So yesterday I took a last-minute trip out to the Salton Sea with Nate & Jay.
Been there a dozen times, still think it’s fascinating. I’ve shot some of the structures and architecture out there a jillion times, but only a few times did I feel that I was really capturing the place in a way that communicated how it moved me. So I thought I’d try something different this time – something I’ve always wanted to do, but never had the gear to pull off.
So we started off by going up to the North Shore, where this building sits: (for those of you that have Google Earth, this building is located HERE)
Hmmm… kinda cool, but still not entirely what I’m after… So we went up to the ever-popular Bombay Beach (Google Earth .kmz file), where the salty sludge swallowed up both of Nate’s shoes (sorry, the camera was in the car at the time 🙂 )
Bombay Beach has a section of town that, from what I gathered, flooded in 1983. It’s really a fascinating wasteland, and I love the surreal feeling I was able to create in these photos by lighting up some of the derelict structures:
Wow! Super-cool, I thought… but then we went, on Nate’s recommendation, to a place I had just recently learned about – Salvation Mountain (.kmz file here). Salvation Mountain is a 24-year folk art project that’s the work of a single 72 year old man named Leonard. It’s basically a side of a hill that’s been built-up with sticks, tires, hay bales, and adobe, and covered with 100,000 (!) gallons of household paint. Inside and out, it’s covered with messages of christian love, biblical scriptures, and abstract representations of rivers, trees, flowers, hills, etc – all created out of stuff found in the desert, and lots and lots of paint. Really amazing…
I was really blown away by the place… reminded me a lot of the Cathedral of Junk in Austin… If you ever are out in Niland (yeah right!) you need to check it out…
Last but not least – a wide shot showing how all that stuff was shot – two speedotron 1500w/s packs, four heads, and a 5D… yeah!
10 responses to “Salton Sea”
Seth Mondragon, Zelo Photography
March 2nd, 2007 at 09:06
Sweet pics! My wife and I visited there a couple weeks ago. I just have one minor correction for you to make…Leonard is 75, not 72…he told us himself! :o) Check our pics (inlcuding a couple of Leonard) at blog.zelophotography.com
-seth
Calvin
March 2nd, 2007 at 09:13
Awesome stuff! Nice to see some personal work! That strobe stuff is super cool! Very high fashion style. Love it! 4 heads? I only see the three. Unless the sun counts. Killer work!
Calvin
Ray Soemarsono
March 2nd, 2007 at 09:58
I wanna play too….
I haven’t been there in some time. Looks like fun!
Kevin Swan
March 2nd, 2007 at 20:18
I’m in love with your portraits in this session. Who’d have thunk to bring billions of watts out on a sunny day, but the results are tough to argue with. Thanks for inspiring.
K
paula
March 2nd, 2007 at 20:57
wow, i’ve never seen the salton sea photographed like this before…so awesome and not to mention that you brought friggin’ lights!
anna joy
March 3rd, 2007 at 23:14
THESE ARE SO COOL!!! alskdjsldkgjsg;’ !!!
Fred Egan
March 4th, 2007 at 21:12
Love the lighting, cool stuff doug!
Sarah
March 7th, 2007 at 21:53
Is that Drew Carey?
smile fuckers
April 14th, 2007 at 18:54
Cool stuff. We don’t have this type of stuff in Michigan.
I sent an email to strobist.com. I hope they’ll put a link to your blog.
peterperfect
April 14th, 2007 at 19:50
overlit crap