My first photo "essay": Keeler, CA

Mjollnir

I've only been taking pics for about 4 months, and with a Pansonic Lumix that seems to have a ghost in its machine, so these aren't the sharpest shots in the world, and there are at times exposure issues. I'm just trying to create a feeling for the town and the environs around it. We were there around high noon, so I couldn't do much about the light.

I travel most weekends up to the Owens Valley in eastern CA (I live in L.A.). Keeler is about the most ramshackle, funky, "should I even go in there?" town in the entire area. And, given that it's California high desert/Inyo Mountains, that's saying something.

There's actually a post office there, so it must be official, plenty of artists, but some of the more 'unique' places in town had pit bulls chasing our car, so many of these were taken from our front seats.

How far removed is Keeler? Really, really far.





Competing for the nicest building in town



Same building, east side by a garage door.



Note the spray-painted number. This is actually an address.



Apparently, Nirvana is located in Keeler.



Pit bulls roaming free, "guarding" this gem. And appropriately all black, too!



Same place, across the street



Typical Keelerian front yardscape..



Police boat for a front yard in a town on a lake decades dry? Why not.



The abandoned/derelict Catholic church. All the windows were covered in ancient bed sheets.



The former main employer in town

Neasha

Good work

Thecageyone

Weird, could have sworn I posted a reply ... must've got swallowed up by teh internetz ..

Anyway, what I thought I said was - Looks like you had very good light, nice bright day. And they're nice crisp images. Looks like the kind of waste-town you see in a lot of horrors I'd love to visit a town like that, just the once mind.

Mjollnir

Thecageyone wrote: »

Weird, could have sworn I posted a reply ... must've got swallowed up by teh internetz ..

Anyway, what I thought I said was - Looks like you had very good light, nice bright day. And they're nice crisp images. Looks like the kind of waste-town you see in a lot of horrors I'd love to visit a town like that, just the once mind.

Thanks!

My g/f, who's a semi-pro, reminds me constantly that dawn and dusk are the best times for any photos, which may or may not be true, so I'm a bit gunshy about shooting in broad daylight, but I rather like the results. She's a landscape photographer who's primarily in the high Sierras, with all those crags and granite faces, so perhaps that's why.

If you want the absolute ultimate in CA fallout-chic deathscapes, Google 'Trona, CA'. I've never seen anything like it in the world, and I've been everwhere.

Edit: please note that neither of the two following photos are mine.

hbr

Great skies, shame about the town. Reminds me of Chernobyl:
http://www.kiddofspeed.com/chernobyl-revisited/

Thecageyone

That sign outside that town is scary! Enough to send anyone running in the opposite direction!

I love a good bright sunny, blue-sky day for shooting. Sure, Dusk and dawn are great for landscapes, sunrises, fast water shots etc ... but for most other things, good crisp sunny day can be great. You can use nice fast shutter speeds along with narrow apertures and still get great lighting

For the purpose of your shoot it was perfect weather. They came out very well. Is it a Lumix dslr/4/3rds cam or point and shoot? Because there's nowt wrong with the image quality.

hbr

Thecageyone wrote: »

Is it a Lumix dslr/4/3rds cam or point and shoot? Because there's nowt wrong with the image quality.

Exif says:
Camera Brand: Panasonic
Camera Model: DMC-FS7

Thecageyone

very nice shots for a P&S in that case [I was too lazy to check the data tbh, cheers ]

No wonder it scores 9/10 on trusted reviews.

My fuji old 'super zoom' would never get them that clear, I'd have to process the bejaysis outta them.

Fenster

You are a braver man than me: Barstow and Victorsville used to scare the crap out of me, even without venturing up in the direction of places like Bishop or Keeler.

Mjollnir

Fenster wrote: »

You are a braver man than me: Barstow and Victorsville used to scare the crap out of me, even without venturing up in the direction of places like Bishop or Keeler.

Don't misunderstand the Owens Valley!

I'd like sell limbs or other peoples' children to live in Bishop, Big Pine, Lone Pine, etc....

From Lone Pine (or perhaps even Olancha) northwards, it's pure outdoorsman heaven, and very, very light on the Deliverance, mullet-wearing, cousin-humpers. High percentage of degreed people who move there, etc...

Barstow and Victorville, however, are in the SE desert part of the state the just gets effing more nutty the further out one goes......

Thecageyone

PLace sounds better the more you all talk!! I want to visit NOW!!

Mjollnir

Thecageyone wrote: »

That sign outside that town is scary! Enough to send anyone running in the opposite direction!

I love a good bright sunny, blue-sky day for shooting. Sure, Dusk and dawn are great for landscapes, sunrises, fast water shots etc ... but for most other things, good crisp sunny day can be great. You can use nice fast shutter speeds along with narrow apertures and still get great lighting

For the purpose of your shoot it was perfect weather. They came out very well. Is it a Lumix dslr/4/3rds cam or point and shoot? Because there's nowt wrong with the image quality.

Thanks.

I think for me, as a novice (and esp. a novice with a girlfriend with pro equipment, the results of which I see all the time) I have this desire to have the pics come out looking exactly as sharp as my eyes see things. Her stuff seems to.

That's not going to happen with a point and shoot, esp at 10MP on a big computer monitor.

I'm still getting used to these limitations.

Thecageyone

Sure, you're not going to get as good as a higher end dslr straight off, but learn to post-process and you'll discover a whole other angle on your images. I see potential for some great mono's in someof your images for starters. It's not always about the camera ...

Mjollnir

Thecageyone wrote: »

PLace sounds better the more you all talk!! I want to visit NOW!!

I'll be sure to post more. John Muir didn't call it the 'Range of Light' for nothing.

It was the place where Galen Rowell chose to make his home, and there are literally hundreds of pro photographers who either live or work there, or both.

Here's a friend of my g/f. He's just one of many.

http://www.gdanmitchell.com/category/photographs-owens-valley

Thecageyone

Good stuff. I only wish I lived near something as photogenic. Nothing anywhere near me that takes my interest, I'm stuck in ... photographers nightmare tbh.

breadbin

ha ha yeah the hills have eyes come to mind:) but looks good all the same

alexlyons

That town is incredible! I take it there are a few people there? did you see any of them and any idea if they were in any way friendly?!

On a slightly different note, I'm heading to san francisco in june for 6 days, and have a car for the final 2. Is there anywhere remotely similar to this that you know of, that isn't a million years from san fran?

ozymandius

Love 'em. Especially 3, 4, 5 & 6. Some place

Fenster

Mjollnir wrote: »

Don't misunderstand the Owens Valley!

I'd like sell limbs or other peoples' children to live in Bishop, Big Pine, Lone Pine, etc....

From Lone Pine (or perhaps even Olancha) northwards, it's pure outdoorsman heaven, and very, very light on the Deliverance, mullet-wearing, cousin-humpers. High percentage of degreed people who move there, etc...

Barstow and Victorville, however, are in the SE desert part of the state the just gets effing more nutty the further out one goes......

Eh, I don't know. We looked at living in Pahrump, and while I really enjoyed the edge-of-the-desert feel, a lot of the locals are frightening.

Mjollnir

Fenster wrote: »

Eh, I don't know. We looked at living in Pahrump, and while I really enjoyed the edge-of-the-desert feel, a lot of the locals are frightening.

Trust me, the Owens Valley and (ahem) Pahrump, NV are two different planets. That, and the Owens area has the chi-chi money of Mammoth Mountain, which tends alienate the Bubbas and Cletuses.

Mjollnir

alexlyons wrote: »

That town is incredible! I take it there are a few people there? did you see any of them and any idea if they were in any way friendly?!

There are still people there (there's even a US Post Office), who I assume are retired or work in nearby Olancha, Lone Pine, Independence, etc.... I've been told by folks that they're quite friendly, many are artists, but the few that I did see were somewhat less-than-approachable and distant, unfortunately like in a bad horror movie. Like staring at us from a doorway, silently, then for no apparent reason, quite suddenly going inside and slamming the door.

On a slightly different note, I'm heading to san francisco in june for 6 days, and have a car for the final 2. Is there anywhere remotely similar to this that you know of, that isn't a million years from san fran?

Let me think on it. There are some really cool sort of post-industrial/quasi wastelands sort of places around the Bay Area. There's an old railroad ghost town called (no kidding) Drawbridge, CA that would make for cool shots, waaaaay down in the Alviso slough. And the Santa Cruz Mountains has some real banjo-playin', cousin-humpin' backwoodsy parts.

Most places like Keeler are considered ghost towns, even w/people still living there, so check out:

http://www.highdesertdrifter.com/index.html
http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/ca.html (watch out for the embedded, Hillbilly banjo sound file) They have a lot around the Bay Area

alexlyons

Mjollnir wrote: »

There are still people there (there's even a US Post Office), who I assume are retired or work in nearby Olancha, Lone Pine, Independence, etc.... I've been told by folks that they're quite friendly, many are artists, but the few that I did see were somewhat less-than-approachable and distant, unfortunately like in a bad horror movie. Like staring at us from a doorway, silently, then for no apparent reason, quite suddenly going inside and slamming the door.

Let me think on it. There are some really cool sort of post-industrial/quasi wastelands sort of places around the Bay Area. There's an old railroad ghost town called (no kidding) Drawbridge, CA that would make for cool shots, waaaaay down in the Alviso slough. And the Santa Cruz Mountains has some real banjo-playin', cousin-humpin' backwoodsy parts.

Most places like Keeler are considered ghost towns, even w/people still living there, so check out:

http://www.highdesertdrifter.com/index.html
http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/ca.html (watch out for the embedded, Hillbilly banjo sound file) They have a lot around the Bay Area

Brilliant! Thanks a million, i'll have a look at those links in a few minutes Let me know if you think of anything else. Cheers

Fenster

Eh, it's a straight run down route 190 from one to the other.

squareballoon

God, I LOVE this one. I could look at it all day.

Mjollnir

squareballoon wrote: »

God, I LOVE this one. I could look at it all day.

Thanks!

I thought my lucky stars had crossed for sure when I got old, broken TVs AND a derelict washing machine on the porch, not put there for effect, at the same time.

It combines two long-established, American hillbilly cliches at once.

The only thing more one could wish for would be a crappy old sofa, w/one end held up by a stack of moldy old phone books. Or maybe huge guy in bib overalls w/one of the fasteners down, holding a shotgun ;-)