digital alterations Racetrack - Death Valley

This is very powerful. I would love to see it printed in a large format. The perspective draws the viewer constantly toward the exciting mountains and sky. Aspects of Mother Nature.

Superb composition.

This is very well presented and shot. I am taking a tour of racetrack photos on PN since I will be heading out there with friends in Oct. Best wishes.

Great perspective and exposure!

Having read the back and forth between Huy and Dan, and understanding this is a stitch, I am less impressed not with the technical skill it takes to construct such an image, as it is impressive, but with the idea itself. Having shot a lot of seascapes myself--not as well as this, of course--I think the inclusion of the birds destroys this image, and is simply sloppy digital work, as it is a dead giveaway that this could not have been in a desert.

 

But, my major problem is more philosophical. A desert is a world unto itself as much as an ocean is. The imagination we have of Death Valley in popular lore is of the lone desperado gallopping across the deserted landscape with a bag full of gold, but no water to drink. This unforgiving character gives the death valley its essence. If there was an ocean across the horizon, and a flock of seagulls and pelicans to boot!, not only would this ruin the romantic notion of the Death Valley as a sort of, well, death valley, but would destroy years of carefully compartmentalized childhood images I have of Westerns, spaghetti and otherwise, and that simply sits ill with me.

 

Just my two cents.