Southwest Photography - Arizona Treks Blog

Entries in ghost town (9)

Tuesday

Feb232010

Class Field Trip

Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 6:47AM

Last weekend was a very different weekend. It was stormy the whole weekend. I went out looking for something to shoot hoping that the clouds would create something interesting but alas, I found nothing that was of interest. After noon I headed to Photomark and took Randy (my youngest son) with me. Most of the interest was on the East side but I had to bring him back so he could work Saturday evening so I didn't venture off to the far east valley.

Sunday it was stormy again and the large format class was having a field trip to Goldfield ghost town and Lost Dutchman State Park. I started early and waited in the rain at Lost Dutchman for about 90 minutes before heading over to Goldfield. We shot there for a while then everyone went over to Lost Dutchman. Another storm cell moved in shortly after we got there so the good light was lost and we had more clouds and rain. As I left the clouds were dissipating again and there were some spectacular views of Flatiron in the Superstitions. So I missed the best show of the day and I think sunset there was probably spectacular. Next weekend more storms are forecast so perhaps another trip to the area is in store.

Arizona Treks |

Renewed Energy

Tuesday, December 8, 2009 at 10:55AM

As many times as I have been to ghost towns, there is none quite like Vulture. There is enough there to find something new every time and to keep my interest. Bodie was interesting but it is too crowded, Vulture on the other hand is not crowded, you may only see a few people throughout the day. That makes it ideal for shooting large format because you can take your time, go at whatever pace you wish, wander around and shoot as you like. It is a great place to shoot.

There are a couple of holes in the chicken wire in the assay office that are large enough to shoot through. I made a couple of negatives in there. This one I like a lot, the other one it seems I had forgotten to level the camera and when straightened it was not so good.

I did some preliminary prints of 4 negatives yesterday. A couple may be the final prints, I need to sit down and look at them closely now. The 2 from yesterday were printed, neither for today.

I find it fascinating that one week things were hard to find, the next week I was making choices between multiple good shots. No clue what was different but it was certainly nice to be in the zone again.

Arizona Treks |

Vulture Mine Redux

Monday, December 7, 2009 at 6:48AM

We went back to Vulture Mine yesterday. It was the first time Mary has been there. We met one of the blog readers there and had a very good day shooting. I went there to redo a couple of the photos I hosed up the prior week, but only redid 1 of them. As soon as I entered the first building I started seeing things that I had not seen before. It was quite interesting and exciting. It was probably the best, in terms of creativity, outing I have had all year. Quite a bit of film was exposed and most was done correctly technically as well as having a pleasing quality.

Arizona Treks |

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Tuesday

Dec012009

Vulture Mine

Tuesday, December 1, 2009 at 6:38AM

The field trip was nice, a fairly small turnout but nice nonetheless. No clue why but I was having trouble focusing, just couldn't quite see. A new pair of glasses is on the way, perhaps that will help a little.

Several things have changed since the last visit. The head-frame for the mine blew over and many things have been moved about. I tried several things with the 4X5 and the focus issues ruined a couple of nice photographs.

The photo above was the first 8X10 for the day. It worked well, 310mm lens at f/65. I figured since I have no enlarger for 8X10, f/65 will work fine for a contact print.

The bottom photo was a 4X5 experiment. In the upper room in the Assay building the chair again. On the first trip I made a photograph with the chair as the subject. It is a bit eerie very nice. The problem is it is one that I was never able to scan well so it is shown only as a print. This time I was going for a lonely feeling and thought the blown out view out the window would enhance that feeling.

I printed a couple of the ngatives from the trip last night, hope to print a couple more later today.

Arizona Treks |

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Friday

May292009

A Couple of Photos From Gold King

Friday, May 29, 2009 at 11:22AM

Last trip to Gold King I did B&W and color of a couple of the compositions. I knew they would work as B&W and suspected they would make nice color photos as well so I gave it a try. This one is nice either way and I can not say I prefer the color or B&W.