February Workshop in Death Valley

With the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) ocean heat and weather pattern close to “on” since spring 2019, there was a reasonable chance that we’d get above average precipitation in 2019-20 and have a very strong wildflower year. The rains were a little bit later than I had hoped, with a good blast after Thanksgiving and another after Christmas. There was a lot of germination of plants by early January, but a long dry spell prevented those plants from reaching their full potential in February, like they did in 2016.

Every trip we take to Death Valley is different as we adjust to the seasonal conditions and weather. Fortunately Death Valley always has great landscapes, so while we didn’t get “the icing on the cake” of profuse wildflowers on this trip, we still got the treat of great weather and light!

One of the fun things we did was rent a Jeep, and go to areas of the Park normally unavailable. The Jeeps are really nicely set up and we had a great day! I think we’ll have to do that more often. There are so many places in Death Valley best reached with high clearance 4WD vehicles, we can really broaden the portfolio of places we bring our customers to. It’ll increase the price a bit, but we can offer those sessions separately so it doesn’t raise the price for everyone all the time.

Here are a few of the image I’ve post-processed so far. Of course I’m also sprinkling them across my Facebook, Flickr, and other photo sharing and social media accounts.

Sunrise panorama on Badwater Basin.

Mottled light on sand dunes.

Side-lit dunes.

Colorful eroded hills.

Salt pond reflection.

Sharp palm detail.

Milky Way arch over salt flats.

Bottle house wall.

Colorful geology.

Mud cracks after sunset.

Wildflowers were beginning to show in places by late February.

Special note in these trying times:
Many of these images are available as prints through my portfolio site at https://jeffsullivan.smugmug.com/. Print sales are extremely slow in this economy, so I only take the time to complete final edits for new images after I have a specific request. Let me know if there are any specific images that you’d like me to add for printing. Take care of yourself, and thank you for considering supporting your favorite artists and authors to whatever extent you’re able!