Dawn at Badwater
A few wisps of cloud hung in the air to the North but to the South there was zip, nada, nothing; just a clear, blue, cloudless sky. Sunrise on the valley floor was approaching, heralded by the golden glow slowly creeping down the side of Telescope Peak and the Panamint Range off to my right. This pre-sunrise hour was silent but for the crunch of the salt underfoot and the clicking of DSLR mirrors and shutters – only one of our group was sporting a mirrorless camera.
Salt Polygons at Badwater Basin
For this photo I'd moved South of the location for my previous post and I was now South of the West Side Road where Salt Creek flows through the Devils Golf Course. The Devils Golf Course is the name given to the rough dry mud regions either side of Salt Creek visible in the photo above as the brown borders of the white salt river. Here, close by the road, the edges of the salt polygons were less pronounced though I've no idea why.
On my way out to death valley from Las Vegas I'd stopped at a Target and picked up some gardening kneepads with a neoprene pad and velcro fasteners. Those certainly helped protect my knees on the coarse salt surface!
Photo Recipe
I placed my camera low to the ground and used a wide angle lens to get this perspective, emphasizing the salt polygon in the foreground. The shot was taken a little under an hour before the sun cleared the Armagosa Range to my left.
- Exposure: ISO 100: 0.5 sec at f/16
- Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark III
- Lens: Canon EF 17-35mm f/2.8L USM at 17mm
- Tripod: Gitzo GT3531 6X Carbon Fiber Tripod Legs – Supports 39.6 lbs (18kg) (B&H)
- ball Head: BH-55 LR: Full-sized ballhead with LR (Really Right Stuff)
Multiple layers processed through Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC
