Panikos Photography Ltd

Home

Death Valley October 2010

Posted on November 28, 2010 by Panikos under Uncategorized

From Las Vegas I travelled through Death Valley towards my destination the Sierra Nevada Mountains. I couldn’t resist photographing this spectacular place. It was a real education for me. I thought that it was just a dry barren slat pan! But to my surprise, it was surrounded by multicoloured hills and mountains, full of beautiful rock formations and enveloped at dawn and dusk by magnificent skies. I sped through on my way up to the Sierra Nevada, but took my time on my return and spent almost a whole day there when I stayed in Furnace Creek. This hotel complex is near to the lowest point in North America. 

This is the view on the road down towards Death Valley from the north, with the last of the evening sunlight kissing the top of the mountains accross the valley. I just HAD to get out of the car and grab this shot!

A view of Manly Beacon from Zabriskie  Point, with a glimpse of the salt pan in the distance. This was taken at sunrise, and I had to get up at 4:30am to get this shot! So… you’d better like it!

This one has to be my favourite though, within a few seconds of taking the previous image, I looked behind me and saw these incredible deep colours coming from the sky giving the landscape an almost prehistoric feel. I had this printed on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag (fine art) paper and it came out jaw-droppingly good, a real WOW! photo, with such a rich depth of tones. A computer monitor really doesn’t do it justice.

 Just as the sun rises, sunlight enhances the contours of this famous landmark, with shadows racing across the undulations of the mineral rich hills.  

 The symmetry of the mountainsides create amazing shapes, perfect for photographing! 

This is a view towards “The Artists Palette” with the valley behind me, along a route called “Artists Drive” where the hillsides have an array of colours ranging from violets, purples and turquoise, to many different shades of sandstone and brown. I was thinking how nice it would be if it were to rain there and the colours would be enhanced even more, and how I’d love to be there at the time! And what about those CRAZY clouds!

So…… you didn’t think that there really were so many different shades of colours in those hills hey? Well here’s some proof! Of course, its even better in real life!

 Finally in Furnace Creek, there is an arrangement of palm trees that have been carefully positioned & stand majestically against the deep blue skies.

And for those of you that wondered what the real Death Valley looked like… well here you are! Burning sunshine, salt  everywhere and a place where you’ll dehydrate in no time – even in winter! A lovely place to think about when you’re in the grip of the freeze in England!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *