For the final magic hour shoot of the trip, we headed back to the previous morning’s location to once again go after reflections in the morning light. While the sky did not give us dramatic clouds this time, I did walk away with some nice images albeit with some saltwater-soaked hiking boots.

These next few images were taken as I left Death Valley and made a few stops along the way when I felt inspired. First up is a shot going up Towne Pass west of Stovepipe Wells on the way out. I wanted to capture the sun halo that was visible through the high clouds around the sun.

Coming down from the pass, I was struck by what appeared to be an optical illusion. It’s as if the high Sierra Nevada mountains were submerged below a great blue ocean on the other side of the Argus Range. It was very strange to me and I felt compelled to stop and take a picture.

Finally on the edge of the Darwin Falls Wilderness there was a decent helping of snow on the ground around some Joshua Trees. I took many shots to try and capture what i felt but in the end I only was happy with this shot of some trees on a nearby ridge.

One last post from Death Valley is yet to come with just a few moonlight shots. This was a fantastic trip which produced many great images. More importantly, getting out in the wilderness was good for the soul.

Having scouted out the location earlier in the day, we returned for a spectacular sunset. Once the sun descended beyond the Panamint Range, the light began to get interesting.

The light really exploded at the end in a symphony of red and pink.

Before departing I turned the camera towards the symmetrical reflection of Telescope Peak after all the red had faded in the sunset.

This was a fantastic conclusion to the first day of my first visit to Death Valley in over a year. I slept soundly knowing that amazing images would await me the following morning as well as we returned to the same place we started with.

After the morning shoot and after breakfast, friend and fellow photographer Robert Mance and I headed out in search of more water for sunset. We decided to head down towards Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America. Instead of going to the main parking lot area, we headed down the West Side Road to see what could be found on the west side of the basin, where neither of us had ever been before.

Here are some pictures from what we found.

The closest I’ve been yet to Telescope Peak.

This group of cracked mud caught my eye.

This patch of water was quite large. In fact according to my GPS it is part of Salt Creek, although the water is way too salty here to support the Death Valley Pupfish. A strange car load of people stopped and asked Robert if we saw any fish here. The main Salt Creek area was closed due to muddy roads although you could still get there on foot if you were willing to hike a few extra miles. Anyway, we were pleased with this location and decided to head back for Sunset.

The next update will feature pictures from an amazing sunset in Death Valley unlike any other I’ve seen.

After upgrading my camera a few months back, I haven’t quite had the chance to do a proper multi-day photo trip until now. After a seemingly endless drive starting with rush-hour traffic out of LA on a Friday night and sleeping in my car of all places, I was rewarded in the morning for our first shoot in one of my all time favorite places – Death Valley National Park.

Death Valley is an absolutely amazing place. This 3 million acre + park is an alien landscape. There is little life to be seen anywhere, and indeed in some places there is basically none at all. In the summertime temperatures can soar into the 130’s. The stark beauty presented here is unlike anything else I’ve ever seen. The Mojave desert in places seems like a tropical jungle of vegetation in comparison to some places in Death Valley.

This is my fourth trip to Death Valley. Every time I’ve been there has been full of awesome opportunities for photography in this unique, harsh and desolate environment. Our prime focus on this trip was water. And, naturally, reflections.

The most amazing thing happened with the light this morning. Some clouds blocked the sun, but leaving a slot through which the light could go through. The result of this was a dark hillside in front of the Panamints but with a narrow laser of light illuminating the salt encrustations on the far side of the water. Here are the best of my shots in my mad scramble to capture this phenomenon:

I’ve never seen anything like it, and I might not ever again.

Having clouds in Death Valley makes a huge difference in the quality of photographs there. Clouds are a rare thing there, and this morning in the hours before sunrise there was not a single cloud to be seen. And yet, as sunrise approached the clouds seemingly came out of nowhere to our delight.

Death Valley is full of phenomenon like these encrustations here. The salt content in the mud causes it to build up and grow into these strange structures. If you could set up a time lapse photo system and let it go for an entire year, I wonder how much you would see these grow and ooze as the salt interacts with moisture in the playa.

A parting look back at Telescope Peak as we began to head to breakfast. A peninsula of encrustations provides something different.

This was just the first of four different shooting sessions this trip. More Death Valley to come!