CHROMASCAPE 122

I had the thrill of visiting Death Valley after the historic floods in summer of 2023. While most of the park was still digging out from the floods and massive shift of dirt, rock and sands that covered many of the roadways, I traveled to Badwater Basin to photograph Manly Lake. The lake spanned the valley floor and was 5+ miles long. It was breathtaking to see such a large expanse of water in a place known for its lack of water. This photo was made from the Badwater Salt Flats looking west across the lake. It’s late in the afternoon and the sun was just above the mountains on the other side of the lake. The reflecting sunlight was super intense on the water and was flaring my camera lens when making any image that came close to that reflecting sunlight. But it also made an interesting effect of ghosting the mountains while completely changing the way the water rendered in my photographs. So I embraced the challenge of this overly contrasty and uncontrollable light. I let it do its thing and paned across the reflecting sunlight off Manly Lake as it filled the camera frame entirely. This otherworldly scene is Chromascape 122.  ~ Marc