After a much needed (and enjoyed) trip to spend time with the family, now it’s time to make the long journey back to NZ. First stop on an epic 3 day trek… LA.
It’s all been very Scottish around here for the past month or two… and I’ve a bunch more images to share although some are locked up in an NDA for a while and will need to wait. Anyway, for today i thought I’d offer you a little palate cleanser, something completely different to more Scottish landscapes. I’ve spent a bunch of time recently in the US with family, which has been awesome as I don’t get to see them enough, and on the way I took a little stop to visit an art gallery/exhibition/event in L.A. before heading on to Austin. Here’s a little shot I grabbed from there.
Death Valley is a pretty harsh place. It’s especially harsh if you happen to live your life as mud.
I took this while I was cooking alive in Death Valley, California. It must have been like 130 degrees outside (but quite dry) or something. That’s next level stuff but the rock formations were just so fascinating I had to keep exploring.
I was over on Treasure Island one evening taking photos when I saw the sun sinking through a lot of moisture in the air. I also saw Alcatraz out in the water, so I jumped in a car to drive around and find a spot where everything lined up together. Turned out not too bad and ended up being a great night too!
I was doing an old promo video for Smugmug, which is the website that hosts my portfolio. They are a great company and I’ve been a fan for many years. They did a few “promo” videos staring yours truly and this was one of the locations we visited. They would get footage of me looking “cool” with my tripod. I don’t really think I look that cool. I look quite nerdy. But, comfortable with my nerdiness, I think!
Here’s another one of the images from my 1000 Stories from 1000 Places NFT drop. It sold out in minutes, but they are now available to trade on OpenSea and X2Y2, etc so be sure to check them out.
This is one of the six uber uniques from the collection where the owner on the 31st March 2023 gets the large format physical print!
This is a mysterious place!
This magical place is deep in Death Valley and virtually inaccessible. These massive rocks move across the desert pan, carving trails of time behind them. Countless theories exist about what causes this phenomenon. I stayed here all night, and this was taken just after midnight as the moon rose to make new shadows. I thought the moon might give some clues, but it did not. I lay on the hard pavement near the rock to see if I could sense movement. After half an hour, not only did I see no movement, but I also felt quite redonkulous.
I was completely nude while taking this photo. That has nothing to do with the photo, but I thought you might like to know.
I’ve been to downtown LA many times, and there are many good angles, but I think this one is just about one of the best. There was a lot of waiting around, however. I had to wait for big busses to pass me on either side so I could set up for the long exposure.
Usually, I’ll take 5 exposures in these situations, but I do something a little special. I’ll take the quicker exposures right away (often 1 or 2 seconds). And then I’ll pause and wait for a bus or something before taking the longer exposures. I create the HDR then mask in the tail lights from the photos where I get the best trails.
This area is kind of wild but worth the drive. I had to take this direction one time because part of Highway 1 on the PCH was shut down just south of Carmel. The only way I could get around the other way was to take the longer way down through this military base, most of which is just open fields and trees. The wide-open fields make for perfect tree shots, especially in the early morning and late afternoon. I’m not sure why the fields are so empty — it’s possible they cleared a lot of the trees for practicing military manoeuvres and whatnot.
