Martin Trailer Productions

A trip to the Salton Sea area we came upon several Geothermal Power Plants.  These are at the south end of the Sea.  We traveled from the west up and around from the north to the south on the eastern edge.  Even from the extreme north shore, you could see the steam from these cooling towers.  Consider these tower are 25 miles south an visible across the sea.

Geothermal Cooling Towers, ©Martin Trailer

Now, these are impressive from a distance and then once you get to them, wow. I pulled the camera and shot as I would for a client, gettin’ the cool shot (no pun intended).  Apparently there are 5-6 of these plants and are off the beaten track, but easily spotted from Highway 111.

Walking around, driving around these plants, outside of the property unless you have permission gives you some powerful image making possibilities.

I tried several angles placing the towers in different portions of the frame, sun positions and of lenses.

Cooling Towers, © Martin Trailer

Verticals and horizontals covered, I pulled out something that I have had some fun with, but rarely on a job.  The couple of times I have used the “Lensbaby” I almost never show the images to anyone other than an art director.  When I have shown personal work shot with the “Lensbaby” to non-creative the response is always almost like pity, like I feel bad for you shooting fuzzy photos…  The one time I did use the “Lensbaby” on job and the art director fought for using it, the client overrode and really was “afraid” of it, so safe ruled.

Think what you will, but I think the shot below has so much more “feel” to it than the straight safe stuff.  Do you get a feeling of power?  Add your comments/thoughts below.

Cooling Towers w/ a LensBaby, © Martin Trailer

Martin

MartinTrailer.com

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