I've always wanted to head out to the Salton Sea. It's about 160 miles east of Los Angeles and located in the Coachella and Imperial Valleys. It's the largest body of water in California. The lake itself is an environmental catastrophe. The lake is drying and will be drying up more in the coming years, causing more dust to the surrounding areas. To read more about the problems faced by communities in the area, please visit https://www.desertsun.com/pages/interactives/salton-sea/the-dying-salton-sea/.
I love this kind of landscape, it's open, vast, and never seems to end. I finally had the chance to go out to the Salton Sea in December of 2016. Although it was just for a day and a few short hours to photograph, it left me wanting to come back and explore more. I'm not sure why I find such a desolate place so pleasing to photograph but it's what makes me want to shoot.
My first stop was Bombay Beach. This town is a little scary, a lot of abandoned houses and not so good looking trailer homes. Once I got close to the water it felt okay. There were a few people out, mostly travelers that wanted to check out the landscape like me.
My next stop was the Mecca Beach Campground. I didn’t really have too much time to explore this place. I got there right at sunset and just went to the beach. I met more people out there as well. It’s nice seeing other people appreciating the scenery. The water was so still and gave such a nice reflection to one of the better looking sunsets of my life.
I shot this on my Mamiya 7II with my 50mm and 80mm lenses. I’ve had this camera for more than a year and absolutely love it. For film I used Kodak Portra and shot with the 160, 400, and 800 films.
These images were scanned with an Epson V600. I am using the VueScan software and I get better results than with the Epson software. I am still new to scanning and I think I can get better results with more practice. It is a slow scanner; that and it’s actual size are the main drawbacks . However, I am just scanning to be able to view my images and to post online but eventually I would like to print them at a darkroom. The main problem I have with the scanner is getting consistent results with it, especially in regards to white balance and contrast.