This is a picture I took in New York City; it's the reflection of a skyscraper, clouds, and the sky on another skyscraper. I took a close-up shot, avoiding the outline of the skyscrapers, to give it an abstract feel. 
I took this picture during a very cold night in December of 2001, in Michigan. I think I've never been so cold in my life (
you can see how the water sprayed by the waves on the handrail has frozen - more noriceable in the second picture - almost unbelievable...).
These windows are on the building opposite the Certosa; in one of them you can see the reflection of the windows of the Ducal Palace.
The first point of interest after entering the park is Dante's View, which offers a beautiful panoramic view over the southern part of the valley and the salt lake.
Further along is Zabriskie Point, home to very interesting rock formation - actually, the whole valley is home to very interesting rock formations: besides the rock formations, the sand and the salt there is very little. Each corner of the valley is different though, I would never have thought that "rock formations" could be so very different before I went to the Southwest.
Shortly after Zabriskie Point you'll reach route 178; turn left and follow the road until Badwater; this is one of the spots from which you can access the salt lake without too much effort. Especially in the spring and summer months, Death Valley is extremely hot, and even short hikes can be dangerous, so don't underestimate even the shortest walk. People actually die in Death Valley fairly often.It's easy to underestimate the heat after you've been driving around for hours in a comfortably air-conditioned vehicle.
Walking on the salt lake is like walking on April snow: the color and texture of the salt feel like snow, and in certain places your foot may break the surface and sink in a puddle of water. The water is coming from an underground system that, amazingly, even after thousands of years of desertification of the area, is still providing water. The salt lake is the lowest point in the continental US, if I recall correctly, some 282 feet (86 meters) below sea level. A sign halfway up the mountain marks sea level. Very impressive. It makes you want to imagine what it would look like here if there was water up to that level. 
The next turnoff is Artist's Drive; it is so named because of the pictoresque colors of the rocks and mountains; the highlight of the drive is the Painter's Palette, a group of orange, red, green, blue and white rocks. However, even more than the colored rocks, I found interesting the small colorful flowers and bushes that somehow manage to grow in this inhospitable environment. Purple, green, yellow, white, they are a sight in themselves.
The third turnoff is salt creek; how much of the creek you'll be able to see depends on the time of year, but it's a very amazing view: in the middle of the desert, rocks, sand and salt, there is a small creek surrounded by lush (relatively speaking) vegetation. Many millenia ago, the creek used to be full of fresh water; now the water is salty, and one species of fresh water fish, having little choice, adapted to the salt in the water. This species (Cyprinodon Salinus, or pupfish) exists only in this creek. You should be able to see quite a few of the little fishes. The Park has built a wooden boardwalk along the creek, so that the delicate environment is not spoiled by the tourists.
Back on route 190 in direction west, just before Stovepipe Wells, you'll see on the right the famous Death Valley dunes. You can park the car on the side of the road and walk to the dunes. The best time to do this is just before sundown: the heat is not as bad and the light is fantastic on the dunes. It took me about 2 hours to get to the tallest dune, walk around taking pictures, and come back to the road. If you attempt the hike, don't forget to bring lots of water: I brought about a gallon, drank all of it, and at the end I was dangerously close to dehydration. At dinner I drank a glass of water after the other, but I think the pictures were worth it.
We stayed at a motel in Stovepipe Wells; very nice place, with a view over the desert (see picture on the left), a cool saloon where you can enjoy a cold beer, and even a small swimming pool. At night I played with some long-exposure pictures. As you can see from the star trails, the exposure was a couple of minutes long.
We didn't find Scotty's Castle particularly interesting, so we didn't take the guided tour, and instead headed back towards Beatty; we wanted to see the ghost town Rhyolite; it used to be a prosperous mining town at the turn of the last century, with even its own casino, but now it's just an agglomerate of empty shells of buildings.
It's a satellite image of the Earth, where I superimposed markers that show (most of) the place that I have visited. When you click on a marker, a baloon pops up, with the description of the site and, in some cases, a small picture.
The map is a regular Google map, so you can navigate, zoom in and out, and explore.
At this time there are almost 200 markers, so it will take a few seconds to load (if you have high-speed internet - otherwise longer); please be patient. I will add more markers and pictures as I travel to new places.
If you want to make your own photo-travel-map, look at this tutorial.
There isn't much to see there: some markers that show where the plane started, took off, and landed again; a re-enactment (with mannequins) of the moment of flight (see picture above); and a nice futuristic monument to flight (see picture below - I tried to add a futuristic painting touch to it because the regular picture looked too much like a postcard).
There is also a small museum in the visitor center; it's pretty interesting, with a lot of information on flight and the work of the Wright brothers. Their story is fascinating, so don't miss out on it.
The highlight of Cape Hatteras National Seashore is obviously the Cape Hatteras lighthouse. Unfortunately, a few years ago it was moved inland because the coast's erosion was threatening it, so it has become a much less interesting photographic subject. A lighthouse in the middle of a field surrounded by woods is not exactly spectacular. You do hear the ocean in the distance, though.
Not far north of Cape Hatteras, there is another interesting lighthouse, on Bodie Island. There are actually several lighthouses in the area: North Carolina was one of the first states to be colonized, and in the 17th and 18th centuries many routes went by this part of the coast. Most of the lighthouses on these isalnds are well worth a visit.
You may have heard about the "lost colony", the first English colony in America, which was settled in 1587 by 120 people who then vanished without a trace within 3 years. To this day nobody knows exactly what happened to them. The lost colony was situated on Roanoke Island, just a couple of miles north of Bodie Island Lighthouse.
The area is also an important stop in the migratory path of many birds, so with a little patience you can spot some interesting birds. The best place to find migratory birds are two lakes in Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, which is technically not part of Cape Hatteras NS, even though it lies in the middle of it.
I had just bought the ZD 40-150 and I was hoping to come home with some spectacular bird pictures, but it's actually a lot harder than it seems.
A couple of hard-learned lessons:
Unfortunately I learnt these lessons after I came back and looked at the pictures. This is pretty much the best I have (the first is a White Ibis, the second a Blue Heron):
