Valley of Fire – Fire Wave
As a Los Angeles native, I visit Las Vegas so often that on recent trips I’ve started looking into day trips outside the city. Valley of Fire is a brisk sub-hour drive away and I especially recommend it for landscape photography enthusiasts. The sandstone formations provide dazzling colors that look from an alien planet.
Fire Wave used to be a secret location known only to informed hikers and photographers. But it became so popular in recent years, with more people parking on the sides of the road and hiking to the spectacle, that a couple years ago the park service forbade people from parking off-road and unofficially laid out a hiking trail with guideposts. I say unofficially because Fire Wave is still not labeled as an attraction on the park map (although it’s featured on the map cover *wink wink*). The only way people can accidentally stumble upon it is by chance seeing a small sign in a small parking lot pointing in the direction of Fire Wave.
The hike is an easy 0.5 miles and well worth the walk. For photo purposes, I was hoping for better clouds and a more interesting sunset. Nevertheless, it made a strong first impression on me, and I will certainly be back.
I’ve recently been fond of making prints from notable photo shoots. Photos feel much more alive when displayed on a wall rather than living on hard drives. In the past I chose to use canvas prints because I didn’t have to bother with framing. They are lower resolution though due to the nature of the print texture. This time I chose to print on ultra high gloss photographic paper (Fuji Pearl) which has a metallic sheen. This is reportedly the same kind of paper that Peter Lik uses in his fine art galleries. The paper is then mounted on Gatorboard, saving me from having to frame this as well.
Probably hard to see, but that’s me in a Taipei BAPE shark hoody on top of the Fire Wave. The crazy colors of both seem complementary with each other
I much prefer the way Fuji Pearl looks compared to canvas so this is the way I’m going from now on. This was printed using Bay Photo, a professional photo lab. I had no issues with Bay Photo, who promptly delivered a high quality print in several days, but next time I’ll try ProDPI, another esteemed photo lab, to shop around.
