by hankinslawrenceimages | Feb 15, 2009 | Death Valley & the Alabama Hills, Photo Locations
On our last morning in California, we headed out from Lone Pine to the Alabama Hills for sunrise. We were hoping to not only photograph the sunrise, but also the mountains through some of the rock arches.
It was a very cold morning with a bit of a hike in the dark to get to where we were going to be photographing from. But it was worth it.
Here’s the mountains to the east of us, as the sky was lighting up from the rising sun.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
Most of the group photographed through one of the larger arches. Natalie showed a couple of us a smaller arch, where we could get great photos of Mt. Whitney framed by the arch. Here’s Mt. Whitney is purple and pink dawn light.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
As the sun rose, the light on the mountains was incredible. The arch made a perfect frame for the photo.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
A little ways down the hill from the arch, I had a great view of the light moving across the mountains and the rocks. The contrast of the colors between the rocks that were lit by the sun and those that were still in shadow was fascinating.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
Once the sun was fully up, the rocks lit up in amazing shades of gold, yellow and orange.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
As I was packing up my gear (and ready to head back into town for breakfast) I noticed that Bill and Alain were still up on the rocks photographing the mountains. It was so windy that morning that Bill only used his digital camera, he never took his large format camera out of the case.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
The sunrise and early morning photo shoot was a perfect ending to our trip to Death Valley and the Alabama Hills. We had a fantastic time with Alain and Natalie Briot, and all of the other photographers on the trip. Hopefully, we’ll see some of them again in December when we attend Alain and Natalie’s White Sands and Bosque del Apache workshop!
by hankinslawrenceimages | Feb 8, 2009 | Death Valley & the Alabama Hills, Photo Locations
On our December trip to California, we spent some time photographing in the Alabama Hills after we left Death Valley. The Alabama Hills on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains near Lone Pine, CA. If the area looks familiar to you, it’s probably because you’ve seen it in the movies or on TV. The rocky terrain has been used as filming locations for everything from westerns to Star Trek movies.
We spent a few hours in the Alabama Hills late one afternoon. The rocks were incredible. I struggled with how to photograph the rocks, and finally decided not to concentrate on them. Instead, I took some time to photograph the rugged plants that were growing in the area.
Since we were there in December, most of the plants were dried out. But even dormant for the cold weather, they were beautiful. They also made me want to return some year in the spring. I’d love to see what they look like green and flowering.
The first few plants I photographed were some grassed growing in the cracks of the rocks.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
In one of the small canyons, I was able to photograph not only the plants growing on the rocks, but also the wide variety of plants growing in the rugged terrain.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
And finally, one plant set against a background of the incredible rocks so typical of the Alabama Hills.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
by hankinslawrenceimages | Jan 21, 2009 | Death Valley & the Alabama Hills, Photo Locations
As we drove from Death Valley to the Lone Pine, California, we stopped to photograph some Joshua Trees in the mountains. It was really surprising to suddenly see trees growing in the harsh environments we’d been driving through. I spent most of my time photographing a joshua tree that had one branch lying on the ground. It really made for some interesting photographic opportunities.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
The leaves of the joshua trees are long green spikes radiating out from a center point. The ones lying on the ground offered a unique perspective on the plant.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
The leaves at the end of the fallen branch were still green, while the leaves further back had dried creating a nice contrast of the green and brown.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
In late winter/early spring, the joshua trees bloom with white flowers. You can see one of the dried flowers on the end of one of the branches in this next photo.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
Someday I’d love to see the Joshua Trees in full bloom – from photos I’ve seen, the flowers are spectacular.
by hankinslawrenceimages | Jan 17, 2009 | Death Valley & the Alabama Hills, Photo Locations
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
On our last morning in Death Valley, we headed to the Badwater Basin area for sunrise. Badwater has a few spring fed springs, and miles of salt flats.
For me, there were two scenes to photograph – the first was the amazing sunrise with the mountains, the second was the salt flats. The repeated freezing and thawing of the ground has created incredible patterns in the salt.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
One the sun rose, I spent some time photographing the salt formations. There were endless repetitions of hexagonal shapes.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
Here’s a ground level view of salt formations. The crystal structure really reminded me of the structure of a coral reef.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
by hankinslawrenceimages | Jan 13, 2009 | Death Valley & the Alabama Hills, Photo Locations
(c) 2008 William Lawrence
During our trip to Death Valley, we stopped at Badwater Basin, the lowest point in the continental U.S. Badwater is a salt flat, essentially the remnant of an ancient salt lake. You walk out on the a crust of crystalline salt overlying mud and dirt. The area is surrounded by mountains, with Dante’s Peak rising over 5,700 feet above Badwater Basin. Below, the park (quite amusingly) has placed a marker on the cliff overlooking Badwater marking where sea level is (that little sign you see in the photo near the top of the photo). It does give you a sense of perspective as to how low the land is here.
(c) 2008 William Lawrence
The area heading out to Badwater is quite desolate; mainly fields of rocks with the occasional desert holly or sage. Below is a shot of the road heading out to the salt flats showing the landscape. Bill included the empty road dwindling towards the mountains in the haze as part of the shot as he thought it added nicely to the feeling of solitude in the photo.
(c) 2008 William Lawrence
As with much of Death Valley, the terrain was quite unusual, contributing to the feeling of being in another world. The photo below shows the sculpted foothills at the edge of the salt flats.
(c) 2008 William Lawrence
We photographed a sunrise at Badwater Basin, to get the salt flats in the morning light. We were lucky to have a brief but spectacular sunrise, with the sky lighting up in a variety of pinks, purples, and oranges over the course of a few minutes. The color of the sky is reflected off the salt formations of the salt flat in the photo below.
(c) 2008 William Lawrence
We hope you’ve enjoyed Bill’s photos of Badwater Basin. My photos from Badwater will be up later in the week.
by hankinslawrenceimages | Jan 8, 2009 | Death Valley & the Alabama Hills, Photo Locations
One of the places we photographed on our trip to Death Valley was the sand dunes near Stovepipe Wells. Neat place – but I’ll admit, I struggled photographed the sand dunes.
One of the first things that caught my eye was green plants surviving in the harsh environment. Here’s one of the shrubs surrounded by the sand. You can see the dry hard packed sand in front of the bush.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
After photographing more shrubs and patterns in the sand, I hiked to the top of the nearest dune and realized that I could have some fun photographing some of the other photographers on the dunes.
Here’s Bill with his large format camera. I took a look at his transparencies from the Sand Dunes – it looks like he got some nice photos. So when he gets them edited, I’ll post them to the blog.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
Next up is David, heading off in search of his next great photograph!
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
And here’s Brian. For some reason, as the other photographers in the workshop have been posting their photos around the web, I’ve noticed that most of us seem to have at least one photo of Brian off in the distance photographing. 🙂
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
As we were finishing up photographing at the Sand Dunes, I finally spotted a landscape composition that I liked. By this time, the cloud cover was heavy enough that the surrounding mountains were turning blue in the late afternoon light. So here’s the contrast of the tans of the sands and the blues of the mountains in the distance.
(c) 2009 Patty Hankins
As we left the Sand Dunes and heading for dinner, it started to rain! So we got to enjoy a rainy evening in Death Valley.
