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Parallel Play: The Death Valley Experience with Steve Kossack By James Morrissey

This article is Copyright 2006, James Morrissey, and may not, in part or in whole, be reproduced in any electronic or printed medium without prior permission from the author. The images in this article are the property of James Morrissey and my not be used without written permission from James Morrissey.

Parallel Play

I was very excited about the prospect of shooting Death Valley with Steve Kossack and his group. My wife and I had done the madman’s tour the year prior on our way to the Digital Wedding Forum’s first conference. The wild flowers were spectacular and the short time that I spent there had me juiced up for this year’s trip. The other exciting thing about this trip is that I had the opportunity to photograph with the Olympus E-330. Olympus equipped me to the teeth with their awesome 7-14mm lens (14-28 equivalent), their 11-22 and 14-45. Next week, I hope to bring forward a field report with my experiences with the Olympus.

Footprints
Canon EOS 20d, 70-200L at F 9.0 - 1/160th of a second at ISO 400

For folks who are not very familiar with Death Valley, it was founded in 1933 and is the USA's largest National Park (in the Lower 48 States). The park's climate and topography are quite varied. It also features the lowest level of the Western Hemisphere at 282 feet below sea level (at Bad Water) and the second highest temperature ever recorded (134 F). It is an extreme environment that is also breathtakingly beauitful...sand dunes, bleak salt areas and amazing sunrises and sunsets.

My flight from Newark to Las Vegas was fairly uneventful, outside of the plane being two hours delayed in Newark. Go figure. I finally arrived in Las Vegas at the Alladin Hotel at about 2:30 AM. For the record, the Alladin is the finest hotel I have ever spent two hours in. My initial draft expanded on this comment, but being told that I am striving for a higher bar than I normally would that I should leave it at this. :) I did not sleep long as I wanted to be able to make sunrise at the Valley of Fire, which is about an hour from Las Vegas. I was out of the hotel by 4:45 AM. Unfortunately, it snowed and rained heavily the entire trip to the Valley and there were few attempts at photography.

With my tail between my legs, and the disappointment of the Valley of Fire behind me, I drove back to Las Vegas to meet with Steve and the crew. There were 8 of us in the group, including Steve Kossack. Most of the members had much greater experience doing landscape photography than I have.

On the Dunes
Canon EOS 20d, 70-200 F 2.8L at F 9.0 - 1/125th at ISO 400

The first twenty four hours, I felt like a fish out of water (not a good place in Death Valley). My tripod, while ideal for a wedding photographer in the City is just not designed for the high winds and other environmental concerns that exist in a place like Death Valley. While my tripod and head are more than rated for my camera and lenses, a heavier tripod that could deal with the strong winds and dampen vibration more effectively would have been helpful. Everything I own is designed for speed and portability. While it certainly helped me get the job done, it often took a bit more time to make it work than others in the group. One thing I wish to impart from this experience is the need for a tripod and head that will be consistent with the conditions that you will be shooting in.

As I am not the sort to give up, I forced myself to relax and got to work…and work there was. The weather in Death Valley was poor and light was not perfect when we ambled in that evening. It looked like a perfect time to go and have a beer at the restaurant at Stovepipe Wells, where we were staying. The group was filled with energy though, and they quickly eliminated any thoughts that I had of relaxing. At 5:30 PM in the evening, I found myself trudging through sand dunes trying to make a sunset photograph happen. The philosophy of Steve’s workshops is that you photograph as much as possible, in a multitude of places – even when the light is not perfect. The only thing that you can guarantee by not making an attempt to photograph is that you will have nothing to show later.

Sand Dunes
Canon EOS 20d, 70-200L at F 9.0 at 1/60th of a second (ISO 400)

For three full days and five evenings, we photographed from dawn to dusk. We were typically up at 4:30 AM and out the door by 5 AM for a 6 AM sunrise. The mornings that we photographed the dunes, we got to sleep in a while longer as the dunes are not far away from Stovepipe Wells.

Unlike many groups that break up after peak light is over (i.e. when the shadows are shorter than your body), Steve brought us to many places to photograph throughout the day. Not everyone was happy photographing after peak light...there was a group member who did voice his concerns. The feeling was that when photographing was not ideal, time could be better spent resting or doing other things.

I have thought about those comments long and hard, because I think it is a point that has some validity. Being a good group leader, Steve discussed his feelings very openly about this. Steve stated that he feels that his workshops are an overview of an area. He takes his group places where he feels that he has been successful. There is limited time, and one cannot expect that the light is perfect at all times. So, the workshops are ultimately as much about becoming familiar with the place as the photography. He feels that the workshop should supplement future visits to a location.

Rhyolite Ghost Town
Olympus E-330, 14-45mm Lens, F8, ISO 100 at 1/320th of a second

I think that Steve is right about this. If you never push the shutter, you will never have the opportunity to determine if what you took was good or not. You also lose the opportunity for the experience. The role that the workshop trainer provides is more than as a photographic teacher, but also as a tour guide. Filling up the day with additional experiences helps insure that the group gets to experience as much as possible - and perhaps things that might not be done if one is just shooting during peak periods. If you think about it, 5 days provides very little time to photograph an area larger than Rhode Island and Connecticult combined.

While I will admit that I was often very tired at the end of the evening (and slept like a baby), I am glad that I had the opportunity to photograph in many different places in different types of light. A perfect example of this is when we visited the Rhyolite Ghost Town.

Rhyolite was a boom town that opened its doors in 1904. Because of the gold rush, it quickly became the third largest town in Nevada with a population of over 10,000. The town is reported to have many services and the people had full social activities, including baseball games, Sunday schools and even a symphony. When the rush ended, the people left. Just as quickly as the town came into existance, it sizzled out when the power was shut off in 1916.

Rhyolite's View
Olympus E-330, 7-14mm lens, F8, ISO 100 at 1/160th of a second

While Steve is knowledgeable and is able to provide excellent didactics during the trip, the most valuable piece was the group dynamics that were at play. Much of what I learned was through the group and without much formal instruction. I learned by doing and watching.

I also realized just how hard it is to run a photographic tour group effectively. The workshop guide must watch every single member to keep the group moving forward and to help squash squabbles and other potentially destructive elements. In short, it is really quite hard to do right.

In addition to learning as much as I did, socially I found the group to be very enjoyable. While the group consisted of many different people of different ages and backgrounds, we melded quite well together. Steve later called akin to adult summer camp. There were very intimate bonds formed in a short time, and I hope that these relationships carry on into the future. There was one period on the sand dunes at sunrise where we were laughing so hard that we all had some difficulty shooting the cameras.

The Racetrack
Canon EOS 20d 10-22 EFS Lens at F18 - 1/50th of a second at ISO 100

Where it became most intimate, however, was on the last day when we were preparing our small exhibits for show. Prior to the trip, we had all been asked to take 12 photos to Death Valley to share with each other. On the day of the exhibit, Steve told us all to pick 6 of our photographs to share. When we got to the room, Steve told us to cut it down to 4. I can say, that this was QUITE difficult for me. I ultimately decided on 3 landscapes and one wildlife portrait even though I did not feel that my landscapes matched up with my portraits. However, it was a landscape workshop and I felt the shots were good enough to stand a bit of scrutiny. Each of us took a turn to share our work and to display our thoughts behind what was important about the photograph. In other words, “What it said” in short and what we were thinking when we composed the work.

I felt that after getting to know the group members for a short time that there were elements in each photograph that were distinctly characteristic of the photographer. One member, it became very clear, sees lines and textures. Another described seeing some of these images in nature (in this case, a Cormorant) as being a 'privledge' to be there at that time. Seeing the photograph, in my opinion, was almost as much a privledge. After seeing some of the amazing work though, I also learned that there was much that you cannot see straight on.

Sunrise at Dante's View
Olympus E-330, 14-45mm Lens, F9, ISO 100 at 1/500th of a second

Photography is often seen as a solitary sport. I once made an analogy that the group photographic experience is like parallel play with two year olds. Each can play in the same sandbox as a half dozen other children, but they are inherently just interacting by themselves. Paradoxically, it is during these moments that we get the opportunity to show glimpses of ourselves in very expressive ways to many people even as we work on our own. The group experience was, for me, an opportunity to meld these often conflictory concepts. I learned a lot about the nuts and bolts of landscape photography while I was gone. I also had the opportunity to develop some nice friendships that I hope will continue on into the future. This was a great experience for me that I hope to one day carry out again.

James Morrissey and The NWPphotoForum would like to thank Steve Kossack for the opportunity to join his photographic tour. It was an educational as well as fun experience. If you wish to learn more about Steve Kossack's tours, please visit his website at www.stevekossack.com.

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