The Salton Sea

A couple of weeks ago, I headed out to the Salton Sea with 2 other photographers to shoot for a day. I haven't been out there in 15 years, and I had never been to Bombay Beach, which was our destination. We tried to get some models, but as usual, the same excuses came up. Grandpa died, no gas money, I'm sick, blah, blah, blah.

No matter, as Tammy (one of the photogs) graciously offered to model. I knew she had her wedding dress still, and she was looking to do a shoot with it, so off we went. I think it worked out better than I could have imagined.

The weather was absolutely perfect, about 80 degrees, and there was no wind. We got there at a little after noon, met in what was onv=ce going to be a boat marina, and explored and shot for a couple of hours. This place is a photog's paradise, with lot's of birds, abandoned buildings, and just some real crazy things. I knew as soon as we got there that I wanted to do the bridal dress at sunset, so we shot Tammy in various outfits and locations around the area. Here are a couple of things we did:

Shot with available light, in an abandoned house

Shot at an abandoned trailer, also available with available light.

At a different abandoned house, and a big thank you to Andy Warhol for showing up :-)

As it was getting closer to sunset, we headed back up to the marina, where the most amazing dilapadated structures are. Tammy had this great red tu-tu that was going to set off the warm sunset colors and wood tones perfectly. And she lent me her 85mm f1.2. I can't remember if I gave it back...

Then it was off to the water. Tammy had no concerns about getting her dress dirty, so we had her climb on rocks, the sand, and out onto some concrete (at least I think they are made of concrete) pylons in the water. As we were setting up the flash and stands, I put her on a rock for what may be my favorite shot of the day:

I had originally planned the stereo typical sunset shot, lighting the bride, and getting the great colors of the sky and sun over her shoulder. But we couldn't help but notice just how still the water was, and the amazing reflections you could see. All we needed to do was turn around.

This was the original shot I had envisioned. All though very beautiful, we knew there was more to it. All I needed to do was change my position, and turn around.

The colors of the sky, and the nirrored surface of the water really pull this all together. These are basically straight out of the camera, with just a slight contrast boost and some dust removal. All the lake shots were done with my Canon 5D MKII, the 70-200mm f/2.8L IS, and Todd's SB900. Why the SB900? As I was shooting the flash manually, I wasn't locked into any special TTL mojo. I knew Todd would be a considerable distance from Tammy, and all though we didn't need to use the flash at full power, we were working fast, and if I was going to need more power, I wanted it available. Plus, if anything fell in the water, it wouldn't have been mine ;-) Thanks Todd!

This next shot is where everything all comes together.

The model, the sky, the colors, the reflection. It just all works out in this image. Lot's of people thought this was a composite image, or a flipped image done in Photoshop. Well, to be honest, I'm not that good at Photoshop ;-). If it wasn't for the small lights in the background at the horizon, you would have a hard time telling where the water ends, and the sky begins.

Here is a behind the scenes image of our actual set-up:

Tammy is out on the dock, Todd is on the rocks on the beach, using the flash on a stand, shooting through a white umbrella, hand held, as there was no way to prop up the stand, and I wanted to angle the light at Tammy out over the water.

A huge thank you to Tammy and Todd. I had a fantastic, fun day shooting, and got some great images that I'm very proud of. Again, if you need to build a portfolio, grabbing some friends, a dress, and a fun location is a great way to do it.

And if anyone is interested, I'm starting to plan an excursion back out there soon. I will need models, so if your interested in shooting, or you are a model or no someone who could model for us, let me know below.

Have a great New Year!