Ghost Town: Scranton, Utah

From time to time, I go ghost town hunting... to satisfy all of my photography, outdoors and hiking joys all at once. I'll post about my escapades, in hopes that it will help other ghost town hunters/photographers.

Last weekend, I went to Scranton, Utah which is a short-lived mining town in what I believe is in the Tintic Mountain range. From what I found, it was settled in 1908 and grew to about 100 people. It mined zinc and lead, and it pretty much dried up by 1918. So the structure in the photo is at most 100-years-old!

It's exact GPS location is on the Wikipedia page, or on the last link, that takes you to the Google Maps page.

I had read several different accounts of what was left. There were housing structures still standing in several accounts, like the old one here on ghosttowns.com. However, rest assured, those aren't there anymore. It seems a fire may have laid waste to any of the actual residential portion of the old town.

However, what remains are one structure (which seemed to be a part of the mining production), several open mines (which were covered with rebar), some old mining equipment and a lot of tailings.

While there isn't a whole lot left of this town... it's a gorgeous area. It's a steep, narrow canyon that opens up to a nice prairie where Scranton used to be. It was a nice a drive and fun hike!

The rest of my photos from Scranton are in my set on flickr. Feel free to check them out!

Raptor'd!

Just a brief post... because this is the first time I A) stumbled accidentally across wildlife (especially in the city) and B) first time I did A) and had a camera that could adequately capture it!

It's a photo of a raptor, eying it territory over the University of Utah campus.

Enjoy the photo, I hope to get more with a bigger lens (I used my 80-200 f/2.8 on this one... want to bust out the 120-400 f/4.5-5.6 this week on it!).

The Wide-Angle... Panorama!

So, above is a link to my latest panorama. It's a 210-degree, 63-shot HDR. I'll go through the process of arriving at the final product...

First... find something that's worth photographing. My friend and I are quasi-avid ghost town hunters. So, on Saturday (June 11), we decided to drive around the rural high desert in southern Tooele County, in Northwest Utah. We came across the remains above on a dirt road near an abandoned mine.

Second... Once you've scouted it out and like what you find, you should set up your gear. I use my tripod:



I use a pano head, which attaches to the above tripod and allows my camera to pivot on the nodal point of the lens. My awesome brother-in-law, Paul Jeran, made this one for me, but there are several others out there on the commercial market:



Here's what my tripod looks like with the pano head mounted on it:



Third... you need to know what the nodal point is on your lens, and set up the pano head so that it pivots at the correct point. The type of lens AND camera dictate the settings. I'm using a Nikon D300 and a Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8.

Fourth... execute! After setting up the gear, and fastening the camera to said gear, fire away. To get this particular shot I:

Set my lens to f/8
Set my camera for a 9-exposure bracket at 1 stop
Shot at 15mm
Rotated the pano head at 30 degrees per shot

Here is what the base of my pano head looks like. It's marked off in 2-degree increments:



I highly advise using a remote trigger to minimize tripod shake.

Finally... I returned home, dumped the card on to my server, exported them into PT Gui, and off I went! Voila! The above pano is ready for editing in Photoshop!

I also uploaded other, non-pano, non-HDR photos to my Rural Decay in Tooele County set...

You can see them by clicking here: Rural Decay, June, 2011

Hope you enjoy! Thanks for stopping by!

All White...

So, last fall I took a photo class on stock photography, and have since been approved to sell stock photos on istock.com.

I think the one thing I took away from the class was the importance of shooting on a white backdrop (when necessary). To have a solid, consistent white in the background is important, and can make your photo more appealing to designers (as it makes it easier to drop it out).

While I don't have the fancy studio set-up, I do have three speedlights: two Nikon SB-600's (Which are okay;) and one Nikon SB-900, which is fantastic.

With those three lights, a folding card table, a white bed sheet, and the Nikon CLS (Creative Lighting System)... I can create a miniature studio to shoot still life. Suffice to say, my 60-pound dog is too big for this rig.

After many, "not-even-close" shots. I was able to get the hang of it and captured these shots:



This is a pine cone on white, looking at it from the top down. This is a 3-light set up. I have a key light photo right, and two pointed at the backdrop to boost the white up towards the 255 range.



Again, a 3-light set up but powered so that the glass casts a "late-afternoon" type of shadow



Same as above...

And now... here was my first stab at shooting on all white... which I could call a failure. Well, it didn't turn out how I wanted it to, so it's nothing I'd use!



For the complete set of photos that I have shot on white, go here!

I plan to shoot more on white... and hope to get more on to my istock account. What I have also learned is that 8 photos in your istock portfolio DOES NOT make you a prolific photographer.

Back from the Dead... Maybe? (PART 3)

And the last of my winter trials and tribulations (of note) would have been my trip to photograph the SuperFly Open out in Eastern Utah.

I shot the event two years ago, and you can see those photos here.

However, attempts to shoot it in 2010 and 2011 failed. In 2010 it was at the top of Powder Mountain, and it was canceled because of a white-out snow storm. Last year's event was snubbed because there was no wind at the reservoir that was the event's new home.

However, one of the snowboarders took me out on the course and he and some friends practiced their moves. I shot mostly wide angle, using my Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8.

My lens selection was based on the fact that it was a blue-sky day, we were in a mountain valley... and I thought that I would risk life and limb to get up close to the stunts while still picturing the beautiful mountainous backdrop.

Here were the results:



This one is probably my favorite because it's backlit, and you can still make out the foreground and the subject.

Others of note:



and



For the whole series, click here!

Back from the Dead... Maybe? (PART DEUX)

As my last post noted... I also participated in a studio lighting extravaganza through Photwalking Utah! It was a tremendous learning experience.

I liked that it got me access to studio set-ups and models. However, it was a show up, plug in, and shoot type of gig. So, there wasn't a whole lot of opportunity to learn the behind-the-scenes set-up of a studio shoot. Be that as it may, it was a great opportunity to work with models... because if you think talking to models and getting them to personify the pose you see in your head is easy... YIKES!

Here's my all-time FAVORITE image from the Photowalking Utah studio meeting:



This image featured rotating models in a shower rig, standing in a wading pool. The water was like 40 degrees, and it was mid-February. So, it was was an unenviable task!

Others I liked:



The above photo featured constant lighting... meaning the light didn't "flash" when the camera was triggered. It's the type of lighting you see on video/movie sets.



Above is 100% natural light. Light from large picture windows was the key light... bouncing it off reflectors provided the fill light.



And lastly, above was a two-light set-up... a key light directly to photo right and a fill light directly to photo left.

Feel free to stop by my flickr page and check out the rest of my model shots. OR... Click here for the complete set...

Back from the Dead... Maybe?

Well hello to the blogosphere! I know I've been NOTICEABLY absent lately... but I'm trying to get back into the photography blogging stuff. So, I'm going to put forth an earnest effort to try and regularly blog... about my photography endeavors.

So, here we ago... let try this, yet again!

I'll do a Reader's Digest version of the last couple months:

Winter -
I guess the three biggest photo escapades were A) my first-ever trip to Tucson, Ariz., in December, A studio lighting extravaganza, and trip to the canceled "Super Fly Open."

Tucson was amazing. I've never seen so many diverse cactus in my life. My hope is to return, do more cactus photography and to shoot some ghost towns in the area. I really worked on depth of field, here. Playing with a long enough depth-of-field so that the object was distinguishable, while letting it fall off for a nice bokeh effect. Here are some cactus photos from last December:





and



The complete set is here!