Death Valley - Texas Springs

Monday morning and afternoon, 5 of the 6 students went with one instructor back to the classroom while the other instructor contacted the Park Rangers and started the search for our missing classmate at Zabriskie Point.

(Since the latest blog, when posted, goes at the top, you may want to start at the last blog on Death Valley and work your way up to the present.)

We spent the afternoon working on our pictures and doing critiques of each other's work.  However, in the back of all of our minds was our lost classmate.

We received several requests for information:
How tall was he?
What was he wearing?
What kind of shoes did he have on?
What did he have with him?  Water?  Photographic equipment?

Those questions were meant to give the searchers additional information, but they trigger thoughts in our minds:
Had they found a body?
Had they found someone who was unconscious?
Why did they want to know about his shoes?  (They wanted to know about his shoes so that they could know what his footprint looked like.  A recommendation that we heard later was that if you are going hiking in the back country, you should take a picture of your shoes and the print that they leave and text it to someone who can share it with searchers if needed.)

So our work went a little slower and we stayed at the classroom a little longer so that we could hear any news.

Finally, at 2:30 or so we heard good news.  He had been found.  He was uninjured!  Yippee!

So we finished up what we were working on and headed to the Texas Springs Campground for our sunset shoot for the evening.

Unfortunately, we got there a little too late.  The sun was already below the horizon.  So we did not get any shots with strong, warm, slanting sunlight.

But we stayed long enough to get some night time star shots, like the one below:

Death Valley - Zabriskie Point

Zabriskie Point was our first sunrise.  We had to drive 30 minutes to get there and we wanted to be there before civil twilight co that we could find a great place for a sunrise image.

Do you realize what time we had to get out of bed?  Fortunately, our bodies were on East Coast time.  But that didn't last too long because we went to bed at 9:00 local time, which was midnight at home!

The day at Zabriskie Point proved interesting.  More interesting for some than for others.

One of our fellow students wanted a picture of Zabriskie Point from the other side.  I think he was trying to get the beautiful colors of the sunrise as a back drop for the Point.  Anyway, he wanted an image that no one else would have, so he went down into the canyons/ravines below the observation point looking for that perfect shot.

 I also went down in the ravine and realized how out of shape I was, so I allowed almost a half hour to get back up out.  And it was a struggle.  I had to stop several times to catch my breath and let my pulse subside.

We were all to meet back at the cars at 8:30.   Fortunately I made it back in time.  But the instructors were not in any hurry to leave.  I figured that everyone was still shooting and getting good shots so the instructors were allowing them to continue.

However when it got past 9:00, I realized that they were waiting for that fellow student to return out of the canyons.  When 9:15 arrived, they decided that they had to do something.

We yelled.  We honked the car horns loud and long.  Still nothing.

So one instructor took the students who had returned back to our home base to continue instruction.

The other instructor contacted the Park Rangers.  The Rangers sent two trackers down to look to the guy.  They were unable to find him.  So the Rangers call the California Highway Patrol and arranged for a helicopter to come and search for the lost soul.

Finally, at approximately 2:00 they found him and airlifted him out of the canyons and back to Zabriskie Point.  Fortunately, he suffered no injuries, except to his pride!  Once we saw him and saw he was safe, the teasing began!

Anyway, here are some pictures that I took that morning.

I got a little bit of instruction in processing B&W images at this workshop.  Expect to see some B&W images from this trip.  In fact all of my favorite images from this trip are in black and white!

Death Valley - Badwater

Annette and I participated in a Photography Workshop in Death Valley this past week.  In fact, we just got home today after taking the red-eye flight back east.

The workshop was good.  They pushed you to expand your vision.  In fact, part of their tag line is to, "Seek your vision."

Each day we were out before daybreak so that we could be in location by the time the sweet, warm, morning light hit the subject.

Each mid-day was spent putting the images on the computer and processing them.  I learned a lot about processing B&W images.  None in this blog, but you will see them in future blogs.

Each evening we were in location before sunset and we stayed until long after dark.  We were trying for the sunset colors and the stars in the sky.

Our first evening, we went to Badwater, the lowest point on the continent.  Badwater is the site of an immense salt fat.  It stretched to the horizon in the North and the South and was bounded by mountains on the East and the West.

We must have walked more than a mile out onto the flats.  It sure seemed like a long way when we had to trudge back to the cars in the dark! We went that far because we just had to get to the point where the patterns in the salt had not been disturbed by human footprints.

Here are a couple of pictures from that shoot.  Let me know what you think of them.

I wanted to show how the salt stretched out into the distant mountains.

The salt and the sky stretched forever!

The sunset sky was so full of color and texture!

I light painted the foreground to give the image an Otherworldly feeling.

The salt was not what Annette and I expected.  I expected that the salt would be soft and would crumble easily.  That was not the case!

When I knelt down on the salt to get a lower perspective, the salt was very hard on my knees.  It did not crumble easily!  You could pick up a chunk of the salt and actually have to put some effort into  breaking it!

Annette loves low perspectives and she has the injuries to prove it.  She has scratches on her knees and shins.  Salt in an open wound is no fun!

One of our fellow students thought ahead.  He brought knee pads with him.  I also saw another photo workshop group there and every one of the students had knee pads.  Oh well, if there is a next time, I will know to bring the pads!

Troy, All Boy and a Great Joy!

We had been on hiatus from taking people pictures.  However, Annette is again very interested in taking pictures of people.  As you saw in a previous post, we had a great time taking pictures of Elizabeth in her bridal gown.

This past weekend, we took pictures of Kathleen & Troy and again it was a great time.

Troy is a beautiful little three-year-old boy whose real name is "Troy, the Joy", because he is such a great kid to be around!  When we first got to the park, Kathleen told Troy to give Annette a hug.  So Troy comes running full speed at Annette and throws himself into her, throws his arms around her neck and squeezes.  At that point, Annette was in love!

Troy has an active imagination.  He was searching the woods looking for dragons and monsters.  At one point, he intensely said, "Shhhh!  Do you hear the monster?"  It was great.

Troy also had great energy combined with great curiosity.  He searched the creek bed and all along the path.

I would love to adopt him as a grandkid!

Let me show you this great kid!

The picture above was when we first arrived.  Although he had given Annette a hug, he wasn't quite sure about that huge camera she was carrying around.

Hey, Troy!  Give your mother a kiss!

He did kiss his mother, but then he wiped it off!

Emerging from the enchanted forest.

I know there is a dragon out there somewhere!!!

A momentary pause.

These leaves were made for throwing!

I'm gonna get you with these leaves!

You can't get me!

The Dragon Slayer

A boy in his glory!

Elizabeth Spinning

It's always great to work with a subject who is willing to try things that may be slightly outside of her comfort zone.  Elizabeth was just such a person.  She was willing to try anything that Annette suggested.  (Annette is the one with the ideas.  I'm lucky to be allowed to follow her around!) Elizabeth tried anything from hugging a lamppost with weird paint, to climbing into a window, to spinning to get her skirt to twirl!

Here are a few pictures with the twirling skirt.

I takes a little bit of effort to get the skirt to swirl in a pleasing pattern and then the photographer has to be coordinated enough to catch it at just the right moment.  You'll see what I mean in this sequence.  The first one is an "almost", but not quite.  I like the other ones.  There were a lot of "misses" in between.

Notice the blue Adirondack chair in the background!

This one is my favorite, although it still needs a little work.

Elizabeth and the Blue Adirondack Chair

Sometimes a photo needs a splash of color, doesn't it?  I think so, too.

While Annette and I were shooting Elizabeth in her wedding gown at a local college, we came across a couple of bright blue Adirondack Chairs.  So Annette immediately places Elizabeth in the chair and starts posing her.  I have my long lens (70-200mm) on my camera and just stand back and get some great images.  See what you think!

I guess that means I have to give credit where credit is due.  Thanks, Annette, for putting Elizabeth in the chair and directing her poses!

Pondering the Future

Basking in the Sun

The Direct Gaze

A Moment of Laughter

I have to say that the real Elizabeth is in the last photo.  She is a super sweet, down-to-earth girl without pretension!  If she looks different than this in the pictures, it's just her "modeling" face!

Elizabeth and the '57 Chevy

Annette and I are very lucky.  Let me show and tell you what I mean.

Annette has a friend whose daughter, Elizabeth, is strikingly beautiful.  This girl got married in September.  We were guests at the wedding, not photographers.  But, when Annette asked her if she wanted to do a photo shoot with her wedding gown, she jumped at the chance.

So, yesterday, Annette and I were at a local college campus shooting Elizabeth in her wedding gown.  Normally, that would have gotten several quizzical looks, but the looks were toned down just a smidgen by the fact that it was Homecoming for the college and there were a whole army of girls in fancy dresses.  (Yes, I know that a fancy dress is not a wedding gown!)

So there we were going from one location on campus to another, when we ran across a beautiful 1957 Chevy Bel Air.  We wanted to take pictures of Elizabeth with the car but it was in shade.  Then alongs comes one of those girls in a fancy dress with her date.  Annette starts to talk to her and soon she yells out, "Hey, Pap!  Can you move the car into the sunlight?"  Wow!

So, Grandpa moves the car out of the shade and into the sunlight and we got several just beautiful pictures. 

I love the way the sunlight lights up the car, Elizabeth and the columns in the background.

I had my long lens on my camera and could not get back far enough to get all of the car  (including the fins!) and Elizabeth in the picture, so I had to "settle" for this.

The whole day was such a good time taking pictures of this beautiful girl and chasing the light that is was energizing.  In fact, so energizing that we were up loading  and editing pictures until way past our bedtime!