[Leica] Back from DVNP

[Richard Man]

We drove down to Ridgecrest on Sat, then woke up at 3AM to drive through
Trona - the BEST vacation spot in the West, then onto the Ageuerrepoint. We
missed the blazing sunrise by two minutes as the last 6 miles are unpaved.
The view though is still amazing. Then we explored the Eureka Mines and
Mr.Ageuerre (probably mangling his name) house and car. We even met another
4x5 photographer there!

Then we explored the Titus Canyon and were surprised that there is a ghost
town in the middle of the canyon. WTF?!!! My daughter took out a number of
books from the library so we learned all about the follies of man. We were
driving our Toyota minivan and while the canyon is rated "high clearance
vehicles" only - it's doable. There are some spots you want to drive REALLY
slowly but it's OK. There was even a sedan driving behind us with very low
clearance - he was driving REALLY slowly and he did make it out too.

Then we raced to the Mesquites Dunes and learned the futility of running on
sand with a 30lbs pack, and sand got onto and into everything. Ugh. We
camped at the overflow campsite at Furnace Creek. Next morning, we got up
god-awful-before-dawn to hit the Zabraski Point and wondered why everyone
was facing away from the sunrise. I mean, in all the photos and blogs, no
one says you actually are catching the predawn reflection of the Sun!

Onto Dante's View, via way of the 20-mule canyon. It's really easy to see
why so many people die at DV - all the canyon "paths" look the same, and if
you think, "hey I have a 4WD and a GPS, I can go anyway!" - you would be
right, but also that you may not be able to get out. One flat tire would
ruin a lot of things.

Dante's View is, of course, marvelous. Some skateboarding kid went down the
road with his father videotaping. Not sure how far he went down as I was
busying changing film holders and chatting a Canon 6D toting photog about
the joy of LF. Then napped at the Gold Canyon area. It has cell phone AND
data access! At least on my iPhone 6, but not on my daughter's iPhone 5s.
Then we hiked in, because - well, why not. If you do the hike, take at
least 1.5 liters of water and take the fork to the right at the end to go
up to the "Cathedral" view (not the fork to the Zabraski, but the later
fork). It's worth it.

The idea was then to take photos at the Badwater, then wildflowers, then
catch the Mesquite Dunes again. Well, the Badwater photo trek took it all
out of me. It was 100 degrees. Just the effort to set up the 3 shots with
low vantage point with the 4x5 on the salt flat exhausted me. I was
definitely getting dehydrated (headache and all) even though I was guzzling
water. So we knew we would skip the sand dunes. So we stopped off at one of
the patches of "Fields of Yellow" and took some photos there. Most
photographers were crouching down taking macro pics and THEY would make
some good photos, but I was trying to get the whole field with the
mountains vista. We will see how that turns out. (not that I have any macro
equipment anyway).

We ended with the sunset through the "Artist Drive", but after the Titus
Canyon, the "Artist Palette" pales (ha ha) in comparison. We camped at the
Emigrant's Camp that night. Got up early enough to race to the
Ageuerrepoint again. This time we were ready and were greeted by the
blazing sunrise. Did some Tai Chi at 6000 feet up. Life is good.

Then we took the Panamints center route out. While taking more photos off
road, I found a dead cellphone (we took it with us it can be properly be
disposed of) on the road - some dumbass must have doing video or whatever
while driving or something - as we have seen some guy hanging out of a car
with a GoPro the previous day doing just that around Badwater. Marveled
that the camp at Panamints have showers and tent cabins! What luxury. On
the way out, we saw two fighter planes (probably from the China Lake Naval
Base?). The first one I thought it was a drone, until it did a 90 degree
turn and a fast drop. It was pretty neat. We saw another one when we were
at the exit sign taking selfies. They were flying fairly close to the
ground.

Then down the 190-395. Did not realize we would see Owens Lake and the
Sierra Nevada range - just like that - amazing view and quite a treat. Then
onto Tehachapi pass and were greeted by the wind turbines. For a few years
now, I have some ideas of doing long exposure with the turbines so I was
glad to finally have a chance to see if it works. I am glad that I took the
filters with me, knowing full well that I probably would not use them in
the Death Valley per se. We will see how they come out.

Then a long drive onto I-5. I was fighting a really bad allergy and a cold,
and have to be careful that it doesn't turn into a full blown asthma attack
and napped an hour while my daughter was driving. Boy, I needed that.

Equipment wise, I used the Chamonix F1 4x5 with mainly the 110mm XL, and a
few shots with the 150 and 210 Fujinons. I would have used the 75mmm Nikkor
a few more times except that the recessed board is interfering with the
shutter cable mechanism. I need to fix that.

I used the 80/2.8 and 50/2.8 with the Hasselblad 203FE. It makes a great
walk around / hiking companion. Most the time I just took one lens, but
once or twice, I would put the other lens in the photog's vest. The 50/2.8
is very large. The 50/4 would be much better in that regard, but it would
be less convenient to use since it's not a FE lens.

Great time. It's one of the few times I went out with a companion for
solely photographic purpose. Can't wait to do it again.

On Tue, Mar 1, 2016 at 10:23 PM, Richard Man <richard at richardmanphoto.com>
wrote:

> 1266 miles,9 rolls of medium format film, and 38 sheets of 4x5 film later,
> we are back from the Death Valley National Park. The most amazing Hell on
> Earth place. We did a lot of activities, but also know our limits. Now
> catch up with some work before going *thud*
>
> --
> // richard <http://www.richardmanphoto.com>
> // On Facebook: http://facebook.com/richardmanphoto
> // On Instagram: https://instagram.com/richardmanphoto
>



-- 
// richard <http://www.richardmanphoto.com>
// On Facebook: http://facebook.com/richardmanphoto
// On Instagram: https://instagram.com/richardmanphoto