Doug Beezley Photography | Death Valley National Park - February 2017 & February 2018

I did something I normally don't do. I went to Death Valley to photograph it because I didn't want to go there. Makes perfect sense, right? Let me explain.

I've never been interested in photographing Death Valley because it just didn't seem to have anything I considered photographically interesting or even just plain interesting. I had always viewed it in almost monochromatic terms with only a few geological facts of interest (lowest spot in North America, hottest recorded temperature, etc). I saw it as utterly charmless and mostly boring. Talk about WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!!! I could have easily stretched my five day stay into fifteen.

So, why go there when I didn't want to go? I have a very strong interest in wanting to improve my photographic skills and reasoned that if I could go to a place like Death Valley that held no interest for me and actually focus on improving my skills, I could become a better photographer. And, that's just what I did - total focus on skill improvement including composition, exposure, and focus.

So, I passed my thought process along to a friend, David Kingham, who runs select workshops and he committed to helping me improve my photographic and post-processing skills.

I worked diligently each day to improving my skills with ongoing feedback (and lots of correction) from David and I think I might have made some progress. In my case progress is/was measured in the level of satisfaction with the process and with the images, themselves.

Bottom line: I think I am on the road to improving my skills; I came away truly in awe of Death Valley not only as a geological location but also as a really great photographic location. Big thanks to David Kingham and Jennifer Renwick for their help with this and also for improving my post-processing skills. But, finally, you be the judge.
Life Pockets
Life Pockets in Color
Sand Trap
Mesquite Flat Dunes Panorama
Zabriskie Point Formation
Mud Cracks and Curls
Sunset on "Mud Flats"
Venus and Zodiacal Light at Zabriskie Point
Dantes View & Badwater Basin
Badwater Basin
On Top of Dantes View
Ibex Dunes
Ibex Dunes & Saddle Peak Hills
Sunflowers Beneath Ibex Hills
Ibex Hills Wildflowers
Ibex Hills Wildflowers
Zig-Zag Wildflowers
He's Out There
Rivulettes of Color
Late Afternoon Light on Ibex Dunes & Saddle Peak Hills
Manly Beacon & Red Cathedral
Badlands & Telescope Peak
The View from Zabriskie Point
The Badlands
View Slideshow
Album RSS RSS Feed | Archive View | Powered by zenphoto