About the Image(s)

I’ve always loved Death Valley for its stark, elemental beauty, yet my photographs from there often felt incomplete??”too literal, perhaps, or lacking a point of focus. After taking a workshop with the late Bryan Peterson, I learned that a compelling image sometimes needs a touch of invention. Bryan encouraged his students to add color or props to create visual tension, and anyone in a bright outfit often became his impromptu model.

Inspired by that idea, I began planning my Death Valley shoots more deliberately, gathering props??”colorful fabrics, a few animal skulls, even some colored balls??”to help shape compositions that told a story. For this image, my husband graciously agreed to wear a bright red shirt and matching hat that I purchased from a party store. Against the vast, bleached expanse of Badwater Basin, his figure becomes the focal point??”a spark of life and color in an otherworldly landscape.

Panasonic DC-G9
28 mm
1/125 sec @ f/22
ISO 200
Lumix G Vario 14-140/F3.5-6.5

Processing: LightRoom, cropped, dehazed mountains, color adjustments, sharpened foreground using Topaz. After cropping, the clouds made the image look imbalanced, so I use sky replacement. I am not a fan of sky replacement, but my intention to crop the image necessitated the need to have a more balanced sky.