Dave Wyman's Gallery
San Diego Natural History Museum - Death Valley -
San Diego Natural History Museum tour of Death Valley, April 2-5, 2009
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496930
Desert Dandelion, Near Trona On our return from Death Valley, portions of the desert were awash with color. These wildflowers were alongside the road a few miles from the town of Trona (which is also the name given to a sodium carbonate mineral (sometimes called "potash").
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496929
Mud Hills, Zabriskie Point Strong sidelight drew our attention at Zabriskie Point.
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496928
View of Death Valley from Zabriskie Point Our final morning took us to the famed Zabriskie Point (named for borax mining tycoon Christian Zabriskie).
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496927
True Love at Dinner
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496926
Exiting Titus Canyon Steep walls rise hundreds of feet above the narrow road following an ancient stream bed through Titus Canyon. Good thing this is a one way road.
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496925
Wildflower
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496923
Rockfall, Titus Canyon Why were these boulders so sharp sided? Answer: they have yet to be tumbled downstream in flash floods, and the effects of weathering - freezing, thawing - have not had a chance to take hold yet. There's plenty of time....
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496922
Moon, Column in Titus Canyon I confess I cheated - I moved the moon from a position far to the right, outside the frame of this photo, to a position much closer to the rock column.
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496921
Indian Paint Brush
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496920
Approaching Titus Canyon
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496919
Train Depot - Rhyolite A chain link fence surrounds the old building; we poked our cameras those an opening.
At one time Rhyolite, an old gold mining town, boasted a population of more than 10,000 people.
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496918
Bottle House, Rhyolite An old house, dating to early in the 20th Century, sits unoccupied (but protected) at Rhyolite.
A relatively large f/stop meant only a small portion of the photograph would be in focus.
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496917
Ghosts at Rhyolite Ghost Town
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496916
Ghostly Cyclist An outdoor sculpture garden has grown over the years on the outskirts of the ghost town of Rhyolite. A low angle let me crop out a car and some people in the background.
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496915
Lizard at Salt Creek
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496914
Desert Pupfish - Cyprinodon salinus - at Salt Creek A 200mm macro lens brought me close to this little fish at the Salt Creek oasis. It's fresh water ancestors began to evolve 10,000 years ago, as Lake Manley began to dry out, shrinking in size and learning to tolerate high concentrations of salt.
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496913
Shadows and Texture on the Dunes
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496912
Dune Texture Nature often provides leading lines that take us right into a photograph.
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496911
Dawn on the Dunes
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496910
Kent
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496909
Dawn Photographers The sun rose over the sand dunes. It was a good time to experiment with silhouettes.
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496908
Cynthia in Silhouette Trying to photograph through the dust at Dante's View - 6,000 feet above the valley floor.
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496907
Dusty Dantes View. A massive wind storm kicked up dust in the northern portions of Death Valley.
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496906
Mushroom Rock Mushroom Rock is an odd-shaped piece of basalt. About a third of it collapsed many years ago, leading the park service to take away the interpretive sign and parking lot. It's located a few miles south of Furnace Creek, on the east side of the road.
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496905
Mick
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496904
At Artist Palette
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496903
A Sense of Scale Along Artist Palette Road Some of our photographs explore the terrain near Artist Palette.
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496902
Artist Palette Road The line of the road leads into the landscape - the red car adds a sense of scale.
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496901
Devils Golf Course Detail
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496900
The Devils Golf Course
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496899
Pressure Ridge on the Salt Flats Near Badwater In a way this is an abstract image - there's not much context around it to tell us what we're looking at or how large what we're looking at is.
Note the horizon line - it's out of kilter, which is the give-away that I used a wide-angle lens on a zoom. This is correctable with programs like Photoshop.
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496898
Photographer at the Visitor Center
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496897
Desert Five Spot We found these beautiful wildflowers at the Visitor Center. I used the flash on my camera to light up the interior.
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496896
Field of Flowers Near Mustard Canyon Standing back from them gave us a nice overview of the late spring wildflowers.
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496895
Wagon Wheels Another example of showing more with less - I found it unnecessary to show the entire 29 Mule Team Wagon (including surrounding fences and photographers).
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496894
Remains of Borax Workers Cabin - Near Mustard Canyon Sometimes, as we learned, showing less shows more.
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496893
Backlit Hairy Stems
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496892
Woody Bottle Washer
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496891
Phacelia? I could use some help with this one - what is it?
Moving in with a telephoto lens (with a +2 filter) threw the background almost completely out of focus.
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496890
Sunflower with Insect
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496889
Desert Sunflower Backlit - flower positioned in the viewfinder so that the background was dark.
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496888
Vanishing Point At the original Stovepipe Wells, we turned back to face the dirt road leading to the highway. We knew the line of the dirt road was a good way to lead our eyes to the eroded landscape in the background.
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496887
Water! At the Original Stovepipe Wells We poured some water through the top of the old pump - our volunteer pourer had to move quickly out of the way.
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496885
Caterpiller
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496884
Trumpet Plant
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496883
Sand Dunes and Creosote Creosote, sand and top-lit shadows create textures and patterns and a little color.
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496882
Sand Dunes Awesome shadows played over the face of the dunes as the sun made ready to hide behind the western mountains. It was a good time for photographs.
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496881
Dan and Gretchen on the Dunes The sun was high, so no shadows - but human subjects in such rugged terrain can add interest to the image.
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496880
Near and Far Focusing on the creosote in the foreground meant losing the background. Sometimes this is an effective photographic technique.
https://davewyman.slickpic.com/albums/San-Diego-Natural-History-Museum-Death-Valley-/photo/#3496879
Giant Dune The grains of sand are fragile, easily moved by the wind. Yet the wind brought the sand, and the shape of the dunes never changes.
Our group enjoyed the shape-defining shadows of late afternoon that accompanied the low angle of the sun.
Desert Dandelion, Near Trona
324 views
Mud Hills, Zabriskie Point
320 views
View of Death Valley from Zabriskie Point
318 views
True Love at Dinner
318 views
Exiting Titus Canyon
319 views
Rockfall, Titus Canyon
318 views
Moon, Column in Titus Canyon
329 views
Indian Paint Brush
319 views
Approaching Titus Canyon
322 views
Train Depot - Rhyolite
320 views
Bottle House, Rhyolite
318 views
Ghosts at Rhyolite Ghost Town
317 views
Ghostly Cyclist
321 views
Lizard at Salt Creek
319 views
Desert Pupfish - Cyprinodon salinus - at Salt Creek
77 views
Shadows and Texture on the Dunes
78 views
Dawn on the Dunes
78 views
Dawn Photographers
79 views
Cynthia in Silhouette
78 views
Dusty Dantes View.
78 views
At Artist Palette
78 views
A Sense of Scale Along Artist Palette Road
78 views
Artist Palette Road
79 views
Devils Golf Course Detail
78 views
The Devils Golf Course
78 views
Pressure Ridge on the Salt Flats Near Badwater
76 views
Photographer at the Visitor Center
75 views
Desert Five Spot
76 views
Field of Flowers Near Mustard Canyon
74 views
Remains of Borax Workers Cabin - Near Mustard Canyon
75 views
Backlit Hairy Stems
75 views
Woody Bottle Washer
75 views
Sunflower with Insect
74 views
Desert Sunflower
73 views
Water! At the Original Stovepipe Wells
72 views
Sand Dunes and Creosote
58 views
Dan and Gretchen on the Dunes
59 views
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