Bodie Ghost Town, CA

Bodie Ghost Town is Not as Cool as I Thought

(But still cool)

I've been itching to go to Bodie since we moved to Carson City. I drive be the road that leads there a few times a year, and it is so tempting. Just 12 miles down that road is a awesome ghost town, how long can it take to get there? How about forever! Road is a very optimistic term. I was in a Suburban and I took about 45 minutes on that road. My greatest joy of the day was dusting the Prius's that were crawling along at 0.5 miles per hour trying to manage with 4 inches of clearance. 

I should explain that my main reason for not enjoying the park more is that it was filled with......People. It's hard to get into the mood of a ghost town when there is a thousand other people also trying to get into the groove. The decision to go at the last minute on a Saturday during the middle of July... not well thought out. Every time I was looking to take a photo, a tourist would photobomb me.  I will go back after the passes from the valley and coast are closed. Then hopefully I will only here the wind and the grass and the birds. 

I believe the Mamiya RB67 (or similar) is a great camera to take on a trip like this. So many of the shots I want to take here are all about contrast and detail, and those huge coated lenses produce superb results in these conditions. Plus I like the slow methodical pace that the studio style cameras tend to favor. At roughly $2 a shutter press for B&W and $4 for color, methodical is good. I shot one roll of FP4 and one roll of HP5 and one roll of Ektar. That resulted in a total of 20 monochrome images and 9 color (the Ektar was in a 6x8 back, which only gives 9 exposures on 120). I needlessly bracketed a few of the shots, so I actually took a total of 13 total B&W images. Of those, I am really happy with the composition of at least ten of them. Of those 10, all 10 have good exposure, but I lost one more to developing errors. That is a good ratio in my book and I really believe that the camera has something to do with it. Not in image quality, but in photographer control. A very well read blogger makes a big deal about how "the camera doesn't matter". For me personally, that statement does not apply; but it has nothing to do about image quality. I can easily get technically perfect 18MP files from my Canon digital SLR and $100 kit lens. I could then run those files through a Lightroom film simulation and I don't know if I could tell the difference. Then thing is, if I was using the digital set up, I don't know that I would have "seen" the pictures below.

All photos below were taken with a Mamiya RB67 ProSD and Mamiya Sekor 90mm lens

B&W Photos are Ilford HP5 and Color Photos are Kodak Ektar 100

I scan my photos as RGB 48 bit files, which gives them a warm hue that I like, but it makes the images huge and difficult for my computer to work with. 

As a comparison, I converted this file to a 16 bit greyscale after scanning. Notice the difference in tones, or lack thereof. 

To me, this is the most interesting building in Bodie, and one rarely seen in galleries. Everyone concentrates on the old wooden structures. I struggled with getting a composition I liked with my set-up. I really would have like to use the 140mm lens (which I don't own), so I had to crop the negative quite a bit. I envision a better photo, maybe I'll get a chance to retry. 

I invite you to handhold an RB67 in a room measuring EV 6-7 with 100 speed film. It will give your forearms something to think about for a while. 

If I ever abandon my home, I doubt I just randomly through junk onto the lawn.

A lesson learned is that one should look for interesting vignettes and details in locations that have been photographed to death. That is the one way to create unique images when the internet is flooded with now familiar scenes.

This is the kind of photo I hoped to make all day long, but the weather just wasn't cooperating. Soon after arriving, high flat clouds closed in turning the light dull and the sky featureless.