March is the sweet spot—warm enough to be out at dawn and dusk without layers, not yet the furnace of summer. I drove in from Vegas and spent two nights at Stovepipe Wells.
Badwater at sunrise: the salt flats stretch forever. I shot wide to emphasize the scale, then switched to a 50mm for the texture of the salt polygons up close.
Zabriskie Point at sunset is crowded but worth it. Walk 10 minutes down the trail and the crowd thins; the same light, half the people.