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Steve Kossack's Death Valley DVD: A Review by James Morrissey

This article is Copyright 2007, 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 were taken by Steve Kossack during his trip to Death Valley. The images are the property of Steve Kossack.

Aguereberry Glow

I first went to Death Valley with Steve Kossack in April 2006. Steve invited me to join his group after he performed an interview with me for NWP. Having spent a week with Steve, I feel like I have gotten the first hand experience very well. You can read my Article about my Death Valley experience with Steve Kossack's group here. For those who don't want to sit through my article about the experience, let me sum it up for you in one sentence. He works you hard.

Dante's Sunset

There is no way that the DVD can in any way provide the same experience. It just cannot. The 5 day workshop allowed me to meet some remarkable photographers – some of whom I still keep in contact with today. However, there are some things that the DVD does that the workshop cannot provide. The first is that you get some great advance knowledge of the environment. Steve provides several samples of his own photographic work throughout the DVD. I found this to be very helpful. It certainly gave me some ideas to develop my own compositions when I head out to Death Valley next. He also shares several techniques for lighting the scenes – some of which were new ideas for me. Of course, the best part of the DVD is that it can be paused and re-started as many times as I want.

Dunes Sunrise

The DVD also provides lots of information about the Park itself. Death Valley is absolutely huge, and I feel that Steve has been able to shed light on many of the places that he takes you during the trip. The DVD was filmed in 2004 (I believe), the year of the huge rain floods and the amazing floral blooms. This was supposedly the best year that Death Valley had in nearly 400 years, with several flora species making their first appearances in centuries in large numbers. However, the massive flooding meant that Steve was not able to make it to all of the places that we went to on the trip that I joined to DV. This is not a negative as the DVD brings you to some places that I now wish to photograph the next time I go out (probably in March of 2008).

Joshua Trees

As far as the physical product, the DVD comes nicely packaged and is very professionally put together (as would be expected). Do I have any criticisms? Well, one. Steve speaks with a calm, even voice. I occasionally found myself struggling between listening to the background music and hearing Steve actually speak. I also found it difficult to hear Steve over the wind (when it was windy outside). This item is a nitpick though, and does not effect the over-all quality and educational experience of the DVD. If anything, the DVD provides a level of excitement for me to go out and photograph it again next year.

Keane Wonder Mine

To learn more about Steve's Death Valley DVD, please go to: http://www.stevekossack.com/DVD/preview-DV.htm. To learn more about his other DVDs and workshops, please visit his home page: http://www.stevekossack.com.

Racetrack

To learn more about Steve, read his interview here at NWP!

To learn more about Death Valley, you can also read about my trip there in Spring: Spring in Death Valley.

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