The Race Track Playa At Sunset … Death Valley N.P.

Rebirth. That’s how I’ve always viewed spring. The planet turns from its deep hibernation into the slanted and longer lasting light of day to begin the growth of earth tones that will dominate the landscape in short time. The rejuvenation will come in bursts of colors in some places or simply see temperatures rising in others. It’s a time to celebrate the outdoors!

Earth day is everyday but never so much so than this time of year. It just feels good to get out there again especially if it has been sometime since you did! Winter is a time for most that sees a hiatus from all the activities that we associate with fine art landscape photography. Granted it takes more dedication to get out there in deep snow drifts or braving storms just to get to all the places we hold in esteem and wonder but now roads clear along with the the skies and the landscape is more easily traversed.

No more excuses!

It’s the time now where traditionally I turn from the confinement of Yosemite Valley to the vast open spaces of Death Valley. While Death Valley is inviting both in the fall for passing storms and the spring for quickly warming temperatures and in infrequent years, wondrous blooms of dormant flowers, the combination of warm days and endless vistas is, for me, irresistible!

The featured image tells the story of the moving rocks, some more apply described as boulders, as the seem to “skid” along the cobblestone like ground. Well actually it doesn’t and is not intended as such. The mystery of how this happens is anti-climatic in my mind. There have been dozens of theories through time of how this happens. Recently a scientific settlement of fact has put the matter to rest. You can read all of this elsewhere if you have interest.

The beauty of the playa (a dried ancient lake) with the pattern of sliding rocks in low light is magic for me and I think better left that way. That is the story I tell here!

As usual in low light, exposure is everything! The reflected light from the sky is subtle and gives the glow that sets off the composition. If overexposed the entire setting becomes -flat- and loses its warmth. The boulder in my composition anchors and gives depth, and most importantly, scale. The hardest part of the problems presented here was to get the exposure for the ground that would show the subtlety and then balance it with sky while holding enough of the detail in the mountain range in the distance. I felt the detail of the playa had to be carried to the mountains and not be rendered in silhouette.

The solution was a Singh-Ray LB Color Intensifier used to accentuate the mauve color caste and then a 4 stop hard Singh-Ray graduated neutral density filter. Over 30 frames of this setup were done keeping the decided upon exposure for the playa while exchanging Singh-Ray grad filters between 2, 3, 4 and then 5 stops with both hard and soft being utilized to achieve the above mentioned.

The remoteness of the place creates drama. The light brings that drama to life!