These photographs were taken in a single session along Badwater Road in the Death Valley National Park in California. An impending storm had given rise to conditions atypical in Death Valley – soft, diffused afternoon light that accentuated the colours on the Black Mountains.

Colours
5D Mark II, 24-105L

Black Mountains
5D Mark II, 24-105L

Palette
5D Mark II, TS-E 17L

Folds
5D Mark II, 24-105L

Rugged
5D Mark II, 70-200L f/2.8 IS II

Black Mountains
5D Mark II, 24-105L

Glow
5D Mark II, 24-105L

Silicon Valley legend Steve Wozniak (“Woz”) is one of the pioneers of the personal computer revolution. He co-founded Apple Computer in 1976 along with Steve Jobs. It was Woz, the engineering genius, who designed and built the company’s first products, the Apple I and Apple II.

I met Woz and his charming wife Janet last evening for a photo session in Los Gatos, California.

Steve Wozniak
5D Mark II, 85L II

Woz
5D Mark II, Zeiss ZE 100 f/2 Makro Planar

Steve and Janet Wozniak
5D Mark II, Zeiss ZE 50 f/2 Makro Planar

Added: The following shot is my favourite. However, it was taken at f/1.8, resulting in a very shallow depth of field that throws the nose distractingly out of focus.

Woz
5D Mark II, 85L II

Last year I found myself in the middle of a fierce storm in Death Valley, California. After the initial fury subsided, I positioned myself on Westside Road hoping to catch some of the late evening magic, and was suitably rewarded. The gusts were still very strong and these images had to be made handheld at ISO 400.

Clearing storm, Amargosa range, Westside road
5D Mark II, 70-200L f/2.8 IS II

Amargosa range from Westside road in Death Valley
5D Mark II, 70-200L f/2.8 IS II

This blog post is not about making or displaying beautiful photographs. But photography is fundamentally a tool in story-telling, and this is a subject that interests me: Silicon Valley (where I live) and its history.

There are numerous accounts available on the web on the development of Silicon Valley. At its core, it is a story of American ingenuity, playfulness, and entrepreneurial spirit. I have chosen to document below three seminal Valley mileposts that fundamentally altered the world. The work involved bent the arc of human civilization, and that it all happened within an area of a few square miles is astonishing.

The entry of the word “Silicon” into Silicon Valley can be traced back to the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory started in 1956 in Mountain View, California, by William Shockley, the co-inventor of the transistor. Today at the same spot stands the La Fiesta Super Market.

Marking Shockley's lab in Mountain View, California
5D Mark II, Zeiss ZE 50mm f/2 Makro Planar

At Shockley's site today - La Fiesta Super Market
5D Mark II, 24-105L

Separated by a few miles and a couple of decades is the house in Palo Alto where William Hewlett and David Packard first got their enterprise going (1939). This garage is considered the birthplace of Silicon Valley.

Hewlett and Packard's garage in Palo Alto, California
5D Mark II, Zeiss ZE 50mm f/2 Makro Planar

Within walking distance of the HP garage, at the intersection of Emerson and Channing streets in Palo Alto, is a plaque commemorating the great American inventor Lee De Forest who worked here in 1910 on the world’s first global radio communications system.

Site of Lee De Forest's lab in Palo Alto, California
5D Mark II, Zeiss ZE 50mm f/2 Makro Planar

Silicon Valley was built “on the shoulders of giants,” and its pioneering tradition endures.

Google headquarters in Mountain View, California
5D Mark II, Zeiss ZE 50mm f/2 Makro Planar

My first Zeiss lens, the renowned ZE 50mm f/2 Makro Planar, arrived today. It is both a Macro as well as a general purpose lens. In the words of the well-known technical expert, photographer, and Zeiss reviewer Lloyd Chambers, the Zeiss 50mm f/2 Makro Planar offers “…bitingly sharp image rendition, pleasing bokeh, and images that have a strong dimensionality to them.” (detailed review behind a paid subscription wall)

I took my first shot handheld indoors with the lens wide open (f/2). The results look delicious. Shown below is what came out of my default post-processing workflow. The focus point was on the dot inside the circle on Ganesha’s forehead.

Sri Ganesha
5D Mark II, Zeiss ZE 50mm f/2 Makro Planar

Actual pixels
5D Mark II, Zeiss ZE 50mm f/2 Makro Planar

I was fortunate to find myself in the middle of a storm in California’s Death Valley this March.

This shot was taken as the storm raged on at the northern end of the Badwater basin with the Panamint range in the backdrop.

Stormy afternoon in Death Valley, California
5D Mark II, 70-200L f/2.8 IS II

And about an hour later, we were witness to this marvellous sight.

Rainbow over Death Valley
5D Mark II, 70-200L f/2.8 IS II

The build-up to this storm figured in an earlier post.

I was fortunate to catch the frisson of an incoming storm this March in Death Valley, California. With conditions changing by the minute, I kept shuttling back and forth between the Westside Road that cuts through the Badwater basin and Zabriskie Point.

Ominous clouds form over the northern end of the Badwater salt pan, as seen from Westside Road.

Storm brewing over Badwater basin in Death Valley
5D Mark II, 24-105L

It was a marvellous sight at Zabriskie Point. Notice the giant alluvial fan spreading out from the mouth of the canyon on the far side of the Badwater basin.

Storm clouds loom over Manly Beacon at Zabriskie Point
5D Mark II, 70-200L f/2.8 IS II

The colourful mineral-laden mudstone hills near Zabriskie Point contrast with the grey weather all around.

Storm in Death Valley
5D Mark II, 24-105L

The first rays of the sun melting the crest of the Panamint Range at Zabriskie Point in California’s Death Valley make for the purest of eye candy. A clutch of photographers can be reliably found there at dawn jockeying for slots on the mound overlooking the badlands. It is easy to be seduced by this iconic location and overlook other photographic opportunities right next door. On this morning, I explored compositions figuring the borate-laden hills lined up along the highway near Zabriskie Point. With an assist from the early morning light the warm yellow hills cut a crisp picture.

Borate-laden hills in Death Valley, California
5D Mark II, 24-105L

The black & white interpretation of the above image also makes for a compelling image.

Death Valley, California
5D Mark II, 24-105L

Moonrise over the Trona Pinnacles.

Moonrise at Trona Pinnacles
5D Mark II, 70-200L f/2.8 IS II

After my first magical evening, I made two more jaunts to the Trona Pinnacles later that same week hoping to frame other perspectives especially from the far south end of the lake bed. Unfortunately, on both these occasions the light was nothing to feel good about. Furthermore the intensity of the wind gusts made setting up of the tripod very difficult so I walked around and explored handheld compositions with the 300mm telephoto.

Lunarscape at Trona Pinnacles
5D Mark II, 300L f/4 IS