This is the final part of exploring Alabama Hills, California and capturing scouting photos with a phone camera.
The rock on the right reminds me of a turtle stretching its neck out to bask in sunlight.
Sky Pointers 2 is a view from behind Sky Pointers.
The rock on the left seems especially in awe of the sky.
I promise to move on to photos from other areas in upcoming posts,
Ken
More iPhone scouting photos from Alabama Hills, California, March 2024.
Until next time,
Ken
My son and I made a trip into Death Valley from Lone Pine, thinking we might return for more serious photography, but the distance and the timing difficulty steered us away from that idea.
Yet it was good to see Badwater Basin with the shallow lake created by the recent heavy rains. It appears that this unusual event attracted others, too. there were lots of people, more than I had seen there in previous visits, in the park.
The road to Devil’s Golf Course was closed, requiring a long walk to see that feature.
Shallow water covers the salt that appears brown and the salt protruding above the water is white.
The salt is showing indications of forming geometrical patterns typical of this salt as it dries. The heavy rains have destroyed or muted such patterns.
We stopped a little short of the turn in the road, which goes by the traditional Devil’s Golf Course, but this rugged salt is what we would expect to see there. The rains have muted some of the sharp features that I recall from previous visits.
Back in Lone Pine, we had Pizza and Beer for dinner. This IPA seemed a fitting choice after our time in Death Valley.
Until next time,
Ken
More scouting photos in Alabama Hills, California, March 2024.
Ok, this vandalized arch is called “Surprise Arch” (I think), but it looks more like the Pillsbury Doughboy.
I’ll have more iPhone images in the next post, but from an area well outside of Alabama Hills, so stay tuned,
Ken
And even more iPhone scouting photos in Alabama Hills, California.
This monochrome version of an iPhone photo was chosen for Flickr’s Explore page July 25, 2024. The bright white clouds behind the arch draws the eye to the arch. Against a clear, bland sky, a photo of this arch would be much less interesting, maybe even boring.
I called this natural rock feature “The Head”, because it looks like a head on a neck looking across the broad valley into the Sierra Nevada Mountains, maybe thinking it would be cooler to be in those mountains, under a blanket of snow, rather than stuck down here forever.
The arch on top of the weathered, massive rock outcrop is called The Eye of Alabama Hills.
From this view point, The Eye feature reminds me of a big eyed puppy draped over its owner’s body, peering into its master’s eyes.
Thanks for following my posts,
Ken
More iPhone scouting photos of Alabama Hills, California.
Until next time,
Ken
This is a continuation of iPhone photos shot in and around Alabama Hills, California in March 2024.
More later,
Ken
More iPhone and scouting photos from my March 2024 travels.
To be continued,
Ken
After our early morning sunrise shoot, my son and I went on another short scouting expedition.
Of course, I made a few shots during our little hike, scouting the area for possible sunrise or sunset shoots, but the two in this post are the only ones that I deemed presentable.
Until next time,
Ken
After hiking the Mobius Arch Loop, we continued our photographic scouting in Alabama Hills, seeking out the better known features first.
This arch is so named because it is supposed to look like a boot. Maybe the base looks a little like a boot, but I’m not quite seeing this strongly enough to have it so named.
I can partly see the naming of this arch, but I’m thinking another name like “Lobster” or “Crayfish” might be more suitable, especially when other view points are considered.
Those foreground rock features look more like lobster claws to me.
After today’s scouting, we have several possibilities for returning to at sunset and sunrise.
Until then,
Ken
