Lussier Photography

St Augustine’s

2012-05-17T05:00:00-07:00

Another shot from high above Austin, Nevada.

The church was built in 1866, making it the oldest in Nevada. It opened in time for the Christmas midnight mass that year. A fee was charged for seats in order to help pay for the roof. The bricks used for the 20 inch thick walls were fired locally.

I first photographed this church in 2004 on the TREK USA Relay (left). At that time it looked to be neglected and in disrepair. I had conflicting thoughts. On one hand, I thought it was a shame. It looked like it was a beautiful little church. On the other hand, I wished I could photograph the church in its state of decay.

I was very happy to see that St Augustine’s was saved.

On the down side, I did not arrange for a tour.

Next time.

Package Goods

2012-05-16T05:00:13-07:00

A detail shot of Austin, Nevada for today. And a reminder of the town’s age.

You are looking at what remains of a store front. At one time you could walk through this door into a bar where you could purchase “Package Goods” including wine, beer, liquor, and soft drinks. Good deal.

Today, this door will take you into a vacant lot. But rest assured. Right next door is the fully functional “Golden Club,” One of Austin’s four fine bars.

Some history … Austin Nevada got its start in 1862 when a Pony Express agent discovered a ledge of silver ore, which lead to a rush of entrepreneurs to the area, all eager to strike it rich in silver. At its height, Austin boasted 0ver 8,000 residents. Between Austin and the other nearby mining camps that sprouted from it, over $50m in silver was produced.

The International

2012-05-15T06:54:28-07:00

The International Hotel is the oldest hotel in Nevada and one of the oldest in the west.

It was high on my list of things to shoot on this trip. Back in 2004, when I first visited Austin on TREK USA, my teammate Tom and I popped into the bar for a beer. We were completely drawn in by its old west charm.

The International Hotel today is not a hotel. It is a bar and restaurant. This is the bar, smoking allowed. The restaurant is on the other side of the building. They serve a great breakfast and a mean burger!

The building itself was originally built in Virginia City, Nevada in 1859. In 1863 the Hotel was taken down to make way for a bigger hotel. Sections of the original were hauled off in wagons and moved to Austin.

The ornate bar and mirrors also came up from Virginia City, but only after they came over from England. The mirrors are original.

The bar is wallpapered with dollar bills stapled to the walls and ceiling by visitors from pretty much everywhere.

As an added bonus today, I’ve included a couple of shots of the exterior of the building.

Postcards from Austin, Nevada

2012-05-14T05:00:53-07:00

Now that you’ve had an overview of my Nevada trip, I think it is time to get down to details. So settle in for a few weeks of thematic images.

This week I’m presenting “Postcards from Austin, Nevada.” I think it is fitting to start here, considering Austin was my home for four days.

My affinity for Austin started in 2004, when I ran the TREK USA Relay. On Day 3 of the relay Austin served as our “port of call.” And they rolled out the red carpet. The (then) proprietors of the International Hotel and Bar served up a killer pasta dinner and they opened the doors early the next morning to feul us up for another 20 miles of running.

With precious little time to explore the town with my camera back then, I made a mental note to return. So here we are.

Today’s shot is a panorama of the town itself. It loses something at this size, so you need to see it bigger. You can click on the image to see a slightly larger version, or you can click here to see a really, really, REALLY BIG version (it is a 22MB file, so be patient).

Austin is approximately 100 miles from anywhere, which adds to its charm. It is nestled in Pony Canyon, smack dab in the middle of Nevada. The elevation there is over 6,000 feet above sea level (about as high as Mount Washington, for my New England friends).

If you are driving (or running) across the country along Route 50, you have to go through Austin. I mean that literally.

Make sure you stop. The burgers at The International are to die for.

There are three (or four) motels in town. My home base for this trip was the Cozy Mountain Motel. The proprietor, Cindy Garcia, was an excellent host and had some great suggestions for places to shoot.

Some processing notes on this image.

It is an HDR Pano comprised of 6 sets of 5 exposures each. It was tonemapped in Photomatix Pro and finished in onOne Software’s Perfect Photo suite and Lightroom.

The Homestead

2012-05-11T05:00:43-07:00

I was looking for the road to Belmont out of Manhattan (the two ghost town destinations for the day) and took a right, thinking “This MUST be it!”

I hadn’t gone a quarter mile when I saw in the distance, an old bus and and RV. Being in very rural Nevada, I thought, “Dammit! I must be in someone’s back yard!” I didn’t want to intrude, so I drove a little further until I could find a place to turn around.

Then I noticed the RV was pretty beaten up. And the windows on the bus were completely blown out. The place was abandoned. Lucky me. An unexpected detour.

Stokes Castle by Starlight

2012-05-10T06:30:45-07:00

The trip wasn’t just about ghost towns and abandoned ranches. I spent quite a bit of time shooting around the town of Austin itself, usually after I showered off the desert dust and grabbed dinner at the International. I also had plans to drive west out Route 50 into the Reese River Valley to shoot stars and/or star trails. Those plans never quite came together. Mostly due to to the fact that I was busy at night backing up images to my iPad and processing some in Snapseed. It didn’t help that my last night there (and last opportunity to shoot stars) was cloud covered.

However, I did shoot this — Stokes Castle by Starlight. It is located less than a mile from the Cozy Mountain Motel, so I figured Id start my star adventures there. I was a little disappointed when I drove up to find it basking in light, but I thought I’d try to make it work.

Stokes Castle was built in 1896/97 by Anson Phelps Stokes, a mine developer, railroad magnate, and banker. It served as his family’s summer home for a short time. When you stand here and look out over the Reese River Valley, you can understand why he built it.

I have a couple of other shots of the castle and Austin at night, so stay tuned.

For you photography geeks … This shot is a single exposure at 1600ISO, 20mm lens at f2.8. Minimal post processing was done in Lightroom 4.

Ghost Ranch

2012-05-09T05:00:14-07:00

On my second full day exploring central Nevada out of Austin I set out for the ghost towns of Ione and Berlin. Like Belmont, there are people living in Ione, but very few. Berlin, on the other hand, is a true ghost town. It is now maintained as a State Park.

On my way to Ione I got sidetracked. As I was driving down a long dirt road I passed several working ranches and even had to slow down to allow cattle to cross. Then I came upon the Hess Ranch … more like a ghost ranch. The original ranch house looked to be wide open. The stables and other buildings were in various states of decay. There was plenty of evidence that cattle were recently roaming the property (had to watch my step). But there was no sign of human life on the property. As a fan of urbex photography, it was a great find. A fantastic find. I had to explore it.

I spent about two hours shooting the ranch. Today’s shot is a sample — a long view of the Hess Ranch.

After I had my fill of the ranch, I moved on to Ione where I did a quick photo walk sown main street. Then I moved on to Berlin. At least I tried to. At some point I missed a turn or missed a sign. Probably both. It was getting late and I didn’t think I was in the position to keep exploring the dusty dirt roads. Especially since the nearest town was Ione and the nearest gas station was a good 30 miles away. I turned around and managed to re-trace my tracks to Ione.

It wasn’t the end of the day. When I got back to Ione, I stopped again and explored the town a little further. That extra stop gave me some of my favorite shots from the trip.

When I got back to my hotel in Austin Cindy (the owner), asked me how my shoot went. I told her it was great, but that I was unable to find Berlin. She told me that she and her husband got lost trying to find it as well — and her husband had been there before.

Maybe she was trying to make me feel better.

Belmont, NV, USA

2012-05-08T05:00:24-07:00

I spent my first night in Austin, Nevada getting re-acquainted with the town. It was pretty much exactly as I remembered it. The International Hotel was still there. It has changed hands since 2004, but is still an iconic building in town so I didn’t really think it would be going anywhere. Over the next few days, would become very familiar with the food in the restaurant. Great burgers, pizza and a VERY filling breakfast!

I had already checked into the Cozy Mountain Motel where I met Cindy, the owner. When she found out why I was in the Austin area she graciously offered some expert advice and tips.

Cindy not only gave me new suggestions on what to shoot, but validated things I already had in mind. Today’s image one such example.

This shot is from Belmont, established in 1865 following a silver strike. Technically a ghost town, Belmont has a handful of residents (I met a very friendly dog, whose unseen owner called him back) and a couple of saloons (both closed when I was there). There is no electricity or telephone service in the town.

The town is something of an outdoor museum, proudly flying the flag in the center of town asking travelers to stop and check it out. The remnants of the town range from the Courthouse (under renovation) to decaying homes to crumbling walls of once vibrant businesses (as seen here). There are markers in front of most buildings telling modern day visitors what purposes the buildings once served.

Welcome to Austin

2012-05-07T05:00:53-07:00

My first visit to Austin, Nevada was 8 years ago, almost to the day. It was our destination on the third day of the TREK Relay. After the 10 of us ran almost 200 miles collectively, Austin provided us with a hot meal, a warm bed and cold beer (not necessarily in that order).

Of the 25 or so towns we stopped at between San Francisco and Boston on the trip, Austin was — by far — the most hospitable. The (then) owners of the International Hotel made us an unforgettable pasta dinner on arrival and opened early the next morning to fuel us up for that day’s run.

It wasn’t just the town’s charm and hospitality that made me want to go back to Nevada. Running over Route 50 helped me appreciate the desert landscape in a way that simply driving across from point A to point B could never have. Like the other runners on the team, I ran about 20 miles that day — All of it through the desert on Route 50. When we weren’t running, we were driving to the exchange point and waiting for a runner.

Waiting and taking in the audible silence and breathtaking scenery.

The Loneliest Road in America

2012-05-04T05:00:05-07:00

I have more images from Reno but for the next few posts I’m going to give an overview of my Nevada trip. Just a sampling of the various places I visited. Then I’ll get into some detail about each place as we get deeper into the images. Let me know if you get bored.

On with the trip …

I left Reno after one night of shooting (not gambling) and headed to Fallon, Nevada where I would pick up Route 50 and drive another 100+ miles to Austin, my home base for the next few days.

I was, essentially, re-tracing my steps along Route 50 from 8 years ago when I ran the San Francisco to Boston TREK USA Relay. That day of the relay we ran almost 200 miles from Lake Tahoe to about 30 miles west of Austin. The 10 runners on the team ran about 20 miles each that day. The miles I ran that day were all on Route 50 between Fallon and Austin. It was those miles and the one night we stayed in Austin that made me want to go back. It was my first exposure to the stark beauty of the desert. It stayed with me and made me want to go back and photograph the area. It took 8 years to get back, but it was well worth the wait.

I stretched the hour and a half drive on Route 50 to about three and a half hours. Maybe more. I stopped several times to try to capture the beautiful desolation of this stretch of road.