July 3, 2103 – ©2013 Martin Trailer

My contribution for July 3, 2103 to the Daily Photo Game.

Looking at Bob’s window without a view, I began my process, making a list of words that I perceived from the shot.  Texture, wall, window, 100, monochromatic and several more.

While writing, I was reminded of an adventure out to the Salton Sea that included decaying trailers and the many dried fish on the shoreline.

Picked this shot, since he was looking for his last breath, and no where to go, truly a dead end.

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There are vintage trailers all around the Salton Sea area, some are still in use and others are wasting away, slowly in the hot dry desert.

We started exploring at Salton City heading north going then south on the east side..  We stopped in a couple of areas I had visited in 2002.  We rediscovered while traveling the back roads finding this wasting gem, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Wasting Away, ©2002 Martin Trailer

When I spotted that trailer, I instantly remembered shooting this nearly 7 years ago.  In the second shot 2009, note the absence of the trailer in the background and the missing framing.  Salvage I would guess.

The area is pretty much the same as I remember from 2002, the yacht club and launch area there was some “wear and tear”, but overall not much change.

Wasting Away, ©2009 Martin Trailer

Wasting Trailer at Bombay Beach, © 2009 Martin Trailer

It seems that the area was dry when this group of trailer were parked, but at some point flooded.  The bottom 12-18 inches of the trailer are corroding away.  The surrounding area(s) that continue to be occupied are higher by a foot or so without the damage.

Here is a shot I did of vintage trailer disintegrating into the dirt and here is the very same trailer shown on Wikipedia from 2005 we found at Bombay Beach, on the east side of the Salton Sea, opposite of Salton City.  Once the skin is off the frame, disintegration seems reasonably quick considering the lack of moisture.

Must be the salt and they just seem to decompose even in the dry hot climate.

Exploratory shooting, the discovery is the homework photographers do, and hunting down vintage trailer is a blast for me.

Martin
MartinTrailer.com

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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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Mark Harmel southern Salton Sea, @2009 Martin Trailer

March 7/8, 2009

A buddy of mine, Mark Harmel, good fellow and terrific photographer and I traveled out to the desert this past weekend.  We went looking for photo opportunities including the desert flower bloom.

With so many photo opportunities, I will split the stories up into various pieces as I have time to post here.

Our journey took us to the Salton Sea and here we were at the southeast area where these dead trees were still in the water and the edge was very wet from what seemed to be a tide.

Ocotillo cactus near Borrego Springs, ©2009 Martin Trailer

It seemed to be a little early for the big bloom of desert flowers.  The Ocotillo cactus seems about 50/50 in bloom, but depended where the plant was.  We saw them near Borrego Springs and Ocotillo Wells.  Borrego had small small purple color and some lilies close to the ground and Ocotillo Wells had no purple but did have brush with yellow blooms.

I think that the desert bloom should develop more with in the next few weeks.

Here is the state parks web site for more information from those on the ground.

http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=638

Martin

MartinTrailer.com

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