valley

Shot for the Day (17 August 2016)

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I was almost at the hotel after a long drive to Death Valley from Los Angeles,when I spotted this scene.  It was insanely hot, well over 40 degrees Celsius but Death Valley is such a fascinating place, I had to stop and grab a couple of shots before sunset.

The shot above was moments before the sun dropped behind a cloud.  The one below was a little later, as the sky was lit up with the afterglow.

I heartily recommend a trip to Death Valley to anyone.  Just a word of warning.  Make sure you have a car with air conditioning and that you can handle temperatures of over 50 degrees Celsius as it hit 125 degrees Fahrenheit (51.7 degrees Celsius the following day).

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Shot for the Day (11 August 2016)

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A few years ago, I was in the US to shoot a TV commercial for VW.  I took a couple of days out after 5 days of filming and wondered over to Death Valley.  I was incredibly lucky to be there as the weather turn from bone dry to stormy.  This is a short while before the heavens open and flooded many of the roads in the National Park.

Shot for the Day (30 July 2015)

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Whilst in Europe earlier this month, I visited Città di San Marino, a medieval settlement situated on the slopes Monte Titano, over 700m above sea level.  San Marino was added to the Unesco World Heritage list in 2008 and walking around the hilltop enclave, it was very easy to see why.

San Marino, situated close to the Adriatic coast, is the third smallest state in Europe after the Vatican and Monaco and claims to be the world’s oldest republic, being established in 301 AD by a Christian stonemason named Marinus, who, once climbing climbed Mt. Titano, found a small community of Christians, persecuted for their faith by the Emperor Diocletian.

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The Republic of San Marino is made up of a few towns dotted around Mount Titano and the capital. The city walled city has three distinct towers that overlook the rest of the country and are visible for miles around.

This is a reverse view of the central fort from the top of the previous hilltop fort, looking down over most of the Republic of San Marino.

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Shot for the Day (14 June 2015)

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High in the Dolomites

A few years ago, I went to the Dolomites, the Italian part of the Alps, to do some via ferrata and trekking.  We had just descended form a glacier and were traversing along the mountain line, before dropping down into the valley below.  Even though it was mid summer, there was still snow on the ground in places.

If I recall correctly, I think we were around 3000m altitude.  We stayed in a large refugio a did day long treks.  One key memory I have of this trip was that I did not know any of the group and spent much of the days lost in deep thought.  Where better to have an euphony?

Shot for the Day (9 November 2014)

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Riding the storm out

I miss the big country.  The violence of the weather, the sheer size of the landscape. Most of all, I miss nature.  Singapore is so many things but alas, not natural.  Everything here is outlandish, larger than life.  Perhaps the weather in this image I took in California a couple of years ago is also as prodigious in its own way as Singapore is.

Two hours after I took this image, the rain had washed the road out leaving all timorous motorists stranded.  However, I was in the world’s best off road car; a rental Ford Mustang convertible, which ploughed through the rushing waters.  Although it leaking into the footwells as the water level rose above the base door height, the car made it.  I can still recall the sight of several scared drivers disappearing behind me in my rear view mirror, all huddled motionless in their pick up trucks.

A day in Death Valley, USA

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Recently, after being on a film shoot in California, I had a couple of days spare at the end of my trip and decided to capture some images in Death Valley.  I made the classic tourist error of hiring a convertible car, which in the desert, is a bad idea.  You want, no, you need to have air conditioning.  Being stoic, I chose discomfort and sunburn instead, which turned out well for me.

Anyhow, here are a few shots I took in a day long photography shoot in Death Valley.  It effectively documents the arrival of a fierce thunder-storm, gale force winds and a torrential downpour that flooded the roads in multiple places.

The fluffy white clouds formed the perfect backdrop to this ghost town

Thick, heavy cloud was blowing into Death Valley from Nevada to the east.

The sky seemed to lose colour as the heavy, grey clouds gathered overheat, blocking out the intense sun and dropping the temperature some 20 degrees Celsius.

Rain began to fall and there were two separate rainbows in the desert.  It was magnificent.

For these last two images, the wind was blowing a gale and I had to cling on to my camera gear to fear that it would be snatched away by the wind.

Forks of lightening spread 180 degrees sideways through the sky as I drove back to my hotel after taking the final session of shots on Zabriskie Point.