Photographing Death Valley, Winter 2024: Episode 2

[@mbnyus]

"This morning the wind is calm, the skies are clear so is my mind and body" I came here for photography inspiration and Ben provided also words of wisdom.

[@BenHorne]

I'm glad you enjoyed that! My goal prior to this trip was to incorporate the written journal entires into the videos, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. It allows me to stay more in the moment, and give a better feel for the experience in the field.

[@SpaklesDr]

Watching you struggle a bit to get up that rock made me think..."and he has to do this twice".

[@milkismurder]

Same!

[@BenHorne]

That rocky ledge sure was slippery. There was a layer of sand on the rocks from the recent flooding that made obtaining a good grip quite difficult. Thankfully I only had to climb it once. Immediately around the next corner was a far more significant dry fall that wasn't climbable. I'm just glad the battery in my video camera lasted long enough. Thanks for watching!

[@calebe16]

I was thinking exactly that hahaha All of that and then come back to pick up the camera and go up again T.T hahah Great effort, Ben!

[@kreygscott]

Truly a fascinating journey Ben. I must say that I really appreciate your hard work and dedication to make these videos for our education and entertainment. Notably between the segment at 9:00 mins to 10:00 mins the first thing I said to my wife is, "You know he's got to come back to get that camera he's recording this video with and then climb up again." Maximum effort as always will certainly yield favorable results. It doesn't always come immediately but you can bet your bottom dollar it will come in time. The fact that these videos are free of any annoying advertisements (sponsors trying to get viewers to buy things we don't need with money we don't have) is also HIGHLY appreciated and worthy of our contributions. Thanks for your continued support of our dream to all become better Landscape Photographers via watching and learning from your videos. Stay safe and God bless.

[@BenHorne]

Thank you for the kind words Kreyg! Sometimes it pays to be stubborn, be it with returning to familiar locations for landscape photography, or avoiding the rat race of ads and sponsorships. I'm grateful for your support that allows me to do what I enjoy without making it into work. Thankfully I only had to climb over that ledge once. It was covered in slippery sand from the recent rains which made it difficult to gain traction. Immediately around the next corner was a dead end with a very tall dry fall. Otherwise I would have had to climb it twice. I'm just glad the battery in my video camera lasted. That camera eats batteries like candy. Thanks as always for watching and commenting!

[@stephengirimont]

My first thought this morning on waking up was "Ooo! I wonder if Ben Horne has posted his DV video yet?" Love watching while eating breakfast. Thanks for these.

[@BenHorne]

Thanks Stephen! And with 6 videos in this series there is still quite a bit more to come. :-)

[@robertwhitemoto]

the master of B-roll :)

[@BenHorne]

Thanks Robert! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@ronwolfept]

as a rock climber i can appreciate the thought at 10:10 how you delicately pressed up that gully

[@BenHorne]

Hi Ron! It was trickier than I initially thought since the recent flooding left sand on the rocky slope which made traction difficult. I figured there would be a solution though. You probably would have had fun with the next dry fall that was quite tall.

[@chiragpradhan]

Looking forward to this series. One of the best things about watching your videos is how they make me contemplate on my own process. Thanks as always for great content.

[@BenHorne]

Thank you Chirag! So glad you enjoyed the video!

[@Stringbob]

Nice one Ben, in the back of my mind I was thinking you would need to do that step all over again when you went back to retrieve your camera😂😂😂

[@BenHorne]

Thankfully in this case directly around the corner was an even larger obstacle I couldn't climb, so it was only one time up that slippery slope. I'm just glad my video camera battery didn't die in the process. Thanks for watching and commenting!

[@IsabelCurdes_photos]

I think the photo is a lovely study of colours and shapes. And as always a wonderfully calming video. :-)

[@BenHorne]

Thanks as always Isabel! I do enjoy the problem-solving aspect of finding a composition with scenes like this, and it'll be interesting to see how that section of the canyon looks when I visit next. The dark saturated soil in the floor of the canyon is certainly a fleeting element.

[@VanMierl0]

Always beautiful to see, enjoy and relax these beautiful surroundings. Thank you greetings Martin

[@BenHorne]

Thanks as always Martin!

[@RogerHyam]

I really like that exposure. I hope it grows on you.

[@BenHorne]

Thanks Roger! It'll be a scene that's interesting to revisit on future visits. I'm already quite amazed at how that canyon has changed so much in my 2 visits.

[@BryanDorr]

One takeaway I have with landscape photography in recent years is that the landscape is changing rapidly. Visit one year and come back the next year, it won't look the same. I enjoy your exploration of side canyons. As always, thank you for sharing, Ben.

[@BenHorne]

Thanks Bryan! It sure has been fascinating to see all the changes lately as a result of the weather. It's a bit unsettling really, and perhaps a sign of what's to come, though from change comes beauty.

[@juanitakelly3082]

I happened to have closed captioning on and noticed it interprets your crunchy walk as "applause"! When you got yourself up that ledge, with your heavy pack on, it said "applause" and I laughed out loud! So appropriate! I'm glad you put that in the video! I think the rock image tells a great story of valley movement over time.

[@BenHorne]

That's hilarious!!!

[@albertotafuro6112]

Fantastic canyon, great shots!!

[@BenHorne]

Thanks Alberto!

[@chromagraphphotoart]

I'm always perplexed (in a good way) watching your videos Ben. When I saw the last one and you were picking up that piece of rubbish, I was screaming 'what about all the six or seven compositions I can see... but as ever you know your business and it's eminently satisfying watching you make your images.

[@BenHorne]

There's certainly some very interesting elements in that location and it caught my eye as well, but sometimes it's difficult to make sense of it and to lend order to the madness. It's certainly an area to keep an eye on for future visits though.

[@stefangoldensteinwildlife9929]

the canyon is looking awesome. great pictures. Greets Stefan

[@BenHorne]

Thanks Stefan! It sure was a fun canyon to spend some time in.

[@rickt.3792]

Hey Ben. I always love watching your videos and seeing how you capture those amazing photographs. Thanks for sharing. Just curious. What’s that little pocket composition cropping tool you use in the field? Is that something you made or is it something you purchased? That looks real handy for pre-visualization. Thanks again for sharing your videos and shooting techniques.

[@BenHorne]

Thanks Rick! The framing tool can be found on Amazon. Search for the "Artists View Catcher". It's even better than looking through a camera's viewfinder because you're looking at reality. You learn so much about a potential composition with only a quick glance.

[@rickt.3792]

@@BenHorne Thank you for the info. It looks like a handy tool to carry into the field. I appreciate the info. I’ll be sure to head over to Amazon to pick one up. 👍

[@vishwasnagaraju8260]

The depth of field of the video where you climb up to a narrow valley was quite impressive.

[@BenHorne]

Thanks Vishwas! Those canyons sure are fun to explore.

[@berthaduniverse]

Interesting to see the contrast added by some moist soil. Something that is sure not to last long...

[@BenHorne]

Thanks Paul! Yeah, the amount of moisture in the soil sure was interesting to see, and I imagine it faded notably in the days that followed. It's one of those things that seemed "normal" while I was there, but I'm sure I'll look back at the photos of the dark soil and realize it was in fact quite unusual.

[@ruudmaas2480]

Nice composition. When I see you walking I would think the lighter trailshoes could hurt your feet. Those stones can kill your feet when climbing with a heavy pack. I would make a photograph of the view of the last minute of your video.

[@BenHorne]

Thanks! I'll still need to go for some more test hikes with the barefoot hiking boots, but my experience with them has been excellent so far. I took them on a hike with some very sharp pointy rocks and I purposefully smashed my feet down on them to see if I could inflict any pain, but it was just fine. If anything, it felt like a nice massage for the feet. I also wore them to Disneyland last week where we were doing 30k steps a day and they worked great for that as well. The only thing I haven't tested them with so far is sand and water. I suspect they'll be up to the challenge for a backpacking trip, but a few more test hikes should confirm that.

[@mitchellmysliwiecphotography]

Crazy how much the floods changed things out there. Was that boulder half exposed there before? That thing look unstable as anything, like a canyon wren could perch on it and it tumbles down! Looking forward to the next installment and if you're able to capture those morning subjects.

[@BenHorne]

I suspect that boulder has been like that for a long time, but it's tough to tell for certain since I really wasn't paying attention to it on my past hikes into that canyon. In a later episode you'll see me revisit a canyon with a different hanging boulder, and that one has changed a bit since I saw it last.

[@markhyde1970]

Ben , when you try to figure out your picture composition , you pull a small photo frame out of your pocket and look through it. I would love to get hold of one of these , can I ask were you bought it from? Any chance of a link to it? Your films are fantastic and inspire me. Best wishes , Mark, Cornwall England.

[@BenHorne]

Hi Mark! You can find them on Amazon. Search for "The Artists View Catcher" and you'll find them. It's a difficult thing to search for since it's difficult to find a way to describe it. That simple viewfinder makes finding compositions so much easier. You'll know right away if a subject will work or not, if there are any potential distractions, and how to minimize them.

[@markhyde1970]

​That's great , thank you. ​@@BenHorne. I appreciate you telling me that . I had tried typing in every sort of description you can imagine into Chrome & Google , without success. Until now. Problem solved. Thank you again, best wishes Mark.

[@andrewsimpson5436]

The light glow on the back wall shows up more on the film, I like it. I think I was more disappointed than you showed when the Holly bush wasn't there. I liked the light and shape on the video shot of you walking from it, just before you had a few attempts getting up that step. Roughly how far was the hike to the holly bush spot or the end of the canyon?

[@BenHorne]

Thanks Andrew! It was a bummer the holly bush was gone, but with how much the floor of the canyon had changed, I wasn't all that surprised. There are quite a few other holly bushes in that canyon that could make for good subjects, but with the light being flat as I hiked back out, it's tough to visualize how they would be with better light. It's certainly a canyon to revisit at some point. I just looked on google earth and it's about a 2.5 mile hike to the holly bush, and not much further to the end of the canyon, maybe 3 miles or so. There's another fork in the canyon that goes further but is wider.

[@ChrisCummins]

Curious why use the metered 1.6s shutter speed at f/45? Could you stop down to f/64 to get a more manageable 3.2s? I've noticed a lot of your images use f/45, I'm wondering if there's a reason

[@BenHorne]

Hi Chris! f/45 is a great compromise between depth of field and avoiding diffraction. Once you go to f/64, everything gets a bit soft and diffused looking. When I was staring out, a bulb shutter speed of 1.6 seconds would have induced a minor panic attack, but now I have the muscle memory to do 1.3 or 1.6 seconds via bulb mode quite well.

[@ChrisCummins]

@@BenHorne Thanks so much for taking the time to respond Ben. I just tried a few attempts at timing 1.6s on my phone's stopwatch and I was up to 1/2 stop off. Freeballing bulb exposures on slide film is super impressive :D I feel like a good internal clock is a useful skill for field work (and darkroom printing). Alex Burke says that he doesn't use a stopwatch for anything below 1 minute and just counts along.

[@duringthemeanwhilst]

9:00 10/10 for perserverence, but a big fat 0 for artistic impression!! that is quite the view at 11:50 🙂

[@BenHorne]

Haha! Thanks Nick! It sure is a sight to behold walking out of those canyons and seeing snow capped peaks across the valley. I never get tired of it. Thanks as always for watching and commenting!