This is an HDR photo taken at Death Valley National Park.

These salt flats are located in Badwater Basin, which has the lowest elevation in North America at 282 feet below sea level. The salt flats themselves are some of the largest in the world with an area of over 200 square miles. When I planned the trip to Death Valley, this photo was one of my top priorities.

I wanted to make sure I had enough time to capture the sun in the correct spot, so I convinced my wife and sister to arrive around 2 hours early. We hiked a few miles out into the middle of the flats and waited for the light to be right. The only problem was that there was some kind of strange windstorm. The wind was blowing extremely hard and fast at a completely constant rate with no slowing down at all. The sound of it whipping across my ears was incredibly loud and made it hard to think straight. I was constantly having to struggle to even stand up. This also posed unique problems in actually taking any photographs as it could easily blow over my camera, even though it was on a tripod. At several points throughout the shoot we were gathered around the tripod each holding leg to aid in stability.

Since we had hiked a few miles in, the scenery looked like this photo as far as the eye could see in every direction. Just salt everywhere! In general it all looks the same, so I wanted to use individual salt formations to determine the composition of the shot. This involved me walking away from my wife and sister until I found a salt formation that I liked. I would check it through the viewfinder and motion for them to stand there. Yelling didn’t work cause the wind was too loud! While they stood there to mark the spot, I would repeat the process by trying to find a better spot.

I chose the final spot in this photo based on directional lines of the cracks as well as the size and shape of the salt. This is one of the first photos I’ve taken that I pre-envisioned as an HDR. I knew that pointing the camera at the sun as well as getting the detail I wanted in the salt would be impossible in a single shot. I was worried that the wind would ruin the process but it seemed to work out.

The epilogue to this story is that when we returned to our camp after taking this photo, the windstorm had blown our tent away! In the middle of the desert there is not really anything to stop the tent. Luckily, after only about 20 minutes of looking for it (in the dark), we found it in some small shrubs. It was filled with dust and sand but at least we found it.

This is an HDR image taken at Death Valley National Park.

Even though it was after sunrise, the sun was still low enough to cast a warm soft light and accentuate every ripple in the windblown sand. I stopped to take the photo after noticing the long shadows of the twigs. At any other time of day I would have probably not bothered taking a picture of some sticks in the sand.

This image was taken in the sand dunes at Death Valley National Park. There are dozens of these dried and cracking formations lying in the spaces between the dunes. Sunrise and sunset is the best time to shoot highly textured things so that the light can create dramatic shadows. The other challenge about shooting in dunes is that backtracking is not possible due to the amount of foot prints that get left behind. I always had look ahead when looking for potential subjects to make sure I didn’t accidentally walk into an area that would be in the frame.

Taken at Death Valley National Park in the dunes. Early morning sun provides the perfect side-lighting to extend plant shadows and accentuate every ripple of sand in the wind-swept dunes. Not only is the lighting better in the morning, it’s also best to beat the heat of the afternoon sun.

This particular shot stood out to me due to the fact that most of the vegetation wasn’t really growing on the steeper sides of the dunes except for these. To my eyes it just looked like an interesting composition of plants on a steep sandy hill. However the viewfinder presented me with a kind of visual trick that makes it look as though the plants are on flat ground with the sand abruptly stopping, as if it were the edge of the world.

These are the amazing sand dunes of Death Valley as seen at early morning. This is the kind of place you could easily spend all day shooting at. The changing light as the day progresses would only reveal more and more compositions. I only had limited time in death valley so I only spent a few hours in the dunes before moving on to other areas.

We were rushing to get there before we missed early morning light. In our haste we had forgotten to refill our water packs. After a few hours of hiking through sand dunes we ran out of water so we had to head back.

This image was taken at Death Valley National Park located in eastern California. This was the first stop in a 3 week photo journey to the west. It was our first day and we had arrived in the valley sometime in the the afternoon. After a long day of exploring, we returned to our tent just as it had started to rain a little. I honestly did not expect rain due to the fact that Death Valley happens to be both the hottest and driest place in North America. Average summer temperatures are commonly above 120 degrees fahrenheit and average rainfall is only around 1.5 inches. I saw the storm heading our way as it rolled off the Sierra Nevada range near nightfall. As it got closer, wide bands of lightning started streaking across the sky and large drops of rain started falling at a more frequent pace. At this point most people would probably try to find some cover or sit in their car until the storm passed. I found myself getting out my camera and setting up a tripod. As I set up my gear, the rain drops seemed to get larger and larger. The dry and dusty air had mixed with the rain so that each large drop that landed on my equipment left a dusty residue in the shape of a water splash. The storm was fast moving so I almost missed the moment. This was taken right as it was passing over me.

This trip is also leading into a change in how I update my site. From now on I will blogging more often with all kinds of content including photography related tips and tricks for both digital and film. I am also changing the way that images are added to the site. Instead of randomly uploading 10 or 20 images at a time, images will be uploaded one at a time on a fixed schedule and will include more detailed information in the descriptions.

Be sure to check back here in the coming days for updates on our trip and follow me on twitter @joshlangley for instant updates!

Taken during sunrise from a tiny little island on a crisp autumn morning.