One of the hidden treasures in Death Valley sought out by photographers are cracked mud flats. Rain events create mud flows as water drains from the nearby mountains into the valley. These areas are later baked by the sun and the intense heat of the valley to form cracked mud blocks. The mud flats offer all kinds of interesting shapes, patterns, and textures to explore with your camera. This particular area is near Golden Canyon.
Getting low to the ground with a wide angle lens emphasizes large mud blocks in the foreground.
A higher perspective creates a more even patchwork of shapes and lines.
Blue hour tones in the sky and mud blocks.
An area of "hyper-cracked" mud blocks. Beautiful pink sunrise light in the clouds and warm reflected tones in the mud flat.
Lines leading to a soft pink and blue sky.
Beautiful clouds on a windy morning. A raging sandstorm of salt blows across the flats in the distance. Tbe horizontal perspective emphasizes the vast openness of the valley basin.
Fellow photographers studying patterns in the mud.
Death Valley "driftwood" carried out into the basin by the mud flows.