One of the well-known areas of Death Valley for photography is the Artist’s Drive/Artist’s Palette area.  Artist’s Drive is a nine-mile one-way round through some spectacular mountains. Artist’s Palette is an area on the face of the Black Mountains known for it’s incredible colors. The oxidation of different metals in the soil has created an area covered with pink, red, green, yellow and white that stands out in contrast to the brown rocks.

We spent a few hours late one afternoon at Artist’s Palette on our Death Valley trip. Here are a few of my photos.

First, a few images of the colors on the hills in the golden afternoon light.

(c) 2008 Patty Hankins

(c) 2008 Patty Hankins

(c) 2008 Patty Hankins

The participants in the workshop Bill and I were attending weren’t the only people photographing at Artist’s Palette that afternoon. Here’s a photo of all of our shadows as we were photographing the mountains.

(c) 2008 Patty Hankins

As the sun went down, the golden light moved up the mountains. At one point, one peak was lit while the mountains below were in shadow. I loved the contrast of the shadow and golden light at that moment in time.

(c) 2008 Patty Hankins

After the sun went behind the mountains, but not below the horizen, the Artist’s Palette area was in open shade. The colors in the rocks were very different than they had been a short time earlier.

(c) 2008 Patty Hankins

Personally, I preferred the look of the area in the golden afternoon light – which probably explains why I have so many more photos of the area in golden light than in open shade.

We hope you’ve been enjoying our photos from Death Valley. We’ll continue posting them to the blog as we get them edited.