I've been to Death Valley now five times. Until our last visit, we've always had cloudless blue skies every single day. Our trip in 2014 was postponed from early October to late October for a family wedding. Maybe that's all it took, but we had glorious skies filled with high cirrus and cumulostratus clouds, throughout each day and into the evening sunsets.

This photo, taken mid-day at The Grandstand rock formations on the Racetrack Playa was typical of the amazing cloud formations. In color, this image shows the beauty of the scene, but in order to emphasize the great patterns created in the sky, I knew that this would be a black and white image from the moment I captured it in camera.

I finally had the Death Valley photographs I'd always hoped for!

Canon EOS 5D, Tamron 28-105 f/2.8, SP Aspherical LD @28mm, 1/125 sec @f/13, ISO equiv 250, Calumet 8000 Carbon Fiber Tripod, Gitzo G1276 Ballhead, Black & White conversion in Nik Silver Efex Pro