I begin in Death Valley National Park by saying that we’re standing in the lowest, hottest, driest and windiest place on the planet, I then add, ‘on most days.’ Our visit to Death Valley followed a far-from-ordinary winter in California, so we weren’t too surprised to be greeted this spring by some rather hostile weather. In a short one-week span in mid-April, the temperatures fell from almost 100 degrees F to the mid 20’s, and then headed back to the century mark again as we departed. Snow fell at daybreak, wind and rain tried to chase us off ridges, but colorful sunsets and a break from the really hot weather made for some great shooting days as well. From elevations of almost 300 feet below sea level to more than 6,000 feet above, this magical landscape gave us more to experience and photograph than we could have imagined.

The image above of Zabriskie Point was captured at my favorite sunrise location, bar none. This image is also noteworthy as one of the first taken with my then new Canon 17mm Tilt/Shift Lens, one of Canon’s newest tilt-shift lenses. Now that I’ve seen the greatly improved optical performance of this lens, I’m tempted to shoot every frame with it from now until forever! It is just that good. For this image, I wanted to raise ‘the platform’ we were shooting from. Since the Mark ll allows tilt and shift movements in any direction, I simply made the lens tilt downward along the same vertical axis as the upward shift of the lens. This accentuated the sand-colored shelf on which my tripod was set up, making it look more like a cliff instead of a small hill. The stage was now set for the magnificent sunrise we witnessed. All that was needed, as the intensity of the light increased, was the use of a  3-stop soft-step ND Grad and then, as the direct light made its way to the Panamint Mountain range across the valley floor, I switched to a 4-stop soft-step ND Grad for this frame.

Although the fish-eye structure of the lens prohibits filters being attached to the front of the lens, and it has no provisions for drop-ins either, I’ve found that hand holding graduated filters is possible with these precautions.

Since the front glass protrudes I need to be careful not to scratch either the glass or the filter.

I always use the depth of field preview function to see where the filter is placed. I do this with all hand held filters but it is especially important with a field of view this large. As I do this I check to see that the filter is covering what the sensor sees and that my fingers are not in the image!

Last I block light from behind the camera body. Again with a field of view this large reflections usually come from behind me. A filter pouch placed over the lens barrel and just behind the filter works best for me. Blocking light while shooting into a rising or setting sun while doing the above? …….. well, that’s what I bring others along for 🙂