Death Valley Weekend Field Trip run by Pete Scifres

Once again, the Thousand Oaks Photo Group is going to Death Valley! Pete Scifres will be handling the primary planning and guiding of this trip.

As with all field trips, you must be a paid up TOPG club member with a waiver on file to participate.

See note below about making refundable reservations…it is always possible that the club would have to cancel this field trip on short notice due to illness, COVID restrictions, weather or other unforeseen events.

Before getting into our day-by-day itinerary, a few comments:

Our “group” motel is Stovepipe Wells Village, reservations 760-786-7090 https://deathvalleyhotels.com/. We urge you to make reservations there asap, for the nights of Saturday, January 8 and Sunday, January 9, checking out on Monday, January 10. These will run about $200 per night with tax. The reservation is cancellable and refundable, although you should confirm this when you make it. There are a few motels in Beatty, east of the park in NV, that would cost less but add significantly to driving time and I’ve never stayed there so I can’t comment about them. You can camp at nearby campgrounds if you’d rather

It’s important to set expectations about club overnight field trips. These are not paid workshops and you won’t get many of the amenities that come with paid workshops (although you will get most of them, for free). The club will:

• Identify a “group” motel
• Publish a schedule of “shoots”, locations and meet times (see below)
• To the degree experienced members are available and willing (they almost always are) help with camera set up and composition

The club will not:

• Wait past meet times or otherwise confirm that all are present before departure to “shoots” (although we will try and “eyeball” this)
• Be responsible for housing, motels, etc.
• Be responsible for transportation, although we will try and assist in coordinating carpools
• Participants are free to follow, or not, the published itinerary

The Itinerary

Saturday, January 8, depart Conejo Valley (or wherever) and arrive at Stovepipe Wells Village. Allow 5 hours of driving time. Suggest you depart from Conejo Valley area by 8:30 am to allow time for lunch and to check into your room at Stovepipe Wells Village. Team meeting at the motel at 2:30 pm then depart to Badwater Basin at 3:00 pm, from the front of Stovepipe Wells Village. Shoot sunset. Return to Stovepipe Wells and dinner at about 6:00-6:30pm. (Or dinner at Furnace Creek Inn restaurant, we can discuss on the 8th)

Comment about the Stovepipe Village Motel: This place in my experience has been very uncooperative about check in before their published times ☹. It’s possible you won’t be able to get into your room before we need to leave for the Badwater Basin

After dinner we will have a short discussion about what to expect at Zabriskie Point, Sunday morning.

Sunday, January 9, sunrise shoot at Zabriskie Point, suggest depart Stovepipe Wells at 6:00-6:15am. No team meeting at motel, just get to Zabriskie Point and look for each other there. Breakfast at Furnace Creek Inn, then free time. Mosaic Canyon is a nice hike near Stovepipe Wells and a decent image or two can be taken there. Other nice hikes are to the Keane Wonder Mine and Golden Canyon.

At 1:00pm anyone who is interested can meet in the commons room at Stovepipe Wells Village and we will talk about camera setup, composition, etc., for upcoming locations.

Depart for Rhyolite Ghost Town at 3:00pm. Explore, prepare for night time shoot, and then shoot at sunset. Dinner in Beatty NV. Return to Rhyolite for night shoot. Return to Stovepipe wells, probably by 9:00-9:30pm. See below for more info about Rhyolite.

Monday January 10, sunrise shoot at Mesquite Sand Dunes. Depart Stovepipe Wells at 6:15am. Comment, depending on “footprint in sand” situation we will most likely shoot at a less used (sort of on the back of the dunes from Stovepipe Wells) spot that takes about another 20 mins to drive to. Return to Stovepipe Wells for breakfast, probably by 9am.

The TOPG guided part of field trip ends.

Sun and Moon

• Sunset on Saturday January 8 is 5:08pm
• Sunrise on Sunday January 9 is 7:12am
• A first quarter (I.e., a 50% disc) moon will set around midnight

A Few Other Thoughts

Driving….all drivers should have good maps and a clear understanding of where these locations are and how to get to them. Following each other may not be possible in many situations, so don’t count on this.

Carpooling…this is ultimately up to the owner/driver……… but riders should be sure drivers are compensated fairly for their costs. I personally use $0.35 per mile divided by the number of folks in the car, including the owner/driver. This would vary of course by the vehicle. And all car pool participants should be willing to do some of the driving, if this is agreeable to the car owner, unless other arrangements have been made in advance (car pools are not taxi services).

Our night time shoot at Rhyolite….it will be a bit dark. Please be careful when walking around, and have a headlamp if at all possible. We will spend time in the afternoon figuring out places and directions to shoot and how to light paint the buildings. We will need to work together closely to coordinate when we are setting up and when our cameras will be open for the long exposures required.

The Death Valley National Park website is a good resource. I think it can also be very helpful to Google the locations we are shooting at, and see how others have approached taking pictures of them.

Check weather before you go and bring appropriate clothes. It is likely to be pretty cold in the mornings.

Questions: pete.scifres@sbcglobal.net 818 665 5597