Our absence on this blog has not been for lack of photographing or writing, rather because Internet service in Death Valley is appropriate for the name of the valley!

It has been frustrating. We don’t know if there are any emergencies at home. We can’t get e-mails and see who has signed up for workshops these past couple of days.

So who knows when yesterday’s and today’s blogs will get posted!

We talked about how the salt flats are so much a part of the Death Valley landscape. So are the dunes. There are several in the park, but the most accessible are the Mesquite Dunes.

With a 5:30 departure, a.m., that is, we had time to walk into the dunes before the sun rose. It was actually pretty light out, and the stars were gorgeous.

Again, Arnie and I love some of the dunes photographs we have seen. With my computer having “issues,” I found I was looking for really simple compositions that would hold together with minimal processing. Usually, I like to do some dodging and burning, perhaps a little saturation here, a little glow there.

This scene really grabbed me. I loved its abstract nature.

During midday critiques, people were blown away by the images one another made. That was terrific! It’s fun when participants say of other’s images, “I’d hang that on my wall!”

For the afternoon shoot, we took off for one of the ghost towns. Arnie gave the group one exercise, I asked them to produce an abstract where no one would know what it was, yet it was worthy of at least the guest bath wall. Then, they should do a second photograph, also wall worthy, that showed what the abstract was.

I figured I should do one, too.

So, I started with this one …

Then, I did that second, identifying photograph …

And no, this is NOT an HDR. The light inside this structure was surreal, but it was because there was low light coming in from several light sources and bouncing back and forth on the walls. The Hospital Green, as we used to call it, took on a different look.

I was showing one of our participants possibilities in one of the old miners’ buildings. It was a singularly unglamorous, one-room structure. Debris littered the floor, but the late afternoon light coming in through the back window caught my eye.

I slipped inside before the light faded and grabbed this shot. A minute later, the light was gone.

People seemed to find lots of images in this location. Some bizarre, some graphic, some a sense of place. I can’t wait to see them on the morrow.

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