeing the landscape. I kept photographing, and soon realized that the morning was special in different ways than I had expected.
Continue reading Morning Clouds, Lake Manly