Death Valley #1 - Cottonball Basin Sunrise

I just got back from a three day trip to Death Valley in California (with a one night layover at Mono Lake). Four mornings of getting up at 5am went surprisingly quickly. With over 500 photos and spectacular scenery it's almost hard to know where to start, so I'm just going to post a few at a time from each location. These were sunrise shots at the Cottonball Basin.

Experimenting With The Big Stopper

Lee's 10 stop "big stopper" filter allowed me to photograph the above in broad daylight with a five second exposure time. This exposure time smooths out the motion in the water, giving it a misty effect. Shot at China Camp State Park, San Rafael.

Mono Lake

A couple of pictures from last year:

See the other Mono Lake pictures.

Sonoma Barn at Sunset

I had photographed this barn before but never with a sunset. The day before the Mare Island shots was also a rare night with a sunset. As this barn is less than a mile from where I live I shot out at the last minute and caught the setting sun lighting up the clouds. HDR, obviously, with HDR Efex Pro this time.

Mare Island

Mare Island, near Vallejo California, is the home of the first United States Navy base established on the Pacific Ocean (now closed). It’s also the home to many dilapidated buildings that I’ve been trying to photograph well for some time. Usually the light is too harsh and the sky too plain and boring to make interesting photographs, but last Monday we actually had some clouds in the sky approaching sunset, so I shot round there before it was too late.

This is the building I’ve been eying for some time. It always looks to me as though someone has sculpted the holes in the windows to be pictures of things: people, bats, sea lions, whales, a rabbit – but that’s really just pareidolia. I like the effect though.

About half a mile away is what looks to be a burnt out warehouse or factory. The wreckage and the light makes it look like a scene from a dystopian sci-fi movie.

Inverness, Tomales Bay California

Abstracts - San Francisco