The Odds Against Crossing

Low light across the salt formations (it's not ice) at Devil's Golf course gives them definition against the water. There is a subtle, implied line from the salt clumps at lower left to the dramatic sky and distant hill at top right. There's a strong sense of perspective and depth given by the repeated and receding pattern of salt formations. The dramatic sky further draws attention into the frame.

So many contrasts: white salt against dark hills, the vivid "big-color" sky above steel blue water, and all that water next to dry, barren hills. This is what Death Valley was in the winter of 2005, and it was a place to expect the unexpected.