detail shots from Death Valley

[Daniel Buck]

I'm not always satisfied with the results when I whip out a long-lens to do detail shots, but I enjoy picking out shots far away in the vast area around me, always enjoy it! Here's some of the detail shots that I think turned out, enjoy!

 

[nicolas claris]

Hi Daniel
I do to! it reminds some shot I recently did with a 500 mm of some mud when the tide flow is off…

How far from you were these?

For some reason, this one is my preferred:

 

[Daniel Buck]

Hi Daniel
I do to! it reminds some shot I recently did with a 500 mm of some mud when the tide flow is off…

How far from you were these?

For some reason, this one is my preferred:

I usually do this type of shooting with a 400mm (sometimes with a 1.4 or 2.0x converter as well), but I brought the 300mm with me this time. I'd guess that these hills were anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 mile away?

 

[nicolas claris]

Yep( so they are real hills…
Where are they?

When shooting details with a long focal, what is amazing is the loss of perceptual perspective… is it detail of some strange animal's skin? Are these huge mountains… we get then close to abstraction… fascinating!

mine were just 1 foot high (to the max): http://www.openphotographyforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8593 (scroll down)

 

[Daniel Buck]

It's in Death Valley, I don't remember what area of the valley it was, since I wasn't really looking at the signs. (I've got a bad habbit of that, when I'm not the one driving, I've got no clue where I'm at, haha!)

Here's a wide shot (28mm, full chip) of one area, the hills in the distance is where I aimed for a few of the long shots. The hills kept on going around almost 280 degrees from the path I was on, this is just one side of them. It was right on a (quite popular I imagine) overlook off the main road, as I was leaving 3 tour buses pulled up, haha!