abandoned

Entering My Monochrome Period: Bodie Machinery

/ Evan Robinson / Leave a comment

I had a wonderful experience during a weeklong workshop and symposium (the Moab Photography Symposium) in early May. Among the realizations was remembering how much I loved working in Black & White as a kid (much easier to process and print in black & white when you are using film). In conjunction with starting to print my own work, I am re-exploring monochromicity. The next few days will bring samples.

Abandoned Machine, Bodie, CA

Bodie is a California State Historic Park in the Eastern Sierra, south of Bridgeport and north of Lee Vining. The ghost town has been a state park since 1962 and a national historic landmark since 1961.

A short stop in Bodie in 2014 began my adult, digital, photography as art period. I had about 45 minutes in the middle of the day and shot deliberately for black and white, using the harsh light in an attempt to evoke stark emptiness. Out of less than 50 exposures (most of them bracketed sets of three to capture the total dynamic range available), I got three or four of my better images. It’s taken nearly three years since then to solidify my sense of my photography as art, but the Terrific Trio workshop before the Moab Photography Symposium (plus one other presenter during the Symposium itself) have managed to do that.

Jesus House Revisited

/ CJ Newlife / 8 Comments

Some of you may have seen my door shot titled “I Found Jesus”  and/or the shot of the other side of this wonderful old house which I posted as “Doggie Door” shortly after coming aboard here.  I went back the other day to  shoot it again, planning to use my tripod this time, but in a typical blonde moment forgot to put the tripod in the car. Oh well.  I was just happy to find the door still untouched and the house still standing.  The tree by the doggie door has gotten huge now but not much else has changed.