Tag: las-vegas

Midnight Madness

When we don’t yet know where we’re going, we don’t wait. We move forward in the dark.

Rick Ruben, The Creative Act

Here I sit, once again, staring at the computer in the wee hours of the morning from medication-induced insomnia. It’s the start of a New Year, 2024, and I have high hopes. Last year was fun and also challenging. In the spring, I flew into Las Vegas to visit friends, then drove to California to photograph Death Valley. Las Vegas has grown immensely since I lived there in my 30s. Old haunts were barely recognizable. The University of Las Vegas Nevada is now a sprawling campus with nary a visitor parking place. Areas of Henderson that were once hilly or bare with desert texture are now dotted with businesses and housing. I was washed with a wave of nostalgia, and even of adventurousness, going up over 500 feet in a ferris wheel.

  • The Las Vegas Strip
  • Cabin on the High Roller
  • Wheel of the High Roller
  • Nostalgic candy shop on the Strip

The next day, I drove two hours to Death Valley, where Casey Kiernan (Joshua Tree Workshops) was hosting a workshop along with three participants including me. He took us up to Racetrack Playa to photograph the Milky Way and star trails, as well as to several other locations including Zabriskie Point and Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. The road to Racetrack is extremely hazardous; while we were there, we saw a camper with a broken axle blocking the path. I met the driver and his dog later the next day. Friendly guy. Unfortunate tow bill.

Nothing beats the wonder of looking at the heavens and pondering the expanse of the Universe. When I look at the sky, I see infinite possibilities, ancient history, and the realization that we are just a small speck in a vast cosmic playground of mystery.

Star Trail over Racetrack Playa. Notice the diagonal streaks in the corner? They were coming from Area 51.
Milky Way rising over Racetrack Playa. The bright lights are from Las Vegas.

Being an avid infrared photographer, I brought my modified Nikon Z6 to Death Valley to do some landscape work in black and white. I was attracted to the sinuous slopes of Zabriskie Point and the Mesquite Sand Dunes, as well as to the contrast of the desert and sky, and the moody atmosphere of sunset. Unfortunately, I was unable to photograph the ghost town of Rhyolite, as the road was washed out from a flood. Someday soon, I will go back to photograph Death Valley again.

This year promises more adventures in the desert. Dallas Camera Club will be visiting White Sands National Park in New Mexico in April, and I will be there with cameras in tow!

End of Part One