Death Valley has been a name that I remember from my childhood days. In the early 1960's (I was probably around 6 or 7), every young boy looked forward to watching the westerns on television. One of my favorite shows to watch was Death Valley Days, which featured true stories of the old American West, particularly the Death Valley area. The show had a host and the one I remember most was Ronald Reagan. My thoughts back then were purely related to westerns, not photography.
Fast forward a lot of years and Death Valley became a bucket list location that I wanted to shoot. I finally checked it off last year and was surprised, as I expected lots of sand but hadn't anticipated the presence of lots of mountains. Of course, the first viewpoint that every photographer wants to shoot is Zabriskie Point at sunrise. Every morning you can find lots of photographers lined up waiting to see the rising sun gradually lighting up the landscape. The viewpoint is often photographed from above, which is what I did on both mornings that I visited. The second morning, I decided to hike down lower to get a different perspective of the rock formations. This is where I captured this photo and zoomed in to show the textures on the layers of rock.