Twisties Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 NSFW means Not Safe For Work. Some of the images below are of graffiti. There is language in the graffiti that might be considered inappropriate for a workplace or in the presence of children. It may be offensive to some. I found the graffiti compelling so the images are here. Frankly, my personal judgment is that no one will be offended, but my sensibilities are often at odds with other's. In accordance with board rules I offer the warning. Don't scroll down past the sand dunes if you think you might be offended or are viewing in an inappropriate location. Now, on with it! We made it to Death Valley Days for the third time running, though not with out some tribulation. In the end, though we had stationed the bikes in Phoenix for the event, and had planned to ride with Johnlt and Chris Olson, we ended up coming from SLC in the truck. It was all due to a bunch of last minute schedule changes and a sore tendon that might not be relied upon to keep a bike upright. We arrived Friday before dark, and found the party in full swing at the Exchange Club parking lot. Weather was by far the most mild we had seen, and early evening remained mild. Antifreeze consumption was likewise controlled... ... or not ... as the case may be. We had dinner at the Sourdough with Phil (Redbrick) and Kathy (Beemerbabe). Burgers and pool. Sharon and I hadn't played pool in some years, so it was a very long game. We figured it was a fine investment of entertainment dollars, well less than a dollar, but who's counting. We woke early and made for Badwater on the strength of a coffee from the gas station, a couple of cheese sticks, and a pair of granola bars. We had a bit of a late start, as I had wanted to be there for dawn. Sharon had said the night before that she wasn't coming, and then woke up anyway. I told her she had time to dress and get coffee. She took it to mean shower, dry her hair, dress and get coffee. But lest I seem to be blaming her, I was the one that couldn't get the gas pump to run. It all added up. But a happy solution presented itself: We drove fast. Almost as fast as we rode in prior years. It was almost fun, even, in the high clearance cheapo Toyota. As we entered Death Valley the amazing scenery began to light ever so softly, and photo's tempted. But I was determined to press on. We made Badwater about twenty minutes before official sunrise, but had a fair walk out to where the water lay. Finally, we arrived in time for some nice shots. Those who are following the "Computer Requirements for Photo Editing" thread will note that I processed these with LR3. The most alluring, for me, enhancement, the increased ability to use watermarks, was moderately successful. Adobe have added the ability to choose typeface, but not font size precisely. You can specify some sort of size option, but then it scales it somehow. You can choose where you want the watermark to appear, but only once per export batch, in fact you must apply a single watermark template to each export batch. All in all, likely I will go back to adding my copyright notices in an external program, despite it taking a fair bit of time. I will say however, that the lens correction module worked great, and made a nice impact on several of these images. Other than that LR3 just seems to be much slower than LR2, but basically the same. I'm still very much learning landscape and how to use this wide-angle lens. This shot is just a few minutes after the first one, from the same spot. All that is different is the camera angle. In the first shot I aimed at the horizon, and here I aimed down, into the water. A fairly dramatic difference I would say. I actually like both shots though. Each has it's strengths and emphasizes different aspects of the scene. Obviously the later shot has much better contrast as a result of the increased illumination, as well. Still pretty much the same place, but looking North, rather than West. I had seen a very beautiful image on one of the photo websites where the scene to the west was captured with salt patterns just under water in the foreground, and so went looking. I found some salt patterns. These are very beautiful too, and I think a bit haunting, but not like what I was looking for. Eventually I found the spot, but it was high and dry. Another foot of water needed. But, I'm sure not complaining. That image inspired me to look around and find all of these, out of the seemingly infinite variety of salty encrustations in Badwater. Here like little bits of floating popcorn. Here more of the normal dikes. And here a sea of salt foam. One nice thing about taking the truck is that we got visit some of the dirt roads that we had not seen before. This shot is from up on the road to the natural bridge. The sere rocky expanse of the alluvial fan is punctuated by gullies and dotted with the stems of plants gone by, as the valley lays below, and the Panamints set the horizon. We went next to the Devil's Golf Course. I guess I never got back to those images, as I wasn't too sure what to do with them. Maybe later. On then to our next stop near the Harmony Borax Works. and then on towards Furnace Creek, and breakfast, which consisted primarily of bacon. After breakfast it was time to visit the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. They are a bit trampled and we had a job to find some undisturbed patterns. Next time out we will visit some of the more remote and untrammeled dunes. Coyote trails rabbit. The dunes are all about the wind. I love the way the lay of the sand in the light alters the tonality, from silvery highs to rich browns. I had read that mid-day was good for photographing the dunes, but I didn't really believe it. I was expecting harsh light, and intense contrast. Instead the sand lit softly... ... and told it's story, but for a time, until the wind etched it clean again. in addition to the large set of tracks, can you see the very fine set of tracks in the center of the image? Here I could watch as the wind did it's work. Perhaps you can make out the light haze and loss of detail on the three horizontal surfaces, one half way up the dune, another on top, and then again towards the back. These were streams of the finest sands blowing across the dune in a layer about four inches deep. Maybe you can see it better here, as well as a little more of the fine detail in the dune's surface. I prefer this angle quite a bit, but with the sun behind us we can't see the blowing sand as well. By now it was getting late. You know, for those that left their room at 5:30 in the morning, 2 pm is late. So we packed it back to the Exchange Club and got a nap. The group dinner at the Sourdough was great, and pics have been posted by others. We got up for a leisurely breakfast at the casino. Somehow I had never been there. About half the group was there, so it was good time to chat. Then it was time to start for home. But we had two days to get there, and the red air quality alert was still on back home, so we were in no hurry. We had seen a ruin south of Beatty, and took the time to explore. Overview of the site from above, looking into the Amargosa Valley. A little geotagging of photos from the phone, and a subsequent search at home suggests that this is the site of the former Carrera Cement Plant. Walking around was interesting. The locals seem to be frequent visitors. Some of the art is pretty good. The poured concrete foundations made for some interesting views. There is a lot of detail here, amongst the rifle divots. Most of you probably know that I am not a particularly religious type, and was not raised a Christian. But I'll take my art where I find it, and this is art. Someone had the vision to see Christ in this setting, and it is hard to imagine a more compelling setting. You aren't really supposed to do this, point your nice camera right into the sun, and it makes for a right difficult exposure. But somehow the juxtaposition of the sun over this scene made me want to try. It did require a bit of a workover, and I played with the scene just a bit. Uggg, and I now see left a few nasty artifacts as well. Amazing what working on a different monitor will reveal. I'll reprocess it later... Here is a closer view. You can see that the artist used the rifle divots to form the body and head of Christ. Although some of the impacts are clearly after the fact, I am certain that the bulk are from before. The artist may have even done them himself. The image is haunting and reminds me of Michelangelo's Rondandini Pieta in Milan. We moved on down to the lower reaches of the site. The view looking back up, through, as it was called on Google Earth, The Grand Ball Room. Somehow I knew Heck had something to do with this. We moved on from the cement plant down into the valley towards a site called "Big Dune." It was quite impressive to the eye, but we couldn't get too close, or at least we were chicken, as the area surrounding the dunes was free flowing sand. I didn't have an appropriate lens, but maybe Sharon will post a shot or two. The dunes were alive with dirt bikes and atv's and I think she had enough zoom to at least make things out. We were about a mile out. Then we moved on. A night in Hurricane, UT. The morning looking around Springdale and Rockville... Oh my, lot prices are through the roof... like $250,000 to $450,000 worth for scrubland through the roof. We had no idea. Finally we made it home on Monday, and one more DVD's came to an end. Link to comment
Husker Red Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 Thanks for posting those. I really enjoyed it. Link to comment
BeemerBabe Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 Wow, Jan--thanks for sharing all of those! Those pictures really captured the Badwater and Dunes area.... Link to comment
notacop Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 Up to the graffittii, you had a good calendar going for DV. DV as probably I'll never see it. Very nice. Link to comment
ltljohn Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 Great pictures Jan, I always wonder if the graffiti artists that have such artistic talent are using that talent for anything other than graffiti. Link to comment
Whip Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 Jan That is some of your best work ever. I really like it! Link to comment
Jerry Johnston Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 Beautiful pictures, also like the company name. Link to comment
Dennis Andress Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 Jan That is some of your best work ever. I really like it! Yeah, me too. Link to comment
Groanup Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 Absolutely stunning! Thanks Jan! Link to comment
Bill_Walker Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 We drove fast. Almost as fast as we rode in prior years. It was almost fun, even, in the high clearance cheapo Toyota. You should've brought the Miata! But then, of course, you wouldn't have been able to get to the places where you took all those amazing photos! Excellent work! Link to comment
Norm 88 Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 No surprise here,just like your other work Jan!....Excellent... ) Link to comment
Twisties Posted January 23, 2011 Author Share Posted January 23, 2011 We drove fast. Almost as fast as we rode in prior years. It was almost fun, even, in the high clearance cheapo Toyota. You should've brought the Miata! But then, of course, you wouldn't have been able to get to the places where you took all those amazing photos! Excellent work! I can't believe anyone actually read any of that! Thanks all for the kind words. Link to comment
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