The Maze

[JimFox]

This reminds me of a puzzle you might find in a Crossword puzzle book. This is just a teaser image, my last iPhone image as I will be getting to my daughters house in Colorado tonight and can start processing my DSLR photos.

This is from Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. I had been wanting to go there for a while, and almost went with Ben a few months ago to here. It was 96 degrees out and it cooled off about 20 degrees at night. It was my first time there, so I was doing some exploring and following my instincts to find the salt polygons. The first few miles of it is just packed down salt. The road to it ends where the salt flats begin. There are no roads on it, but there are tire tracks leading every possible direction.

I won’t bore you with more details, but basically about 12 miles into the salt flats I found the salt polygons. And then it only took a short bit of hiking to find a couple of hundred foot area without any tire tracks running over the polygons, so I set up for the night. I got sunset, the stars and Milky Way and then the sunrise.

I had 4 cameras setup and running all night, 3 with wide angles for the stars and Milky Way, and one on my Astro tracker with the 150-600mm to capture nebulas and galaxies. While there was some light pollution on the horizon, it was mainly clear. And I would say the sky was really dark as I could pick out the Lagoon Nebula for example by my naked eye.

All comments are welcome, I will get more posted next week.

Jim

 

[AlanLichty]

Nice result for your efforts. I like your timing of the shot to catch those very first rays on the extruded edges of the mineral deposits.

I have to confess that I lived in SLC for 24 years and never even considered trying to shoot a photo out on the Salt Flats. I drove past them dozens of times over the years on the freeway but just thought of them as an uninteresting sideshow along the roadside.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Those are some really well defined polygons. They seem much deeper than Jameel and I found. And we could not get 12 miles out. You have found a much better spot. I assume you could not see the freeway from there

 

[Jameel Hyder]

Those are nice polygons. When Ben and I went there, the farther we drove, the less defined the polygons were. If there were recent rains, then it likely created new ones. The side light brings out the shapes quite well.

 

[Douglas Sherman]

This is really a nice image, Jim. Great job of catching the side light to illuminate the polygons.

 

[JimFox]

Those are some really well defined polygons. They seem much deeper than Jameel and I found. And we could not get 12 miles out. You have found a much better spot. I assume you could not see the freeway from there

Thanks Ben. The polygons were as good as any you would find at Badwater.

I was a good 8 or 10 miles from the freeway since I drove in 12 miles. So no freeway in sight or sound or thought.

 

[JimFox]

Those are nice polygons. When Ben and I went there, the farther we drove, the less defined the polygons were. If there were recent rains, then it likely created new ones. The side light brings out the shapes quite well.

I appreciate that Jameel. You guys went in on the wrong entrance from what I saw there. You need to enter through exit 4 and then drive past the speedway portion.

 

[JimFox]

This is really a nice image, Jim. Great job of catching the side light to illuminate the polygons.

Thanks Doug. It’s amazing that nice side light last maybe 15 to 20 minutes tops after sunrise. The light got harsh and the angle of it changed super fast.

 

[Tom Narwid]

Amazing Jim!

 

[Bart Carrig]

Your persistence always pays off, Jim. That's great image. Anxious to see the Milky Way images as well.

Bart

 

[MonikaC]

Nice shot & great find, Jim. The light on them is like the light on the trails of the moving rocks at the Racetrack in DV. I don't remember how long it lasted, but I think it was about an hour after sunrise/before sunset there (been a long, long time since I was there).

 

[JimFox]

Your persistence always pays off, Jim. That's great image. Anxious to see the Milky Way images as well.

Bart

Thanks so much Bart! I stick to it.

 

[JimFox]

Nice shot & great find, Jim. The light on them is like the light on the trails of the moving rocks at the Racetrack in DV. I don't remember how long it lasted, but I think it was about an hour after sunrise/before sunset there (been a long, long time since I was there).

Thank you Monika.

The shadows on the rocks at the Rack Track do last about an hour. But at Badwater where the Salt Polygons like this are at, they disappear pretty fast like these did.