Desert gold wildflowers on a slope above the salt flats of Badwater Basin, Death Valley National Park.

Bloom and Basin

Badwater Basin, Death Valley National Park, California

I made this on the way up rather than at the top. From down on the flat the two things never meet, but from the slope the flowers stack into verticals and the basin lays a hard horizontal in behind them, warm against cool. That is the entire picture. I kept the bloom close enough to the lens that it reads as texture instead of as a subject.

Nikon Z 7_2 · NIKKOR Z 24-120mm f/4 S · 85mm · f/8 · 1/500 · ISO 50

February 13, 2026

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