Death Valley National Park

I've always wanted to photograph in Death Valley, and as a photographer, I wasn't disappointed with what I found. The entire park is a highlight, and it really becomes a question of how to photograph it with so many things to photograph, and no, I didn't hit them all, which means I will be going back. I'm also considering offering workshops in the park in future.

Zabriskie Point was incredible to see. You see it photographs and think it was be an awesome location to photograph, but photographs don't do it justice. The lines, textures and colors can be overwhelming, and you really don't know where to point the camera first. I was drawn to the lines, while others are drawn to the colors. I really don't believe a bad photograph can be made of at Zabriskie Point.

Being a desert, it's easy to see why some of the features have "devil" in the name. Devils Golf Course is an incredible sea of dried salt beds and crevices in the ground that come up to your ankles. It seems to go on for miles. I photographed the golf course from the ground level wanting to get close to the texture of the ground and really show why it's called Devils Golf Course.

Devils Cornfield is also inhospitable looking. Salt on the ground with arrow weed plants growing out of it. I also took the approach of shooting from near the ground to depict the "cornfield" to capture it more from a "being in it" perspective.

Artist's Palette on Artist's Drive is a smattering of colors everywhere you look. The palette looked like mounds of ice cream - pistachio green, hot fudge brown, French vanilla yellow and strawberry. It was hard to photograph because there were so many ways to photograph it, so I took it directly on and got close to show the natural colors the desert offers up.

The Natural Bridge and the canyon leading up to it looked like location where you'd expect to see a band of Jawas or Sandpeople come out at you. Natural Bridge is in a canyon, which Death Valley is loaded with. The challenge in photographing the natural bridge was finding the best angle to compose the shot from. There were so many that were good, and when I got home to process them, it was hard to choose.

I will head back to Death Valley, hopefully sooner rather than later, to photograph areas of the park that I wasn't able to get to this time. Death Valley is a huge park, and it's too much to take in in the three days I was there. Two of those days were spent mostly on the road. I can't wait to back.