Tag Archives: Death Valley National Park

I don’t like creating airtight, minute-by-minute itineraries for my travels. As strange as this sounds, I don’t even like being being fully prepared. The unexpected, little challenges that creep up during a trip are going to happen anyway, no matter how prepared you think you are. How you handle them ultimately determines a trip’s success or failure. I’ve always prided myself as being flexible, intuitive, and innovative when faced with unexpected challenges while in a strange place. It certainly makes for better stories later when sitting around a campfire or a bar stool surrounded by friends.

So as I prepare and pack for three weeks in South America, I’m packing light and bringing a clear, cool head. The stories are to come later.

Two weeks ago in Death Valley, I contracted the flu on the second day after arriving there. That was certainly unexpected. I spent more time sleeping in hotel rooms than doing photography but my health was much more important than any photograph I could make. On the last day, I got up for sunrise and drove to an easy-to-access location that didn’t involve much walking or hiking – Zabriskie Point. It was completely overcast, so I didn’t expect any light on the famous wrinkles and folds in the earth found in that area. Then a small opening in the clouds appeared in the east allowing a wedge of light to illuminate the Panamint Range for about 30 seconds before the light faded again to pewter gray. Not all that is unexpected is necessarily bad.

Technical Details:

Canon EOS 5D Mk2, Canon 24-105mm @ 67mm, 1/6 second @ f14 ISO 160