This week, I just got back from a whirlwind trip for the show opening in Shanghai, China, and am still working on processing the imagery from the nearly three week trip.  The next post will have some images from China, but in the mean time, I’d like to share some images shot in rural Nevada as I left the Mono Lake Night Photography Festival a few weeks ago.

As I drove out of Lee Vining and Mono Lake, I headed east to Hawthorne, NV, about a 50 mile drive.  Although this is a blog for twilight and night photography, I wanted to share a pleasing image shot on highway 167 a few miles out of Hawthorne that made it worthwhile bringing out the 4×5 camera.   The high desert was in full bloom and stretched for miles!  It is so rare to stumble on the desert in bloom, as it only lasts a couple of days.  It is always a sight to behold and appreciate.  It is hard to tell here, but there are several types of flowers blooming and they stretch in patches to the distant mountains.

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The remote town of Hawthorne has about 3000 hearty souls and is is a quirky one, as the main reason for its existence is the naval ordinance depot–at least 200 rugged miles from the nearest navy.  Of course they have a casino and numerous motels.  One of the highlights of town was the Hawthorne Naval Ordinance Museum where I photographed the many bizarre details.  It was free and filled with all sorts of bombs and torpedoes.  Strange, indeed.

I headed south on highway 95, one of the major highways in Nevada and stumbled on an abandoned factory between the towns of Kincaid and Luning.  It was about 100 feet from the highway and wide open.  It was now the home to a few pigeons, trying to stay cool in the 100 degree heat.  I wandered through the buildings with a flashlight and was surprised on how intact it was.  Since I live in a major city (L.A.), I am used to seeing places like this, but they are always locked and boarded up, and they get covered with graffiti very quickly.  This place had no graffiti whatsoever and the only vandalism I saw was a couple of broken windows.  What a nice change!  It must have been closed for several years, by the ‘patina’ on everything.  Since it was dark inside, and required a tripod and long exposures, I feel that this qualifies as “low-light shooting”.  Again, after scouting, I felt it deserved the 4×5 camera.

There was a brown stain on the whole interior of the building.  It must have been a processing facility for some sort of mineral.  I did see a stack of bags in one room, but the labels were too badly faded.  The cyan color is from daylight spilling in on these long exposures.

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I could not figure out what these slats were for, but they do give a nice texture.  I like the mix of cool and warm tones.  There were several dead birds on the floor, dessicated in the desert heat.

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In the lower floor there was this workbench and rolls of cardboard packing material covered with the desert dust.  Finding the right position for the camera/tripod was the challenge here, as this is a very confined space.  It was quite dark in here as this is a two minute exposure.

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I’ve included this exterior daytime shot to show how unmolested the buildings are.  This is one of three structures and I waited until I after I did the interior shots for the sun to move onto the side of the building with the shadows from the pipes.

I don’t know if this place is a victim of the economy or part of the boom/bust cycle that is Nevada.  Las Vegas makes the news with their hard times, but I feel the small communities are hit worse with utter economic devastation.  One night on this trip I stayed with an old buddy who lives in Reno and he told me of the major problems with that town.  In the rural areas I saw several towns that were totally shut down–the store, the eateries, the motels and gas stations were all boarded up.  These are the modern day Bodie-like ghost towns.  I wish I could have spent more time in this part of the country, but responsibilities were awaiting back home.