Salton Sea

Today a fellow photographer and I packed up the car and headed out to the Salton Sea so I could scout locations for an upcoming shoot. The Salton Sea is actually an inland saltwater lake that was formed (in its most recent incarnation) in 1905 when the Colorado River breached its banks and filled the Imperial basin, for a period of almost two years. After awhile it became the playground of the rich, famous, and also just many families trying to escape from L.A. to spend time fishing, boating, or just enjoying the salty brine of the sea.



Unfortunately the good times didn't last for the sea or the people who inhabit the area surrounding it. Due to the fact it has no real water flow with an inlet and outlet, the salinity level in the sea started to rise because of evaporation, causing most fish species to die off. Also with the seas close proximity to the all of the farming in Imperial county pesticides, fertilizer and other chemicals started polluting the water. To make matters worse the New river dumps directly in to the sea, the New river being one of the most polluted rivers in the U.S.A.





All of these factors make this one of the most striking landscapes to photograph in. As soon as you reach the shoreline your hit with the fact that the shore isn't covered in sand its covered in fish scales and bones, and I don't mean just a layer of them above the sand, I mean as far as you can dig you'll be digging through fish bones. The other amazing thing about the area is the amount of abandoned buildings, cars, trucks, and even towns. It really has an otherworldly sense to it. I didn't really get a good amount of time to make images today because most of my time was spent driving looking for locations but here are a few images I made. To view more go to: http://www.photoshelter.com/c/andrewfoulk/gallery/Salton-Sea-Nov09/G0000yn_YwnYN8dI/

Clean-up

Yesterday I spent my morning hiking through overgrown Manzanita bushes, on paths that were never intended to be walked on by humans. The area I was in is just a stones throw away from Temecula. In fact you can even see Old Town Temecula from one of the spots I was at. This area however is completely remote in the middle of De Luz, no real houses near-by, and yet somehow it was littered with trash. That brings me to the reason I was there. To cover a group of volunteers do an annual trash removal. The area I was at was just a small portion of the area involved in the clean-up. It encompassed the entire 26.2-mile Rancho Santa Margarita watershed, and yet in this huge expanse of wild area dotted with orchards and ranches, the organizers expected to collect over 10 tons of trash.



I am always amazed at how inconsiderate people can be, and when I got to the site I wasn't let down. I found the volunteers hiking through a dried up waterfall pulling out broken remnants of old televisions, pulling beer bottle after beer bottle from the soil, and placing it all on to a abandoned couch. It turns out the road at the top of the hill is a favorite hang-out for teens to get drunk at, and after a few what could be more fun than a good old game of "Let throw stuff off the edge of this cliff and see what happens". Well the good news is the volunteers pulled out a good portion of what was there, and they will be back again next year to do the same. Hopefully with less work to do.

The pretty people

Yesterday afternoon and evening was spent in downtown San Diego photographing a few non-models I found on-line. The purpose of the shoot was to do a mock commercial shoot for my portfolio. There is not too much to say about the shoot other than all three of the non-models were great to work with and we had a lot of fun running around the Gaslamp making these pictures. I also had the pleasure of having Paul Gallaher come down and help with some of the lighting.

I smell something fishy

This morning I had an assignment to photograph a local fish die off at Lake Elsinore, I was warned before arriving at the lake that it smelled awful, but I didn't think anything of it. In fact I had forgotten to even think about the smell, right up until I opened my car door, and was overcome with this nostril burning, eye watering, vomit inducing smell. That really took a few minutes to adapt to.

After coming to terms with the fact that I was going to be surrounded with stench for the time being, I got to work and started trying to visualize how I wanted to photograph this. And unfortunately for me and all the people I dealt with later today, it involved me kneeling on and around dead smelly fish. To get a low angle of the corpse's and to try and get someone fishing in the background.

After waiting around for fisher-men to fill my background at the right time. I decided to leave. My ride to my next assignment, was just awful, the entire car stunk like dead fish, I even tried dousing myself and the car with cologne to no avail. All I have to say is I am sorry if I smelled like a dead fish today when I was near you, but I got to make these pictures for the stink of it!

Aflac

Here are a few images from last nights Aflac All American high school baseball classic, held at Petco Park in San Diego

Comic Con War Journal, Day Three

Comic Con 09-2 - Images by Andrew Foulk


Another day with lines, and disappointment as far as the way things are run at Comic Con, The press is really treated like a bunch of parasites unless you have the "golden ticket" from the movie studios. I think one of the main problems with it is the sheer amount of press credentials handed out, I don't have an exact number but I believe it is near 1,800. And the biggest problem with that is a good portion of those passes are going to Bloggers ( I get the irony of complaining about bloggers in my Blog) who are not real journalist just fans with a lot of time on their hands and a computer. The people in charge of Comic Con really need to only give press credentials to people who are working press.

Aside from all the heartache with the way things are run, I tried to make today be about anything but what was happening inside the convention center, I spent some time outside at the back of the center. With a group of renaissance battle re-enactors, who were amazingly funny and great to hang out with. Then I walked around the " Gaslamp Quarter" for awhile trying to catch a super hero drinking a beer, or eating a burger, but really didn't have much luck with it. I did however get some images that showed the carnival like atmosphere of the convention.

Comic Con War Journal, Day two

Comic Con 09-1 - Images by Andrew Foulk

Can anyone say LINES? Today was spent in and around lines, and one of the biggest problems with Comic Con is, almost every single person there has spent their entire existence in lines. Lines for the next big movie, the next big video game, or the brand new limited edition "Darth Vader" bust with matte black paint on it. The bottom 'line' is your up against the pro's! when you think its too hot, they'll drink a cup of coffee, when you start to think you might need to go to the bathroom, they'll be drinking a "Big Gulp", when your legs are about to give out, they'll be doing jumping jacks. They are good and they are driven, if there is someone/thing they want to see they would cross a desert of glass, barefoot in the middle 120 degree temperatures.

Now as a member of the working press I normally don't have to stand in said lines, because I am just there to photograph the event and I am not going to even be taking a seat. Comic con is different though, with the influence of Hollywood, almost all of the panels are filled with celebs of one kind or another. So in order to gain access to the panels, other then standing in line, you have to have a special studio issued pass. So it makes getting the photos of the celebrity's you need very difficult.

Today I did manage to sneak my way into the "Robot Chicken" panel with Seth Green, and it was really great I was right up in front of the cast and was able to get some good shots of Seth. Plus it was really funny! Another way to get around the lines is to just by photographing the lines, and I spent some time today doing just that.

With one and a half days down and three more to go, all I can say is I love covering Comic Con, but thank God its only once a year.