Death Valley & Trona
Added 2024-09-21 14:00:01 +0000 UTCIn 2019, after teaching a workshop at the Palm Springs Photo Festival, I had an opportunity to shoot with Nicole Vaunt for a couple of days.
I picked her up in Las Vegas and dropped her off in Los Angeles two days later.
Smack in the middle between these two places is Death Valley, and that’s where we shot these, except the two last images, which are from Trona Pinnacles during a storm while driving to LA from DV.
Death Valley is a very hostile environment and, in many places, somewhat overpopulated.
In the more touristy spots, there is a window to shoot for perhaps 1-2 hours around sunrise. But for us about 1 hour after the sun appears in the sky, the temperature hits 113F/45C.
And that’s the quoted temperature in the shade, of which there is very little when you are hiking.
Still, it is a gorgeous place.
Next time I’m there, I want to explore some of the harder-to-get-to places and perhaps camp out—ideally, at a time of year when the temperature is not that extreme.
