Well, this week has been filled with sunsets and crazy clouds, I figured I'd end the week with another one. This is at the end of the pillar section the old pier used to be at. As you can see it's covered in calcium and salt deposits, and I'm sure a healthy amount of bird droppings as well! 

So, I have decided to move my blog and website over to a Wordpress format. I plan on some major changes to the format, and plan to also bring more articles than just photos. Mostly my views on photo related stuff. It's a huge change I have been working on for a bit now, and this weekend plans to be a marathon session. Honestly, id rather be out shooting, but eh, I also want to be presentable to the world :)

Just wanted to say many thanks to everyone who has taken the time to visit and comment and help me grow. thank you so much. 

Happy Friday! 

Another shot from the Salton Sea. This was an experiment of sorts in that I didn't really want the normal dark orange glow you would have seen at sunset that day. So, instead of messing around in post I decided to just switch my white balance to Tungsten. This gave the image a nice deep blue color instead of the deep orange. 

I was also sorta going for something that would blend better the sky and the water. They already seemed to bleed into one here so I figured this might help it along. Not my normal stuff, but if you don't try new things you don't learn anything new right?

So, what do you think? 

Ah, good old Bombay Beach. The land of the creepy-beautiful. I will say though, this place is a sunset goldmine. 

This image is a 6 bracket exposure HDR. Aside from the HDR processing I didn't do a whole lot to it. Added a bit of darkness and a very slight vignette and some final sharpening; done. 

This is also one of those images where I just felt I need to break the rules. Well, they always say, don't put the horizon in the middle. Well hell, sometimes that just don't work! This is really only the 2nd time I have come across that "issue". IS it? The other being a few shots in the Grand Canyon. In any case, I love creative license. :)

Sunsets on the Salton Sea can be very colorful. Two electricity poles left behind near the shore. I can't imagine that these would be placed so close to the actual shore line. Then again, this lake has flooded many times so at one point I can see them being further back. 

So, looking up at some electricity poles while out in the Salton Sea I really started to think; that and laugh. 

I figured, OK, it's an electricity pole, so isn't the sign kinda redundant? It's an oxymoron to me, like Hot Water Heater. Also, is the fact that the sign only says "Voltage" mean that it's not "high" voltage? My guess is that the voltage is in fact high. After all, it's at the top of the poll :) 

The Salton Sea is more than just pretty - and odd - landscapes. It's more than the west coast's holy grail of Urbex. The Salton Sea is actually of great geological interest. Sitting on a plate boundary where the North American Plate is pulling away from another plate - better known as the San Andreas Fault - you will find the Salton Sea. 

Not many photographers venture here, except maybe birders, and it's one of the lesser known areas  this location has on offer. 

Mud Pots, or mud volcanoes if you will, are formed by geothermal processes. Water, steam, mud, and various gasses like sulfur are bubbled up to the surface in sometimes pretty impressive displays. To give you a bit of scale, the mud pot shown above is taller than me. I'm 6'4". 

Here you can see a group of mud pots close together.

If you are wondering if this location smells any better than the rest of the place, I can honestly say, no. All of the sulfur makes for a pretty nasty rotten egg small at times. During our last visit we got kinda lucky and had a mild breeze. Thank God for small favors right?  

Above is a set of steaming and very active pots. Sometimes you have to be careful walking next to these as they can blow at any moment! On the two times I have visited I have ended up with mud on me. If you decide to get close, you run the risk of one bursting and shooting very hot mud on you. And yes, it burns. 

Here is another shot with the geothermal power plant steaming in the background. Technology imitating nature i guess? 

Walking around the different pots we came to one that wasn't very active and was capped. If you listed very closely though, you could here water dripping. The sound! Let's put it this way, have you ever heard the sound water makes dripping into a deep mine or well? That's the sound it was making. Like you were standing over ground that could give way any moment and drop you into the center of the earth. Not wanting to be swallowed up by a wrathful mud volcano I left that one alone.  

One thing that seems pretty popular is sticking your hand in the mud. Some parts reminded me of ancient cave paintings and petroglyphs. Who ever did it though, I think it made for a cool photo :)

If you're ever by the Salton Sea I recommend you go check this place out. It's kind of a pain to find and you have to take some dirt roads to get there, but it's worth it. Just don't get lost. And if you find yourself in the middle of some agricultural fields. For the love of all that's holy, DO NOT GET OUT OF YOUR CAR! Trust me on this. 

Below is a map that should help. Also, if you type in these cords in Google Maps you can see sat view of the mudpots.

33.200546,-115.578752 

Oh, and here is a short video I made of the pots in action. Nothing special of course, but just wanted to show you want they look like bubbling up. (Turn your sound on too)

If only the walls and all the other items therein could talk. I wonder what this doll would say. 

This door, I loved it. It said so much. Looking from this door out onto a forgotten world that as time passes sinks deeper into the mire. A world covered in filth. In a way, that filth is of the natural world around us. Nature taking it all back; the storm before the calm if you will.  I took it all in wondering how much longer it could stand this assault. Or would it be man who decided this bereft landscape and the curious view from my door need to be "improved". And if you feel everything is crooked looking through this portal, it is. In more ways than one. 

I can haz waterz? Please?

The Salton Sea is many things. A strange mix of beauty and what some may see as ugly. There is a feeling that some things just are not... clean. This week I think I am going to focus on the those parts. I took lots of shots of the dried fish. I thought they were interesting, and even at times comical.