The ruins on the outskirts of Bodie Ghost Town – Bodie State Historic Park, California

Once where gold was taken, now, Bodie is a forsaken place.

Standing on this outskirts part of town gives a good feel for what the old American West once looked like … wagon carts, wooden houses, yellow grasses on rolling hills, big blue sky … now the American West is full of SUVs, sky rises, massive freeway interchanges and smog filled valleys.

After the last few colorful images, I thought I’d post a black and white since I haven’t done one for a while. I’m a little hesitant to post this image because I feel that the clouds are too distracting. They compete with the foreground interests. Its ironic since I’m always on the lookout for interesting cloud formations to photograph. This image is a blend of two exposures, one for the sky and one for the foreground. The EXIF info shown on the left is from the foreground exposure. The sky was shot at 1/15s (2 stops apart).

PS: I just got back in town after a few days being away, so I’m a little behind. We left town just before the Tea fire broke out. For those asking, thanks for checking to make sure that we’re okay. We’re not directly affected by the fire.

Rain clouds over Bodie State Historic Park

Bodie was the last stop from our recent trip to the Eastern Sierra. This image shows another angle of the rain clouds over Bodie from my last post. There are a few other photos from this trip that I might post at some point in the future, but I’ll take a break from these landscapes and return to the beach shortly.

Storm Clouds Approaching Bodie State Historic Park

Bodie

Perhaps this is one of my favorite shots from my trip. After we left Lundy Canyon, my plan was to return to Mono Lake for sunset, but when I saw the sky, I changed my mind and drove to Bodie instead. When we arrived, it started to rain, and the light was too flat for my liking. I began to bracket 5 exposures for each shot, thinking I’ll attempt to produce HDR images later. After a while, the light rain stopped, and soft golden horizontal light broke through the storm clouds. I didn’t have to bracket any more. This image came from a single raw file shot without any filter. Under dramatic sky and light, this place is a photographers playground. I ran around shooting everything I found interesting before the light disappeared behind the clouds again. I wanted to stay until sunset, but Mrs Photofool wasn’t too happy about my idea of spending a rainy evening in a ghost town. Although I took a few good shots. I wished that we had stayed a little longer.

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