Best Photographs of the Salton Sea
There it is. Right in the middle of the desert. You would never expect it, but it’s an ocean. You might think you are at some coastal resort but the nearest beach is actually over 150 miles away. Is it a mirage? No. It’s real and it’s called the Salton Sea.
In 1905, the Colorado River flooded into a basin in the center of California. The basin was so large (about 525 square miles) and there was so much water that the place was named the Salton Sea. It was created on purpose actually and engineers diverted water from the Colorado River into the basin so that it could be used as a source of fresh water for agriculture. That was a mistake. Things got out of hand there however and more water and silt poured into the basin than they could handle. They tried to plug it up but water kept pouring in every day. They tried to build a dam but the water rushed over creating an 80 foot high waterfall.
The Salton Sea is not an ocean though it might look like it. It is a lake. It is a very big and salty lake – the largest in California actually. The lake is drying up, and as it does it’s salinity is increasing by about 1% every year. It’s getting smaller and saltier every year. And as it does, it gets increasingly more strange and out of place.
In the 1950’s the Salton started to gain some popularity as a Resort area. The weather was nice, the water was crystal blue clear and it looked straight out of a magazine. But the resort never caught on and the place went into decay. The beaches are still there and some palm trees but mostly it’s just a collection of run down houses and trailer parks. They call this the meth capital of the world. It’s not hard to imagine why when you see the old abandoned houses and trailers.
One of the other reasons that this place didn’t quite catch on as a resort (besides the fact that it is spooky as hell), is the fact that every year hundreds of thousands of dead fish wash on the shores. The dead fish thing is not that appealing to tourist but it is very appealing to birds. There are 400 species of birds that live on the Salton Sea and they are everywhere picking at dead fish. It’s a dead fish Sir George’s Smorgesbord at this place.
The only thing the Salton Sea seems to attract today are photographers, dirt bikers and people that like Motor Homes or like to live in Trailer parks. You may have seen the movie in the 80’s called “Bombay Beach” which was a pretty good interpretation of the kookiness of this place. Trailer parks seem to sprout randomly around the sea.
For all the weirdness of the Salton Sea however it is actually a place of beauty. We took the helicopter over the sea and it was amazing. The water and the sky seemed to become one. It was actually quite dangerous to fly because you lose perception of how high in the sky you are. It was an amazing view.
It’s actually incredible when you start looking at the Salton Sea from above how much it is shrinking. You can literally see old Marina’s that are dried out and hundreds of yards from the beach. It’s no problem for the trailer homes, they just pick-em up and move them down the beach as the water levels drop.
So why did we go to the Salton Sea? For photographs of course. For all the bad things about the Salton Sea, one thing is for sure, and that is it is a great day trip from San Diego with great locations for pictures. The best time of day here is Sunrise when the sun comes up over the east shore and sunset when the sun is setting over the west shore. The best places to photograph there are Bombay Beach, Niland, Salton City and the airport. I really enjoyed taking photographs there.
By air and by land
Tu and I went out for an adventure to the Salton Sea. Bill and his friend Chris met up with us at the Salton Sea airport which is pretty much just an abandoned patch of land. We got lots of awesome pictures from the air as well as the ground. Keep a look out for the great pictures coming up!
Sunset through a storm drain
Kind of scary little storm drain that looks like it goes under the city of La Jolla. It was covered with graffiti inside and I bet there were homeless people living in there.
Sometimes it’s cool to take a sunset shot from a different vantage point.
R-44 Flight
Here are some snippets of video taken during our epic trip down the coast in the R44. It was a beautiful flight down at sunset. It got pretty choppy because the wind was rushing and hitting the camera at about 150mph so it can be hard to control the camera.
365 Day Project
It’s called a 365 day project because you take one photo each day. It helps you practice photography but more importantly, you can look back at the end of the year and remember what you were doing everyday.
I collected most of my photos from last years 365 day project. The year flew by but quite a bit happened actually now that I look back on it.
The Point
This is Point Loma. It is the entrance to San Diego Harbor. The lighthouse shines to keep boats from hitting it when they come into the port during fog or the night. This photo was taken during the King Tides which are the lowest tides of the year.
So much sea rock is exposed at this time. You will rarely see it like this.
Unique Photography of Downtown Los Angeles
I’ve always wanted to do it, I just never had the chance. My brother is a pilot on a Robinson 44 Helicopter and we had always talked of heading up from San Diego to Los Angeles to take some birds eye view shots of one of the coolest cities in the world – Los Angeles.
We waited for a clear day and that day just happened to fall on a very cold day. It was 48 degrees in San Diego and to take the best photos from a helicopter you have to remove the doors. The wind would whip in threw the aircraft so it promised to close to bone chilling for the two hour journey.
We removed the doors of the chopper. I put on 5 jackets and chose my weapon of choice. My Nikon D4 and my super wide angle lens the Nikkor 14-24MM. Shooting a wide angle lens out of the small door opening of a helicopter can be tricky because it would mean potentially capturing the blades from overhead in the shot and often the rails underneath. Some cropping and careful composition would be needed.
It took about 1 hour to head up the coast from San Diego to Los Angeles and when we got there it was well worth the trip. The city looked awesome and we got some great bird eye views of the city. Using such a wide angle let me get some super wide shots of the city and capture what was happening around the city as well. The wide angle however makes us appear deceptively far from the city when in fact we were only about 200 feet above the helo-pad of the Bank of America building. When Bill would tilt the helicopter I was looking straight down the city only strapped in with a small seat belt. It was exhilarating and scary all at once. Even Bill said afterwards that he was getting nervous being so close to those huge buildings.
You can check out all of the images at this link. http://www.frankiefoto.com/Travel/Los-Angeles/27549755_zGrdsq
This is the shot of the city from the east looking towards the coast.
Los Angeles on Friday, you can see the traffic building.
Los Angeles is actually a pretty small downtown compared to other major cities.
Miniature Los Angeles. Looks like a city of Legos.
City Hall against the Los Angeles Skykline
Cool downtown perspective.
Some Black and Whites.
Birds Eye views of San Diego
Off came the doors of the helicopter again and Bill and I went up for sunset shots. It was gorgeous but freezing. I wore 5 jackets. I would have worn more if I had them.
Bill and I are discovering how to take pictures from the Helicopter which can be quite tricky and difficult. You have to keep in contact with air traffic control everywhere you go in San Diego because large commercial aircraft are always coming in and out of the city. Then you have to keep your eyes out for other aircraft, helicopters and small planes. It’s busy work but fun.
Here are some of the better shots that we took and a beautiful sunset. Another gorgeous winter day in Diego.
