Bad Water Sky and Pools

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This photograph was made during an October Eastern Sierra and Death Valley workshop. Early one morning after paying our sunrise respects to the scenery from Zabriskie Point, we relocated to Badwater, 282 feet below sea-level and the lowest point in the continental US. There were still a few people out at that hour, and the scene was quiet and the wind was still.

There seemed to be more water than I had seen before and I was taken by the mirrored reflections of the as-yet un-sunlit terrain. I probably used a #12 deep yellow filter to give the sky and shadowed land a quiet mood.

This is another case where if I had not made the photograph when I did, I would not have been able to make the same image at a later date. The pools had been in this state for millennia, but in its desire to protect the location for the future, the Park Service opted to build wooden decking around the pools just a few months after I made this photograph.

Badwater Sky and Pools, Death Valley 2001

6x7 negative