Sun, Sand, No Sea

The journey to Death Valley from the Bay Area runs around 500 miles and takes something like 9 hours (with breaks). We headed off after 9 am and arrived at the hotel around 5:45 pm. As mentioned yesterday, we took route 223 eastwards from I5 in order to take in the building wildflower display in the rolling hills outside of Arvin. S got some good pictures on that road both on the way there and back, but I have to admit defeat in shooting flowers, regardless of the conditions. However, plenty of others were stopped along the roadside happily clicking away so I'm in the minority.

Upon arrival we went out and had a look at Badwater for a sunset location. Nothing spectacular, but a good scouting exercise for what/where/when to shoot over the coming days.

Next morning, I got up early and headed off to shoot the Mesquite Dunes at sunrise. It was very windy at the hotel but thankfully much calmer over at the dune site and glad to say they have now built a new car park alongside the road to Stovepipe Wells. However, there is a downside to making the location more obvious - it was quite crowded. There was a complete party of photographers already up on the dunes, as well as numerous solo shooters. Hmm, had to rethink plans to try and find some clear space to work in. Headed south round the dunes themselves (much easier way to go) and then headed inland. Had to hustle a bit as the sun was rising fast and I was already a bit late. I found a reasonable location and was rewarded with some beautiful light with which to attack the challenge of photographing big hills of sand!

Overall, a fun morning and glad I was still able to find things to shoot without having to spend ages afterwards in Photoshop deleting random bodies from the vistas. Example result shown above.

Eastern Sierras Trip #5

And now for something a little bit different in that after a couple of days on our own it was time to join the Eastern Sierras photo workshop we were using as an anchor for this trip. (Yes, it was again a course led by Alain Briot, and as per the trip we took to Arizona a while back to photograph, amongst other things, Antelope canyon).

As always, an early start, this time to see the Sierras lit by the morning sun through a handily-placed arch, located just above Lone Pine. Again, another popular spot, made worse by adding another 9 photographers from our group. Still, people figured out a way to spread themselves a little, at least once they'd got the chance to photograph through the arch, and as shown above I got my turn in there too.

After some discussion time we headed to a couple of nearby locations from where Ansel Adams made two of his photos of the Sierras in the area (one of which is shown here). Next stop, Manzanar.

Eastern Sierras Trip #4

Another day, another early start, this time to watch the sun rise at the famed Death Valley sand dunes. This time around there were less than a handful of other photographers in evidence so we had more of this place to ourselves than before. The dunes themselves are a bit of a hike from the road but that bit was fine. What killed me was hiking up and down these things to reach an interesting point from which to photograph. In all honesty, next time around I'd come in more from the west and do a better job of getting into a place where the hills in the background were less prominent, but having said all that it was still a wonderful location regardless.

While I was taking shots of large piles of sand, S was taking pictures of the local wildlife devouring each other, grabbing a great shot that I'll post at some future date showing a desert canine happily trotting off with an nice, fat early morning snack.

To recover, we headed to the nearby park gate (Stove Pipe Wells) in order that we too might grab breakfast, and for me to rehydrate too! Clambering up and down giant beaches without the benefit of drinking water was way more exercise & physical stress than I had originally planned to take at 6:30 am!

After eating we went to Mosaic Canyon. Supposedly, when the sun is up and striking the walls, the polished rocks are supposed to shine in different colours, looking like some sort of illuminated mosaic. Perhaps so, but it never worked for us. Nevertheless, it offered an interesting hike of a few miles into and out of the canyon and once again we had the place to ourselves for much of the time we spent there.

From there it was back to the hotel, checking-out and then driving onto Lone Pine in preparation for the next phase of our trip. To be continued ....

Day 11: Denali to Fairbanks

Sunrise, Icy Strait, Alaska

Due to catch the train again around 4 pm this afternoon in order to head to Fairbanks where we can catch a plane back home. Yup, the trip is nearly over.

In the morning we took a trip in a jet boat down river to visit a small camp where some of the locals talk about their life here and show us how to pan for gold. Yeah, it was all a bit touristy but what the heck. I view it as supporting the local economy, and in any case I can always stand a trip in something with twin Ford marine engines that can travel at well over 30 mph across shallow rapids (most water it ever needs is 6 feet to get up on it's plane).

One guy who talked to us got by as a trapper in the winter. Seems he gets around $500 for an arctic wolf, $300 or so for a fox and somewhere between $100 and $200 for smaller animals like sable etc. His trap line was handed down to him (not clear from whom) and it seems that Alaska does, from his perspective, a very good job of wildlife management. So there you go.

After panning for gold – and finding the odd fleck or two (which everyone does because they buy-in tailings from old mines) – we headed back to the hotel to catch the train. Or not …

There was a fire on the track above DNP that closed the line, so all trains were cancelled therefore. Anyway, the hotel took charge and after a couple of hours they sorted out some buses to ferry us instead. Once we were on the road it seemed like we were finally on the home straight and good to go, until, that is, the bus broke down! After some messing around the driver managed to reach someone on the radio (nope, no cell coverage where we were) and call up the cavalry to supply a replacement bus. We finally got to the hotel around 11 pm or so, but hey it was still light so it didn’t feel quite so late!

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Anyway, that was about it. Flew back on day 12, getting home just in time for me to drop my bags, get a night's sleep and then straight away head off to Europe on a business trip.

We had a great time, and would heartily recommend the notion of small ship cruising around the Alaska coastline. Both my wife and I learned a lot from a photographic standpoint and I have to say the wildlife was spectacular and very, very co-operative!