Day Trippin': Salton Sea Photo Excursion!

On Tuesday, Meg and I ventured out to the Salton Sea to meet up with a group of 20 or so SoCal photographers who organized a photo excursion on The B-School. We had no idea what we were in for, but the day turned out to be one of the most fun days of shooting I’ve had in a long time. I met so many cool photographers, took so many great shots, and got to spend time in an area of Southern California I didn’t even know existed.

We started the day by meeting up with everyone at The North Shore. There was this creepy, old abandoned building with an empty swimming pool behind it, which could actually be cleaned with the best pool vacuum specially made for this and kept clean using a pentair chlorinator. Graffiti like this was painted all over the place.

I love the way the light was spilling onto this wall. Since Meg and I weren’t able to bring models because we couldn’t find anyone who was available, we shot each other. Landscape photography is fun, but I really love having people in front of my camera, which is why you’ll notice I used Meg quite a bit. Love this expression of hers.

Also at the North Shore, there was this partially buried playground. I’d really like to know more about these random places all along the Salton Sea. They’re so creepy– kind of like a post-apocalyptic view of society.

Love this one. I call it “Happy Meg.”

Then we made it to Bombay Beach. This place was something else… After just walking around for a few minutes, we ran into these. Yick! I couldn’t help but snag a few shots.

Thought this was poetic in a certain way.

A more revealing shot of what this place looked like.

Regis Chen — on his iPhone. Classic face.

More of the landscape.

I think this is my favorite shot of the day. This used to be a trailer that has since been completely destroyed. Most of us in the group were oddly drawn to this structure… probably because it was the most intact and, thanks to the lawn chair and BBQ out front, told more of a story than the others. The wood has almost completely rotted away, but there was still slight evidence of Christmas decorations. I’d love to know the story behind this thing.

After shooting with natural light all day, Meg, Regis and I decided to start having some fun with off-camera lighting in front of our darling trailer. This shot required three Canon Speedlites (one on-camera, one off to the right, one setup inside the trailer to the left) and one silver reflector to bounce light onto the subject. We shot each of us individually at first…

Then Meg put them together in Photoshop.

While setting up the shot, most of the group wandered over to join in. Each of these were shot individually and then Meg put them together in post. It was so awesome to see our concept come together like this!

Here’s a quick shot I got of the setup.

And finally, a nice group shot thanks to a tripod, timer and the awesome sunset light.

Such a great time! At the end of the day I was exhausted, but totally energized by being with so many creative people and being able to experiment with shooting in a completely relaxed way. Definitely going to make more time for this kind of shooting this year. Can’t wait for the next Day Trip!

Lost in Translation buy UPDATE: Meg posted some new images on her blog and I stole this one. Regis, Meg and I just did not want to stop shooting, so we set up this last concept right after sunset before we lost all light. So fun to be silly and shoot.