death valley

lake manly's return

I spent a weekend in my favourite national park recently, death valley, which is known for being the “hottest, driest, lowest” national park in the united states. right now though, thanks to our strange summer hurricane, pluvial lake manly (the ancient lake which once covered most of death valley) has made a reappearance at the lowest point in north america – badwater basin.

I had thought most of the water would be gone by the time of my january visit but it turns out lake manly decided to stick around a bit longer than expected. the cloud streaked blue skies & mountains reflected in the pristine surface of the ankle deep water made the whole experience feel otherworldly. like visiting the inside of a kaleidoscope.

rolling sands

a bright afternoon on the mesquite flat dunes in death valley. I have been playing with photographing the desert in black & white recently. there is just something immortal about the way these came out.

february in death valley

a few half frame film shots from my day in death valley on a paleontology hike with the national park service (they do these once a year and I highly recommend it).

shot on kodak gold 200 with the kodak ektar h35 camera.

alien planet

took a roll of lomochrome turquoise film to death valley a couple months ago. the results look like photographs from mars! the turquoise film is super fun even if I do have a hard time deciding when using it will create cool results or just weird ones.

shot on lomochrome turquoise 110 film with the pentax auto 110 camera.

death valley winter

three iphone shots from my time in death valley on a full moon.

the winter light in death valley is like a caress. rose-hued & hugging the mountains – curling between scrub grass & salt flat. driving the long curving roads like a wave craving sand.

swimming with the fishes

 

researching for my latest poetry project, which focuses on death valley & its ecology (among other things). I put together an instagram story about one of the fascinating creatures that call the hottest & driest place on earth home: the devil’s hole pupfish. if you don’t want to read the fine print, you can also listen to me talk a bit about the pupfish below.