Death Valley

Death Valley

I spent 3 days camping in Death Valley National Park. I went there hoping to have a great photography trip, but the wind was relentless and my 4"x5" large format camera demands that the air is moving somewhat less than a constant 25 to 30 mph. It was still fantastic. The weather, other than the wind, was ideal. Mostly sunny skies and temperatures in the high 80's. Since I was in a small passenger car, I couldn't go to most of the park, but with only 3 days to explore that wasn't a problem. I was surprised to find a golf course and pool in one of the most inhospitable places on earth. The first two pictures below are the ones I got when I was using my digital camera as a light meter for my big camera. I have since purchased a used 1 degree spot meter and also finally broke down and got myself an iPhone, so I think I am ready to cut the DSLR loose. I used to worry about the fact that I couldn't get zooms unless I had a SLR, but I finally figured out I don't care. I had a gorgeous 300mm Canon L series lens that I rarely used and a 75-300mm USM IS that sat in my camera bag 99% of the time, while my 10-24 and 18-55 were used all the time. So I have finally assembled a film camera kit I am super excited about.

I decided to have some fun with these pictures. The look OK from the camera, but I actually think that the subject matter lends itself to a little "old timey-ness". I used an app for the iPhone called Snapseed from Nik, the makers of Color EFEX and SilverEFEX.

Mesquite Dunes at Sunrise

Zabrinski Point Sunrise
Sunrise from just above Zabrinski's Point in Death Valley National Park.

I don't have a ton of pictures to post from my trip so far. Mostly I've been trying to shoot exclusively with film during this trip. I just got 3 rolls of Velvia 50 and one roll of TMAX 400 black and white. Neither of these have been scanned or printed. They look pretty good on the light table, but it will be a while before they are scanned and put up. With the price of scanning and the poor quality you get unless you pay through the nose ($8-10 per photo on 35mm film or $30-55 for 4x5) I have decided to find a used drum scanner or at least the highest end flat bed scanner capable of doing wet mounted scans. That will be a few months from now unless I find something really good to sell/trade on craigslist.

I did get a couple rolls of cheap C-41 pseudo B&W film developed at Walgreens from my trip. The rolls were expired and I got them for free from my friend The Dentist. I used them to test out a couple thrift store cameras I picked up in Carson City. 

20 Mule Train Harmony Borax Works
Twenty Mule Train. Harmony Borax Works, Death Valley National Park. This is actually looking at the back of the train. The tank would hold water for the 20 mules and 3 drivers for the trip to the West Coast. I don't remember exactly, but I think each cart would weigh 70 or 80 tons filled with ore.
Harmony Borax Works Death Valley
Ruins. Harmony Borax Works. Death Valley National Park.


Wagon Wheel - Death Valley
Wheels of Time. Harmony Borax Works. Death Valley National Park




Badwater Basin
Bad Water Basin. The geometric designs are salt formations. This is the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere not covered in water.

Convict Lake, CA
Convict Lake, California. Ice was just coming off this lake near Yosemite National Park. This was one of the few that turned out from this particular camera because I was centering the filter (hand held by me) on the rangefinder window and not the lens, so most of the pictures have my fat thumb in the frame, but I figured it out near the end and this is one that turned out ok.


Comments

  1. Becky PitcherMarch 21, 2012 at 11:05 AM

    These are lovely! I especially like the one of the bad water basin!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

CPAC Soccer Game

Image
I was finally able to attend a soccer game and watch Kathryn play. It was so much fun to watch Kathryn and the other girls play so aggressively. They have completely dominated the first two games, outscoring their opponents 9-1. I was surprised on how big the pitch was. Those girls were running! Kathryn is playing on a U-11 team. About half the girls are playing up from younger age groups because our club is brand new and just starting out. Watching the younger girls play tough on (sometimes much) bigger girls was inspiring.  The team's coach, Ian Hill, is really quite different from other youth sports coaches. He coaches with Love. Sounds corny, right? It's not touchy-feely namby-pamby stuff. He is teaching the girls accountability to your teammates, coaches, and parents because you love them. He makes them run at practice until its uncomfortable (maybe even some tears) because he wants them to know what it feels like in a game to keep going when you think you can't run
Read more

Choosing where to live.

Image
Not knowing where we will be next year is starting to take its toll. On me, on my family, probably on my performance at work.  I obsess about it. "Where do we want to live?" I have my list. My goal is to find a community that maximizes the number of things on that list. Polly has a list, but it is much shorter, or contains secret elements that I don't know. Her list, as far as I can tell is: 1. Access to grandbabies. 2. Church members in adequate numbers that we don't practice our faith on an island, or in a fishbowl. That is a short list. My list is more complicated. It has lots of items, and the those items change in relative importance as the seasons of the year, and my life, change. I like the outdoors- that has always been and will always be true. I find that I get depressed fairly quickly if my senses are deprived of the outdoors. The sound of the wind through the trees, the smell of woodsmoke and pine, the simultaneous sensation of a warm sun on my bac
Read more

EIGHT

Image
Purple Mountains and an Emerald Lake I am just now starting to go back through the photos from my backpacking trip through Glacier from a year ago. When I first got back, I was too miserable and sore to even think about it, then I got busy. Then I forgot. Now I'm procrastinating school work. This was such an amazing trip. I wonder how people used to do it, slogging along with some external frame, canvas pack that weighed a ton and absorbed  water and if I had to guess, it probably didn't even hold every thing you needed. I used an Arcteryx Bora 90 which kept my stuff dry, organized and on my back. In fact, the only thing wrong with my pack was it was too big. You never want to be the guy with a 90 liter pack when everyone else has a 60 liter pack.
Read more