Chaotic Contours [explored]

A beautiful sunset from a different vantage point over Zabriskie and the Badwater salt playa beyond. Yet another trip to Vegas lead me back out to Death Valley National Park for an evening and a morning shoot. For the sunset shoot I had intended to find some crystal formations on the salt playa. I still don't have a satisfying shot of these crystals in spite of at least 6 different visits here. However, it was not to be this time as recent rains and runoff have completely dissolved the formations and it will take some time to reform. So I decided to head back to Zabriskie even though I'd recently shot it back in January with Kevin Benedict.

 

When we were last here we noticed a photographer standing on one of the higher peaks on the right (as you are looking at Zabriskie from the viewing platform) and we speculated that it might yield some better views of the formations. Since i had the time and the energy I decided to give that a shot and hiked up the peaks. Don't know how high they are but it was harder work than it looks from the bottom. I was rewarded by a pretty awesome sunset and a more unique angle over the formations with some nice background as well. There's not much foreground to use up here and there are a couple of rocks that stick up in to the frame (like the small darker peak on the bottom left) that are not ideal compositionally but it's still such a visually fascinating formation.

 

Shot with Pentax K-1 (using Pixel Shift) and Pentax15-30mm lens, no filters.

Done