24 Jan
2011

Posted in: Death Valley
By Ian Plant    2 Comments

Death Valley Photo Workshop

I’ve just added a Death Valley Photo Workshop to my list of workshops for 2011. I will be co-leading the workshop with my fellow Creative Vision instructor Richard Bernabe. Death Valley National Park is one of the most beautiful places on Earth, known for its towering mountains, golden sand dunes, endless salt pans, and colorful volcanic badlands. During this workshop, Richard and I will teach a variety of techniques—both in the field and in the classroom—that will allow participants to advance both their technical skills and artistic vision.

"Zabriskie Point" - Death Valley

One of the places we will photograph is Zabriskie Point, featured in the photo above. I took this image many years ago, back before I made the switch to full-time pro—back in the days when I was using a large format view camera along with a strange material, coated with a light-sensitive emulsion, that we called ”film.” Wow, that seems like such a long time ago—I vaguely remember sporting a mullet, and what’s worse, it was considered cool.

Okay, maybe it wasn’t that long ago—my mullet days ended several years before I bought my first camera. In any event, I arose before dawn sans mullet and hiked a mile along a slender ridge of eroding volcanic rock to reach a place I had scouted the day before. When the sun rose high enough to illuminate the eroded yellow badlands below me, I triggered the shutter. In the distance, red rock mountains rise 10,000 feet above the valley floor, providing an interesting backdrop to the breathtaking foreground.  

Zabriskie Point is just one of many strange and beautiful places found in Death Valley. For more information about my Death Valley photo workshop, click here. If you are interested in joining the workshop, I suggest you register early; my workshops have been filling up very fast this year.

Technical details: K.B. Canham DLC-45 view camera, 150mm lens, Fujichrome Velvia film.

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About Ian Plant  (275 Posts)

Ian Plant's photographs and instructional articles have appeared in a number of books, calendars, and magazines, including Outdoor Photographer and Popular Photography. Ian writes a regular blog column for Outdoor Photographer online, and he is the author of numerous instructional eBooks and digital processing tutorials. Ian leads several photo tours each year.