After Dark Photo
The Death Valley Salt Pan of Mile Marker 106.5
So I'm jumping around a bit here with my uploads....This was from our last night in Death Valley. A super duper hot one at that. It was still 106 degrees after the sun had gone down. I believe it was 110 F for most of the day.
We did a bunch of car scouting due to the heat. We had already shot the racetrack and the dunes. I really wanted and had a vision in my head about a shot I wanted with the salt pan. I desperately wanted what I had in mind and we looked high and low for it. We travelled to Badwater.....nope we didn't find what I was thinking of there. We went to the Devil's Golf Course....nope, not there either. We hit a dirt road to the old Borax mines......yup a little bit of the right idea but a road, bad horizon, and a limited area made for a not so good wide angled shot. back to the drawing board.
We spoke to a Ranger about what I had in mind. He was very helpful. Nice to see friendly and helpful folks still out there in the public eye. He directed us to an area with possiblity. It was vague and he said, "Maybe between mile marker 106.5 and 104.5. Normally, this wouldn't be such a big deal to have to search two miles of area to find what you want to shoot. However, a mile walk from the road onto the salt pan in 110 degree heat is downright foolish. The salt pan carries an easy extra 10-20 degrees of heat on it due to its white surface.
We opted to wait the heat out.
We had a littel dinner in Furnace Creek and watched the thermometer stay pegged at 106 in the shade inspite of the setting sun. We said screw it...and made our way to 106.5.
After a fairly pleasant but steamy hike onto the pan....we searched, and searched, and searched but never found the right "idea." It just wasn't coming together for me and this area had been underwater for a month or so weeks prior. The crusty salt layer ontop (looked like confectioners sugar strewn about) was easily busted through towards the center of the pan in the valley due to standing water and mud underneath. I got a little nervous here and there (mainly because we were so far out in the middle with the sun going down) when I went ankle deep through the crust a few times. It was disconcerting to think there might be a mud pit underneath that crust and getting stuck or worse yet....finding a quicksand like mass would be detrimental to my health.
We started to head back to the truck when we found this weird river of salt dividing part of the pan and the salt flats. I looked over our shoulder and saw the sky was actually making a little showing this night.
I hustled the shot but got a little something out of it for our efforts. We didn't feel it was safe or smart to sit out on that fragile crust for a night shot this night. So a sunset would have to do.
This shot was taken with a Lee .9 ND soft grad filter.
EXIF:
Canon 40d
Sigma 10-20mm @ 12mm
ISO 100
f/13 @ 8 seconds
Shot well after the sun went down
Temp balanced to 4738 to get as true a tone of teh pan under this fading light as possible.
Comments and critique are welcome.
If you made it this far....please speak up if the colors or brightness/darkness is off. I got a new monitor and I'm struggling a bit with finding a true tone until I can calibrate it.
The Death Valley Salt Pan of Mile Marker 106.5
So I'm jumping around a bit here with my uploads....This was from our last night in Death Valley. A super duper hot one at that. It was still 106 degrees after the sun had gone down. I believe it was 110 F for most of the day.
We did a bunch of car scouting due to the heat. We had already shot the racetrack and the dunes. I really wanted and had a vision in my head about a shot I wanted with the salt pan. I desperately wanted what I had in mind and we looked high and low for it. We travelled to Badwater.....nope we didn't find what I was thinking of there. We went to the Devil's Golf Course....nope, not there either. We hit a dirt road to the old Borax mines......yup a little bit of the right idea but a road, bad horizon, and a limited area made for a not so good wide angled shot. back to the drawing board.
We spoke to a Ranger about what I had in mind. He was very helpful. Nice to see friendly and helpful folks still out there in the public eye. He directed us to an area with possiblity. It was vague and he said, "Maybe between mile marker 106.5 and 104.5. Normally, this wouldn't be such a big deal to have to search two miles of area to find what you want to shoot. However, a mile walk from the road onto the salt pan in 110 degree heat is downright foolish. The salt pan carries an easy extra 10-20 degrees of heat on it due to its white surface.
We opted to wait the heat out.
We had a littel dinner in Furnace Creek and watched the thermometer stay pegged at 106 in the shade inspite of the setting sun. We said screw it...and made our way to 106.5.
After a fairly pleasant but steamy hike onto the pan....we searched, and searched, and searched but never found the right "idea." It just wasn't coming together for me and this area had been underwater for a month or so weeks prior. The crusty salt layer ontop (looked like confectioners sugar strewn about) was easily busted through towards the center of the pan in the valley due to standing water and mud underneath. I got a little nervous here and there (mainly because we were so far out in the middle with the sun going down) when I went ankle deep through the crust a few times. It was disconcerting to think there might be a mud pit underneath that crust and getting stuck or worse yet....finding a quicksand like mass would be detrimental to my health.
We started to head back to the truck when we found this weird river of salt dividing part of the pan and the salt flats. I looked over our shoulder and saw the sky was actually making a little showing this night.
I hustled the shot but got a little something out of it for our efforts. We didn't feel it was safe or smart to sit out on that fragile crust for a night shot this night. So a sunset would have to do.
This shot was taken with a Lee .9 ND soft grad filter.
EXIF:
Canon 40d
Sigma 10-20mm @ 12mm
ISO 100
f/13 @ 8 seconds
Shot well after the sun went down
Temp balanced to 4738 to get as true a tone of teh pan under this fading light as possible.
Comments and critique are welcome.
If you made it this far....please speak up if the colors or brightness/darkness is off. I got a new monitor and I'm struggling a bit with finding a true tone until I can calibrate it.