401 - Bombay Beach
Hands down, some of the most brutal shooting conditions I've been in awhile. NOVEL shooting conditions that is- we were at Bombay Beach at the Salton Sea.
For context, this place is an absolute hell hole.
Created in 1905 from an overflow on the Colorado River, the Salton Sea became a massive man-made lake. It attracted tourists from all over the world, and eventually becoming a thriving resort destination. One of these resort towns in particular was named Bombay Beach.
Keeping up? OK cool.
Well, everything went downhill when water runoffs from local farms began to pollute the water with fertilizers and pesticides. Eventually this killed off thousands of fish and birds, which resulted in some weird algae blooms and increased salt concentration in the water.
This created a compound effect where even MORE animals died (we're talking HUNDREDS of thousands), a smell began to arise, and the water became toxic. Eventually everyone just abandoned the place.
Now the bone-ridden beach exists as a canvas for artists, urban explorers, and photographers. Which is where I come in.
We arrived about 90 minutes before sunset, and immediately noticed the harsh conditions. The wind was absolutely INSANE, to the point where sand was blowing everywhere. You literally couldn't look in the direction of the wind or you'd get sand in your eye.
I put on a sweatshirt and facemask to protect my mouth, but that still didn't help. The blowing sand burnt like a razor burn along my exposed legs.
As for the environment, there was weird shit everywhere. Strange metal signs, hand-crafted tables, and swing sets in the middle of the lake:
“Obviously”
Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
[ISO 1250 ~ 38mm ~ f/4 ~ 1/8000s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Speaking of which, that wasn't us. It was some random chick that had no problem walking through toxic water for a photo op.
I honestly don't like the photo too much, but it was such a strangely iconic scene I felt the need to include it in this adventure. I think the water ripples from the heavy wind were too much for me... Would have been more interesting if it was a long exposure. But there's no chance in hell my tripod would have stabilized enough for that with the insane wind. ANYWAY.
We kept walking around, and I figured I wanted a shot that was a bit more... serious. I found this strange boat that looked legit, so I lined up a nice tire foreground and landed this bad boy:
“Fish out of Water”
Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
[ISO 2500 ~ 17mm ~ f/7.1 ~ 1/100s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Definitely my favorite shot of the day, has Uncharted vibes. The only problem with this shot was that the sky was fucked with grain. Like absolutely, monumentally, fucked. I normally don't care about grain, but this... this was bad.
It happened because I shot this photo just after the sunset, and didn't expose enough. Mainly because I couldn't concentrate with toxic sand blowing in my face at 1000 miles an hour. I did somehow manage to focus stack it though... Don't ask me how.
Well, luckily I had enough shitty skies in my library to replace this one. So there's my lesson of the day. Sky replacements can come in handy if your sky has too much grain! Bit of an obscure lesson, but hey, never know when you'll need to know that.
Uh... What else? Oh yeah, I got one one more shot I forgot to mention:
“Portal to Nowhere”
Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
[ISO 250 ~ 70mm ~ f/4 ~ 1/320s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
I really liked these powerlines that were fading in the distance from blowing sand, but I needed a subject- which is where the door to nowhere came in.
And with that, we called it a day. I then proceeded to have the worst night sleep of my life, because we chose to sleep with our van right on the water, like dumbasses.
At first, it wasn't bad because the strong wind canceled the smell enough. But eventually the wind died down...
I distinctly remember waking up in the middle of the night to the smell of just god-awful, putrid, rotting fish. I literally had a dream I was losing my sanity because the smell of rotting fish was eating away my brain. Fuck. I'll never forget that night.
I’m on a mission to explore as much as humanely possible.
Want to see my progress? Check out the Adventure Map.
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