I’m back home in Mammoth for a couple days between trips and what better time to get some processing done, images posted and cameras cleaned for the next shooting fun. This past Tuesday I was at the Photo Safari Precon and after a little bit of confusion we headed out to Bonnie Springs. Bonnie Springs was a station back in the Gold Rush days but slowly fell apart. After the land was bought out and several years of bringing pieces back together, the station was back up and running becoming a well known tourist stop 25 minutes outside of Las Vegas.
I have spent a lot of time at ghost towns and everyone of them has something unique about it. This town had a great main street which lead up to an old bar where we were fortunate to have four models. With all the great old buildings and models we had plenty to photograph. It always starts with the buildings for me, looking at the topography of the land, the setup of the town and finding the ones that look old nothing modern. As I was strolling around main street with my good buddy Vanelli by my side we found some really cool buildings, alongside of helping other participants see them also.
The first too were the ones that stuck out the most. Miner’s Restaurant was the most obvious one on the street in my mind. The letters were bright white against a wall with great afternoon light. IT basically screamed black and white. The other one is the entrance of another bar but this one we weren’t allowed into. I walked back and forth along the front of this one because i couldn’t figure out the best way to photograph it. With models, without models, black and white, color it was all going through my head. I finally landed on a sideways shot to the door from ground level and of course naturally black and white. It was a lot of thinking but sometimes that’s what it takes to get the right shot. Patience.
Towards the end of the afternoon Moose and Joe were doing a lighting demo inside the bar in the back. Well inside the bar was this great interior that was mostly original, including chandeliers. The chandeliers were made of this awesome red glass that were only lit by the window light coming in. It all made for some fun black and whites.
In the Camera Bag:
Nikon D3, 70-200 VRII, AF-S 24-70 F/2.8, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film