Night Photography: Badwater, 2 a.m., Halloween
Badwater, 2 a.m., Halloween — by Joe Reifer
From last month’s Death Valley trip. 30 minute exposure.
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Joe Reifer
Ramblings about night photography, desert ruins, 360 panoramas, and artistic inspiration
Seb:
I will have to try those long exposures in the middle of the night – brilliant !
joe Reply:
November 16th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Seb – thanks!
Cliff K:
Joe, this is a wonderful shot. Magnificent even.
joe Reply:
November 16th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
Cliff – thanks! I’d been to this location twice before. Once after the big 2004 storm and the salt formations were gone, and once for sunset which was fun but there weren’t any clouds. I knew I wanted to shoot this scene at night, and I finally did.
Kent:
Pretty damn cool. On transparency film?
joe Reply:
November 17th, 2009 at 8:00 am
Hi Kent. I’ll take that as a compliment! Shot with a Canon 5D Mark II. Four exposures of 7.5 minutes each stacked together for 30 minutes.
Cody:
I love that the salt formations look like mountains themselves. It almost makes the mountains look as if there is this monstrous landscape surrounding everything.
joe Reply:
November 17th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
Thanks, Cody. The salt formations as a microcosm or miniature mountain range is a perceptive insight into why images of Badwater are so intriguing. For anyone headed to Death Valley, the secret to photographing Badwater is to keep walking out from the parking lot for 20 minutes or so until you get to the smooth, untrampled formations.