So I wanted to bring everybody up to date with what I've been doing. This past week has been a real good one for me. Saturday my buddy and also fellow photographer and all around great guy Gerald Gonzales joined the Los Angeles Flickr group for a meet up at the Salton Sea. We also joined my buddy Mike Kang and Kim St Dennis who brought along a couple of models, the lovely Ioana and Mindy.
The Salton Sea at Sunset. This is Bombay Beach located on the North Shore of the Sea. There are some cool ruins there of old trailers and some things. The water was super calm with no wind and hardly any ripples which made for amazing reflections.'
First of all let me tell you some words of advice about going on a photo excursion like this, especially to the California Desert. To save myself from writing a book here is a link to the Salton Sea wikipedia, you can read the many many paragraphs about this interesting place.
Technology
Now it's important when you are going on a photo excursion, especially a place you've never gone before to bring along a few necessities.
Cell phone!
I definitely recommend you bring your cell phone and a car charger with you. This may seem obvious, but you would be surprised what one can miss while trying to pack for a trip.
Batteries
I recommend you bring a second bag (besides your camera bag) that you can use to carry extra little things you just leave in the car. Definitely bring some batteries for whatever sizes you need. This may be important if you happen to get stranded out there or something and need some AA's for some of your life saving electronics. Also don't forget to pack extra batteries for your camera, or a charger that can be used in the car.
Walkie Talkies
2 way radios with at least a 7 mile range (they have them now in the 20 mile range) this is a great gadget to have if you are conveying with other people or go in a big group. Pick a channel and everybody can talk to eachother. Make up call signs etc. Will definitely bring you back to your Smoky and the Bandit days if you are old enough!
GPS
If you have one, bring along a GPS for your car, and one for your hand. I have some old Garmin Geotracker GPS units that work great and have helped to find my way back to the car if I wonder out too far. Trust me when I tell you this, you do not want to be stuck out in the desert or anywhere not sure where you are going, not sure if you have a Cell Phone signal, and lost in the hot desolate place.
Photo of me with my GPS around my neck, I have a walkie talkie on my belt and my cool hat to beat the sun. (Photo Courtesy Kim St Dennis)
Being over prepared is better than not prepared
This brings me to another really important and crucial item. Bring a lot of water with you. When you think you have enough double or triple that and hopefully it will be enough. When you are out in 100+ degree heat in the desert you will get dehydrated before you even realize it. The advice that they always give you before going to the desert is to drink even when you are not thirsty, put on a lot of sunscreen and wear protective clothing including a hat, possibly jeans depending on the heat level, and light clothing (do not wear black out there it will raise the heat even hotter)
I would also suggest that you bring a change of clothes. Once the day is over you will find you are covered in sweat, stink, and if you are going to go out to dinner or anything similar it is nice to have a different shirt to put on at the least. I also recommend that you bring a sweatshirt as it may be cold at night and windy. We faced a lot of wind and colder temperatures at our dinner stop at the Morongo Resort & Casino near Palm Springs, CA.
The most important part of going on a Photo Excursion is to HAVE FUN!
THE PHOTOGRAPHY!
Now that the general advice is over, here are some tips for the photography and some of my photographs from this trip.
Lenses
Take a variety of lenses with you from Ultra-Wide Angles to Telephotos. We came across a lot of scenery that was great for landscapes, wild life that was great for telephotos, we had models so our medium to telephoto lenses were used a lot. Bring a second camera bag you can keep some equipment in the car. The Salton Sea was not exactly crime ridden as nobody is out there, but leave gear in the car at your own caution.
Strobes
If you have them, bring 1 or 2 with you. You can always borrow a buddy to be a human light stand and can use reflectors to shoot through or bounce as we did for many of the photos.
Reflectors
They are your friends out there. They are light, take up a little space if you have a collapsible one. They can come in huge sizes or small sizes and you can use them to shade the model or reflect light to fill in shadows.
Bring Friends
It's always nice to have somebody to travel with. Even if you have friends who are not into photography, get them to come along and you can use them for a model, for a human light stand, human sandbag, gear carrier, or amusement!
One of the interesting things about the Salton Sea is that it stinks. There is a lot of dead fish on the shore everywhere and they tend to put off a smell (I was told by a fellow photographer it smells like an old Salt Water fish tank that hasn't been cleaned in ages)
There are a lot of old abandoned buildings at the Salton Sea and nearby areas and most of them smell too. We visited the Yacht Club which was built and used mainly in the 50's and 60's wich smelled like Musty Air and no circulation or ventilation. There appears to be a lot of bats and birds living inside of the dark rooms and you can smell the feces. Despite that, there is some really neat graffiti and interesting looks inside of there that make for some cool photos.
North Shore Yacht Club
Gerald beating the heat
Mike "Kangster" Kang carrying gear to the shoot location
Here is me and Kim testing the lighting. (Photo courtesy Michael Kang)
We (Gerald, Mike, and Kim and our Models) spent a lot more time at the Yacht club than the rest of the group so we missed out on some of the nearby attractions and places to see, but we are definitely planning to go back soon.
Here are some of my favorite shots from the Salton Sea
This is the Lovely Ioana. She was a super trooper, brought a lot of clothes out and was really excited to be out there.
This is a portrait of the lovely Mindy Klein. This one is Natural light.
A look behind the scenes while shooting Ioana. There is Kim with his camera. You can see one of our lights on the ground for rim in this shot. We were also using a shoot through umbrella for the key light (seen in the right top corner)
Ioana and the Sunset. This was achieved with 2 speedlight strobes.
Mindy posing for a headshot. This was taken with Natural light.
To view a complete gallery of my Salton Sea photos please visit my Salton Sea set on Flickr.
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