Drive 2007 - Day 13 - Drives - Beneath the Waves

Drive 2007 - Day 13

article and photographs by Ben Lincoln

I arrived at Mojave National Preserve just as the sun was coming up. I found myself in a vast forest of yucca, and the wind and dawn carried a strong smell of sweet desert sage.

The Mojave didn't strike me as less hospitable than any of the other deserts I visited, but it was certainly the loneliest. I don't think I saw another person the entire time I was there, and I ran across abandoned buildings much more frequently than in the others. I remember it as being the most "traditional" desert I saw during this trip, in terms of having rolling golden sand dunes mixed in with the fields of desert plants that reach to the horizon.

Mojave Desert Handheld Shots

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Some handheld photos from early in the morning in the Mojave Desert.

Date Shot: 2007-09-12
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Various
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2007-09-25
Version: 1.0

Mojave Desert 1

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A yucca growing in the Mojave Desert.

Date Shot: 2007-09-12
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 28mm(?)
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-05-20
Version: 2.0

Mojave Desert 2

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The Mojave is one of the most arid places I visited on this trip (see how barren the mountains are?), but it's still teeming with plant life.

Date Shot: 2007-09-12
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 28mm
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-05-21
Version: 2.0

Abandoned Building 1, Mojave Desert, California

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One of the more interesting sections of the Mojave with abandoned buildings.

Date Shot: 2007-09-12
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 35mm(?)
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-09-30
Version: 3.0

Abandoned Building 2, Mojave Desert, California

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The Mojave Desert is full of abandoned buildings like this one. Sorry about the lens flare - always bring a sun shade when shooting multispectrally, etc.

Date Shot: 2007-09-12
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 28mm(?)
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-05-23
Version: 2.0

Heading back towards the Hoover Dam, near Las Vegas I spied this odd sight: a truck carrying a wooden crate the size of a shipping container. I am still curious what brought its construction about - it must have cost more to custom-build such a thing than to buy a second-hand metal shipping container, and the result wouldn't have been as durable. The only theory I've come up with was that the contents were a single unit (a piece of machinery?) which was slightly too big for a shipping container.

The Biggest Crate Ever?

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The stenciled icons are a nice touch. From left to right they are an umbrella ("keep this container dry"), a wine glass ("fragile contents" / "handle with care"), and a pair of arrows pointing upward ("this end up").

Date Shot: 2007-09-12
Camera Body: Nikon CoolPix 775
Lens: Zoom Nikkor 5.8-17.4mm
Filters: None
Date Processed: 2008-07-12
Version: 1.0

Lake Mead 1

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This shot of Lake Mead and the surrounding community doesn't really reveal anything beyond what you'd expect. However, I've included it as a study in the options available when you have an NIR and a UVA version of a shot available, but not the visible-light version (in this case, because it was corrupted on the memory card). Unsurprisingly, while some of the results are interesting, having only two effective channels to work with significantly restricts the colour space of the final image.

Date Shot: 2007-09-12
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 28mm(?)
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-05-23
Version: 2.0

One of the more unfortunate victims of paranoia in America today^[1] is the Hoover Dam tour. I had made the mistake of wearing my 20-eye Vegetarian Shoes boots, because they are great all-purpose "adventuring footwear". Because they have steel toes, I had to take them off for examination, then put them back on afterwards, a lengthy process which did not help me make friends with the security staff.

However, this is trivial compared to the main casualty, and I could have avoided it if I'd known beforehand and worn the sneakers I'd also brought. While a good portion of the original tour is intact, the "hardhat" section which took visitors through service tunnels in the dam wall itself is no longer offered. If (like me) you didn't get a chance to do this before the new restrictions, your only option now is video footage. The aformentioned live-action Transformers film features extensive coverage of these now-inaccessible areas, for example.

A similar limitation is that visitors are no longer allowed to cross the footbridges to the walkways that run around the intake towers.

Even with all of these restrictions, I would still highly recommend the Hoover Dam tour. The dam is an amazing piece of engineering work, especially considering the technology of the era in which it was built. Unfortunately, I have only two pictures of the interior, because the lighting is extremely low, and I hadn't familiarized myself with low-light handheld shooting by the time of this drive.

Hoover Dam Interior

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Most of my shots of the interior of Hoover Dam didn't turn out, but here's a pair from the generator area. Notice how in the infrared photo you can see where the American flag has been stitched together, but the dyes barely create any difference.

Date Shot: 2007-09-12
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 28mm
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2008-07-13
Version: 1.0

After the tour proper, visitors are shown a video history of the dam. This is a truly surreal juxtaposition of "old timey" black-and-white film footage (probably pieces of an older documentary) and newer material which I would guess is from the mid-to-late-1990s that I suspect was added in an attempt to "liven up" the presentation for younger generations. While it is informative and interesting, I honestly expected at any moment to witness a squadron of fighter jets streak towards the camera from behind the dam, with a Scorpions cover ("Rock You Like the Hoover Dam") blasting from the speakers^[2], or perhaps experience a re-enactment of the historic moment in 1945 when the Hoover Dam transformed into a colossal robot made of metal and stone which single-handedly destroyed the entire Luftwaffe and then tore open Adolf Hitler's armoured bunker to end World War II.

One of my favourite aspects of the dam is its Art Deco architecture, especially the "Winged Victory" statues.

Hoover Dam Winged Victory Statues

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It's essentially impossible to get a good wide-angle view of these statues due to the number of people milling about during the day. If I were to do this one now, I would go for some sort of close-up. However, this is the only example I have of a copper patina in the infrared and ultraviolet, and I do like the art deco angel design.

Date Shot: 2007-09-12
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 28mm
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-05-24
Version: 2.0

Hoover Dam 9

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Another view of one of the intake towers. The pedestrian bridge (which pedestrians are no longer allowed on due to excessive paranoia) is what one of the Decepticons (Starscream, I think?) flew under in the first live-action Transformers film. The combination of bright sunlight and high (but spectrally neutral) reflectivity of the concrete gives a good example of how the visible spectrum penetrates water better than near infrared or ultraviolet - compare the clarity of the vertical ridges extending into the water in the first three versions of the image.

Date Shot: 2007-09-12
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 28mm(?)
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-05-24
Version: 2.0

By this time I had seen just about all there is to see for the public at Hoover Dam, so I started west again towards Death Valley National Park.

Lake Mead 2

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A closer shot of Lake Mead, without the surrounding community.

Date Shot: 2007-09-12
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 50mm(?)
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-05-24
Version: 2.0

Death Valley is the hottest, driest place in America, but like every other desert I've visited, it's absolutely full of plant life which is especially evident in the near infrared.

Death Valley 1

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A 2-shot panorama near the southwestern limits of Death Valley.

Date Shot: 2007-09-12
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 28mm
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-05-24
Version: 2.0

Death Valley 2

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A second 2-shot panorama from further into Death Valley reveals that while this area is a bit hotter and drier than most humans would prefer, many plants are happy to call it home.

Date Shot: 2007-09-12
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 28mm
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-05-25
Version: 2.0

Death Valley 3

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This is one of my favourites from Death Valley, due to the variations in the mountain rock.

Date Shot: 2007-09-12
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 28mm
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-05-25
Version: 2.0

Death Valley 4

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An abandoned building in Death Valley. It seems to be designed to load something onto trucks or carts. It's hard for me to imagine anyone trying to harvest anything living in quantity from Death Valley, so I imagine it was used for sand and/or gravel.

Date Shot: 2007-09-12
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 28mm(?)
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-05-25
Version: 2.0

Death Valley 5

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A badlands-type hillside in Death Valley doesn't show much variation even with an expanded spectrum.

Date Shot: 2007-09-12
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 28mm(?)
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-05-30
Version: 2.0

Death Valley 8

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This is the road that leads down into the Valley proper. I'm really happy with how this shot turned out - it almost makes me reconsider my vow to never again let lens flare appear in my photos.

Date Shot: 2007-09-12
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 28mm(?)
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-10-10
Version: 3.0

Death Valley 12

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Sunset in the lowlands of Death Valley.

Date Shot: 2007-09-12
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 28mm(?)
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-06-08
Version: 2.0

Death Valley 14

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A hillside in Death Valley shot in very low light at sunset.

Date Shot: 2007-09-12
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 35mm(?)
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2009-06-08
Version: 2.0

Death Valley 16

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I liked the cloud patterns in this sunset photo enough that I managed to create a mostly-accurate false colour image by creating two versions of the aligned/registered image (one for the geologic features and one for the sky) and compositing them together. Once again we see that if someone could take simultaneous shots of a sunset in multiple spectral bands, the results would often be stunning.

Date Shot: 2007-09-12
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon Series E 28mm
Filters: Standard Set
Date Processed: 2008-07-13
Version: 1.0

After the sun had gone completely down, I stopped near Furnace Creek, and somehow managed to drop the remote control for my camera. I located it after several minutes of hunting under my car with a flashlight. When I looked up, I saw that there was a circle of coyotes gathering around me. Back on Day 5, Amy Hennig had joked about me being eaten by coyotes during my long and strenuous 1/2 mile expedition into Malibu Creek State Park, and for a moment I wondered if it was about to come true here in Death Valley. However, the coyotes fled almost immediately as I stood. I found a place to spend the night close by. Nighttime in Death Valley is breathtaking. Its isolation from the lights of civilization combined with the clear desert sky make for a view of the stars that I haven't seen matched anywhere else.

Date: 12 September 2007
Starting Mileage: 67089
Ending Mileage: 67479
Distance Travelled (Day): 390 miles
Distance Travelled (Trip): 5125 miles
Gallons of Fuel Purchased (Day): 13.8
Gallons of Fuel Purchased (Trip): 160.4

GPS Map of Day 13

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Footnotes

Given its dual purpose as flood control and power generation for a wide swath of the Southwest, the Hoover Dam is a more legitimate object of concern than many of the other things that Americans have grown overly wary about, but I still find it sad that so many of us have so frequently let fear be our guide. I certainly don't advocate throwing caution to the wind, and I am a firm believer in being prepared to react quickly and decisively against a legitimate security threat, but I also loathe the authoritarian mentality that seeks (and fails) to prevent anything that might ever potentially allow such a threat to exist.

Yes, like the episode of The Simpsons where they go to an airshow.