| Over the holidays, Kendra and I visited family down south. I escaped
a time or two to the San Diego Zoo as well as a couple sunsets along
the coast. Much food was consumed, and we even made it to an IMAX
for Avatar in 3-D. Civilization had its time, but photography awaited.
We had a plan. And by "we" I mean me. I wanted to shoot, shoot,
shoot. And then shoot some more. So we headed to Joshua Tree National
Park for a day and froze our butts off camping that night. I would
drift in and out of sleep, watching the nearly full moon dance
with the passing clouds. I almost got up at 4am to try and capture
the night sky, but the bone chilling cold kept me in bed.
At one point I awoke to a glorious sky filled with color. My heart
sank. I checked the watch we were using for an alarm clock. It
read 6:45am. Sunrise was happening. I woke Kendra and emphatically
shouted, "the sunrise is exploding in our face!" Of course, at
that moment, I was in a state of mixed panic and dread. We missed
our first sunrise, a glorious one at that. I ran in vain across
the land only to watch the color disappear from the sky.
This was not part of the plan.
A quick pit stop at Walgreens to get a real clock was in order,
and then our adventure to Death Valley began.
This image is from sunrise on New Year's Day at the famous Badwater
Basin in Death Valley, a warm welcome to the new year. And this
time when the sunrise was exploding in my face, I had my camera
ready.
Nikon D300
Nikkor 12-24mm @ 12mm
3 sec @ f16, ISO 100
Singh-Ray 3-stop reverse GND filter
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