Jul 28, 2011 | Landscape Photography
Bodie was a huge town back in the day. It had the second largest population of Chinse in the US at the time. It is really hard to imagine the size of the town unless you get up on the bluff and look down. Knowing this, I went up un the bluff but as you saw on the first day’s blog, that really didn’t do much. So I took another approach. What you see here is the Main Street and what appears to be a lot of buildings all jammed up together. What you see here is what they call the Miners Union Hall down to the Boone Store. When you go to Bodie you’ll see how much topography that covers but in this view, it looks packed. When the head ranger at the time saw this photo, he said jokingly he. Was going to cite me for moving he buildings. How did I create this illusion? It was two fold. First I used the 800f/5.6 with the 1.4x and walked way down the road. Next, it shot at first light to take advantage of the hard shadows to fill in the holes. Lastly I went up the hill to look “down” on it. It was effective, the photo being used by the Park for may years to tell the story of the town.
That old Dodge parked on Main has quiet story and this is how I remember it. It is originally from Bodie and was sent to Folsom Prison to be restored. In 1981, it was in the Bridgeport 4th of July parade with Bodie employees dressed as Bodie Ghosts (see, they exist). Now a days it sits outside of the Boone Store basically rusting back to its former self. It is parked in front of the gas pumps so lends itself to being photographed. If I had a nickle for every bad HDR of the truck, I wouldn’t have to write the blog anymore! This is a single click but you might be asking about the sky. This is a typical August afternoon thunderstorm with extra drama added with a split grid. When the clouds start to turn black, I look for a foreground that still has light on it and click like mad.
Jul 27, 2011 | Landscape Photography
The funeral home, it sucks everyone in and why not, it’s just bloody cool. This is child casket and as you saw in yesterday posting, children died in Bodie. Now the location of the funeral home on the corner of Green and Main, thats always been an intersting question. When i talked to mu mom about it, she said there was no funeral home next door to where they ate lunch. When I asked Lester Bell, he just raised his eyebrows and smirked so you figure it out. The lighting is pretty basic, it’s the diffusion flat on the outside. Its simple, effective and predictable and that’s perfect.
One question I always get asked is, “Our there ghosts in Bodie?” I’ve heard a ton a stories about ghosts from China Rose to the one armed mill worker. Bodie is ghost town, it’s on the website so if the government says it’s a ghost town, there must be ghost. Are there ghosts in the cemetery or the funeral home? I have no comment.
Jul 27, 2011 | Landscape Photography
so once you’re inside how do you know what to point your lens at? Ever had that problem, got something special , unique with the clock ticking and the real possibility you will not have it again? Well that how’s I thought about every interior shoot. I knew I would be back (until that last shoot at the end of the workshop) but I still went in with that thought. So how did I pick a subject? I went for the light. Now since I was teaching, I either was working with a student and making their shot better or shooting over and around them or setting up a shot as a lesson. That’s what we have here.
The top photo is the old globe in the school house. You use to be able to see and photograph it through the window. Last time I was at Bodie it had been moved which struck me funny since the rule was you could not touch or move anything when working inside. Well as you can see the light on the globe is killer, a soft shading giving the globe that curved look. You can see the continents even if you look hard. You can also see in the window a little of the diffusion flat on the outside. I was set up for another shot a student was doing on another on object. I just took advantage of it for the globe
the pool table is a totally different lighting method. The shot was done after the sun was gone so there was no need for the diffusion flat. But I wanted the gradations of the light to give visual depth and shape to the pool table. Shooting with the 20mm, you can see the shape I wanted to the table. Picking this angle though brought into play more shadows then I wanted. Also the color was rather cool, I wanted it warmer. Keep in mind this was shot on film, what you see is what was shot, there is no Photoshop, the craftsmanship had to be there from the start. So who then did I clean up the shadows and warm up the light. If you said felled flash, you would be on the right track but wrong answer. I you thought a lot of telling was part of the answer, you’d be right. Yelling? Yeah, we’d covered one of the diffusion flats with a gold reflector, a 6×3′ flat and had it outside and a ways away to grab the last ray of sun to bounce it into the room. The folks working the flat couldn’t see its effect in the room so had to yell so they hear me on how to move the flat. I was very pleased with the final result and it was a great lesson on grabbing and using light.
Jul 27, 2011 | Landscape Photography
The one thing many visitors and photographers wonder about is all the antiquities, stuff that’s inside the buildings. Now there are a whole lot of stories why that stuff is there, from official to rumors to known facts. And as you might guess, I have my own combination of those. For example I know my mom came to Bodie many times before it was a park, walked through many a building that were empty then and full now. I remember the public being asked to return items they removed from Bodie. And there is there story of how the town was being put in quarantine so folks took off one night leaving their belongings behind. No matter the reason, the interiors are a photographic treasure trove. Most of it though is beyond most folks reach, behind glass. During my time though running the workshop, we had full access to the interiors which was one of the best lessons on light you can find.
There is a lighting difference between these two photos and to me it’s pretty dramatic. Can YOU see the difference? More importantly, do you know why there is a difference? It is the oldest lighting trick in the box but it think that book has been lost. The photo at the top is light coming in from the window and flash fill on the left. Why the light is satisfactory, it doesn’t have the same feel or romance as the light in the bottom photo. That’s because the light on the bottom is all light streaming in from the window but……you knew there was a but coming. The light is diffused by two large diffusion flats OUTSIDE the windows! The sun is directly hitting those flats (what we used are long discontinued so I’d use Lastolite panels now) and the flats scattered the light coming in. That light wraps around the piano and stool and while the background is kinda boring because they didn’t do much with them back in the day, the light is sexy as he’ll and that’s what really matters. And that’s a technique I use to this day and it works great!
Jul 26, 2011 | Landscape Photography
Yeap, this is where my great cousin would work. Right off the table room. I can’t imagine the noise! This was the dark hole of China! I wanted a photo of it. There is no such thing as HDR for Fuji 100 and in fact, you had to watch your exposure time. So how did I light this? The F4e is on a tripod with 20f2.8AF. The exposure was 15sec at f/5.6 During those 15sec, I popped the SB-24 three times at full power. How did I know that was the right exposure (because film cameras didn’t have LCDs)? I took one exposure with the flash attached to the camera and I watched the readily light. I got my base exposure from the scale on the flash, closed down 1 more stop and saw my ready light blink. I then simply took the flash off camera and popped it three times, moving the flash each pop. Simple.
Jul 26, 2011 | Landscape Photography
This is the machine shop in the mill, this is some place you’re not going to go on the tour. What you’re looking at here is a giant drill press, pretty damn impressive. What we take for granted these days is how the hell they got this monster to Bodie. It came in pieces, put on wagons and driven 300 miles from Carson City, NV to Bodie. What seems like a monster task to us was all in a days work back then.
Back then, I didn’t take before and after photos for teaching. Didn’t know about blogs back in the early 90’s. What you’re seeing here of course is the after shot. The flash bouncing off a silver reflector on the right just looks like light bouncing around. You don’t know about the shadow being filled in and how bad the shadow was. I did a lot of single flash, bounce off something photography. The main light was the diffused light coming in the windows and then I would fill in with flash. It’s the same basic technique I use to this day when there is only me and I have a big space to light. I used the 20f2.8AF to take the photo. If I had the opportunity to do this today (I don’t) I would be shooting a heck of a lot with the 24PC. The tilt really bugs me.
