My two most favorite areas for photography in Death Valley are the Mesquite Sand Dunes and Zabriskie Point. Of course, these are also probably the most photographed so it's pretty hard to come up with different takes.

Still, lighting changes due to varying weather conditions and one has to try to make the best of the conditions at hand. Death valley had not had any significant winds in the previous several days so the dunes showed plenty of evidence of human activity. Lighting was flat due to clouds to the East obscuring the sunrise but the sun peeked through on a couple of occasions which helped considerably.

Later that morning the conditions deteriorated with heavy clouds and light rain. However once again the sun managed to show itself for some dramatic lighting conditions.