I haven’t been out shooting this last month, just home editing photos, updating my website, completing submissions, and taking care of my family.  I think that a lot of people think that I am always gone, but that is not the case.  I spend almost 40% of each year traveling, but that still means that I am in Seattle with my family over 60% of the year.  Since I work at home, I don’t leave my neighborhood, let alone my house all that often.  I have enjoyed my recent time at home, but I am looking forward to flying to Iceland this weekend and creating incredible images!

Since I don’t have any brand-spanking-new images to share, I decided to post this dramatic sunset image that I created last January in Death Valley National Park.  While exploring the sand dunes north of Stovepipe Wells, I was drawn to photograph these delicate mud-sand textures.  This was one of those sunsets where nothing exciting happened until 15 minutes after the sun went down and the clouds brilliantly lit up neon pink.  I know better than to put away my camera gear while there is still light left in the sky.  Dramatic images like this are my reward for sticking out an otherwise unproductive afternoon.

During my recent trip to Death Valley National Park, I visited the Eureka Dunes.  At over 600′ tall, these dunes are the tallest in California.  They are located almost 100 miles due north of Furnace Creek, requiring either a 40 mile off-road drive or 160 mile circuitous route around the park to the northwest.  After soliciting advice from the park rangers, I decided to try the off-road option since the road was reportedly dry and in good condition.  There were a few washboard sections, but nothing as difficult as my previous drives to the Racetrack.  When I finally arrived at the dunes, I was impressed by their girth.  If you’ve visited the Mesquite Dunes, imagine them piled on top of each other until they blocked out the horizon.  I was daunted by their size, but since the sunset was approaching, I grabbed my camera gear and headed straight up.  I probably climbed about 2/3 of the way up to the top, but once I surveyed the massive ridge patterns to the north, I went back down and headed towards them.  As the sunlight turned golden yellow and the shadows began to elongate, I settled on this image beneath the summit.  After the sun sank below the mountains to the west, I hiked for 45 minute back to my truck, and then drove for over 2 hours back to my camping trailer.  It was a long day, but worth the effort.

During my recent visit to Death Valley National Park, I created this image Mesquite Sand Dunes Sunset 3.  Because they are close to the road, the dunes get a lot of foot traffic and are usually covered in un-photogenic tracks.  However, several days of strong wind had blow away any footprints and created razor sharp edges on the dunes.  When I began my hike, the wind was still howling.  I stood for over an hour in the maelstrom being sand blasted, but the winds ceased 20 minutes before sunset.  The conditions serendipitously came together to create this beautiful image.

You can watch my iPhone video from this shoot here.

I want to thank California photographer Steve Sieren for camping with me last month in Joshua Tree National Park & for sharing his location advice about photographing desert wildflowers near the Ibex Dunes in Death Valley National Park.  Following his advice, I drove 90 miles from where I set up my camp at Furnace Creek down to the southeastern corner of the park where the dunes are located.  After a short 4wd excursion from the highway, I parked my truck and hiked for 45 minutes towards the dunes.  I’ve been working with a lot of photo tour clients the past few months, so it was refreshing to experience such a fantastic location by myself.  The sand verbena was in full bloom so I composed this image and waited for the exquisite light of sunset to capture the moment.  If you want to photograph sand dunes without a ton of people & tracks on them, keep the Ibex Dunes in mind.

I prefer shooting wildflowers still and sharp rather than a blur in a maelstrom.  After waiting patiently for the wind to stop blowing in Death Valley National Park, I was rewarded with this scene (on April 13th) of desert sunflowers and purple phacelia framing the Panamint Range at firstlight.  Internet reports heralded an unusually lush bloom this year.   This information proved accurate.  Anyone who has the opportunity should head to Death Valley this week before the heat dries out the spectacular display.

I left Carrizo Plain National Monument on Saturday morning (April 17) after photographing this attractive display of tidy tips at sunrise near the south end of Soda Lake.  It was my first visit to the area.  Most of the wildflowers were already about 1 week past peak, but I still found this delightful 10′x10′ bloom that was worth photographing.  The blowing wind made still images of the flowers impossible in the afternoon, but I woke up to calm conditions with gorgeous skies both mornings.  The fleeting pink-purple cloud color lasted just a few moments.  I used my Singh-Ray 3-stop Hard Graduated Neutral Density filter to balance the exposure of the sky above the wildflowers.  I also created this image with a loaned Carl Zeiss 35mm f2 lens.  I’ll be writing a blog post about it and the 28mm f2 lens soon.  I have appreciated using them so much that I do not plan to return them!

I just returned from 11 incredibly productive days shooting wildflowers in Southern California.  I am exhausted after 20 hours of driving back to Seattle and only home for 3 days before leading my Olympic National Park Photography Tour later this week.  I took this beautiful picture of the poppies in bloom last Thursday (15th) at around noon in the Antelope Valley Poppy Preserve.  Several locals told me that this years’ bloom is turning out to be one of the better ones that they have ever seen.  I found the hills covered in poppies overwhelming to look at.  I had a conversation with a volunteer who was wearing one of those bright orange worker visibility vests which seemed a dull orange in comparison to the brilliant poppies.  Anyone visiting the Antelope Valley this week should still find the flowers at their peak.

This is my favorite wildflower image that I have created so far during my visit to Death Valley National Park.  I photographed this enormous field of desert sunflowers near Ashford Mill at sunrise on Friday April 9.  The interminable wind all weekend has made it impossible for me to shoot this type of big depth-of-field scene since.  However, the weather forecast optimistically predicts calm winds after today, so I will here with my fingers crossed for a few more days.  The display is especially brilliant between Mormon Point & Ashford Mill.  If you still have time to visit this week, you will not be disappointed.

This is my favorite image from my recent shoot in Joshua Tree National Park.  I sat through 4 days of bad weather, including snow, before I finally experienced these dramatic clouds at sunrise.  During that non-shooting time, I scouted the park looking for interesting compositions and found this Joshua Tree lying on its side.  I always look for odd numbered patterns in my images, so I especially liked the way that the 3 blooms framed the funny looking tree in the background.  The low-angle light at sunrise and the yellow-gray clouds sweeping across the sky completed the scene.

My image “Racetrack Sunset” will be the April cover photo of Outdoor Photographer!  “The Racetrack” is a seasonally dry lake located in the northern part of Death Valley National Park and is famous for its moving rocks.  With the right combination of rain and wind, the rocks move slowly across the surface of the playa, leaving a track as they go.  I photographed this amazing rock at sunset during my first visit to the Racetrack in January 2006.  I was enthralled with the unusual arc that it had created as it was moving.  This rock was still in the same location during my recent Death Valley National Park Tour.