I-80 : Donner Pass

Continuing on my I80 series, this is the latest portrait near Donner Pass, CA.

Often under snow at this time of the year, this field is usually part of the Donner Memorial State Park's cross country ski trails. But last week it was very warm.

Donner Lake, 1866 (photo Library of Congress)

The most notorious history about this area is the infamous winter of 1946, and the Donner Party's failed attempt at crossing the pass in late November.

 

More about Donner Lake history:

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/ca-donnerparty4.html

I-80

(the series finally has a real title)

On a cold day in mid-January, we decided to bail on skiing for the day on ice and rocks (very little snow this year in Tahoe) and focus on exploring the nearby structures. 

This corrugated steel structure is an enigmatic guardian to something we can't figure out. It has a bit of an overhang in the front, looking almost like a loading dock for loading up a truck bed with road salt. But there's no trap door, the window is boarded up and it's pretty much seemingly unremarkable. I set up a couple lights, moved a couple giant logs and did my thing by the lone pine tree and window in back.

 

 

The next day the sun came out and we rode the gondola:

Tony trespassing near Ohm Place

The day after Christmas, 2014, led to a ban on our midweek passes in Tahoe, so we drove around Sparks a bit to check out stuff.

There is a section of town with names of streets that are named after a specific type of industry. Ohm Place, Energy Way, Joule Street.. from time to time we look up Ohm and just scout around that area. Can't figure out what used to be there, other than the airport and a bunch of rather stylized tilt-up cement warehouses. Such as the one below.

 

It was a cold weekend, and aside from a silly photo on a repeating, mirrored escalator in the Peppermill, we enjoyed Christmas and didn't take too many more photos on this trip.

 

always time for self timer.. it was 27 degrees outside, by the way.

Tony at the Oddfellow's Hall, Reno

Today I woke up early, intent on making a photo at this mural in Reno. 

One can see it from Interstate 80, and it turns out that it decorates the outer wall of the Reno Oddfellows Hall. It was rather hard to find, due to it being a private parking lot to a private building.

The rock and the tree peeking over the top are all I feel like saying about the rest of the space..

 

The colors tell a bit maybe of what hellfire might do to the sky, and what a flood might do to the desert, but are really cool and make for a great mural.

Looking westward from Sugarbowl's Mount Disney, this is a bit of what you actually see up in the mountains. The only orange is in a big warning not to make ski patrol have to come find you if you go beyond the sign.

standing in under the tree..

CR250

Honda CR250

Sometimes I just have to go a few months focusing on other things in life besides photography: motorcycles, motorcycles, motorcycles.

Tony came back from 4th of Juplaya with tales of electrical storms, flooding and mud. One look at his bike and I saw some inspiration for doing a take-off of Dirt Rider's June 2013 cover. Their mud is styled better, but mine is the real deal and my lighting looks damn good. So does my model:

Needless to say, the above photo is inspired by my screensaver and the most-awesome-dirtbiking-photo-ever:

Steve McQueen, c/o Sports Illustrated cover August, 1971

Hanging out in Sparks

Tony and I went skiing last week, then decided to prowl around Sparks, NV to scout and explore potential photo locations.

I set up lights at one spot, next to an auto shop working after hours to build a hot-rod tractor, but wasn't sure it was a great picture.

We then hit the opposite end of the building, where some dude was popping an entire carload of popcorn. Seriously, a Jeep Cherokee filled with massive bags of fresh popcorn.. I almost couldn't pull Tony away, but then the existing sunlight went behind the Sierras right as I set up my lights.

Then I drove around a bit and saw a very curious storey-high silhouette of a tall miner, did a block-around and thought the building across the street was pretty rad. Some editing later and this photo is now on my website:

  

the minor Miner building in G major

Retouching the photo of Tony hanging, I referred to older photos of him, and realized he's almost always wearing his leather boots. He wants me to point out that they are not always the same boot, as he has exactly eight pairs, leading up his entry steps:

First skiing of the season

..and with it comes bringing along lights and camera and the eternal search for a new way to shoot Tony.

 The Sands Hotel and Casino as kind enough to put us in a top floor room with morning light, when asked. No idea what they thought of us bringing up a light case, stand bag and camera stuff.. I'm sure more than one suspect 'photo shoot' has been filmed upstairs. 

The sunlight came in at a pretty rakish angle in the morning. I thought it might be more straight on, but I guess it ended up working out. Good thing I stole a pint glass from downstairs, it made for a rad sun-refracting disco star. Happy accidents, best occurring in photos, not on snowy mountainsides while wearing skis.

chair by night looking out at the Eldorado.. home of the best $17 buffet dinner in Reno

Sugar Bowl was fun, with soft perfect snow and helllla cold. We had to take the gondola across from the secondary parking lot, as the Judah side wasn't open yet. Kind of cool, like riding the old Sky Ride across Kings Dominion.

Gondola face

Mt Lincoln ski-lift face

Pinecone Baseball

Last weekend we went up for a last day of skiing in Tahoe for the season.. Skied and stopped at this spot to shoot Tony on the drive home.

hero shot

Messed around a bit with some outtakes...

self portrait by Tony

pinecones everywhere

view from rock above

squirrel time

 

Outside Inn

Went to Nevada City yesterday to play a show with my new band Billy Cramer and Share the Land. Tony and I stayed at the Outside Inn, a cool themed-room motel in town.

Thinking we might go skiing from there, I brought lights and camera. The snow fell throughout the night, though, and made it too crappy out to drive further up the mountain. So I staged yet another Tony photo.


Here's a timeline of setting up:

Kmart and the cart(s)

Again, to Reno and Sugar Bowl to ski. I brought lights and we explored a closed-down Kmart for a possible shoot setting. 

I liked the weird shopping-cart drama here.. in suburban Reno why do people push shopping carts into a loading dock? Can't be the Oakland can man zombie recyclers..

We had just stopped for gas at a nearby 7-11 and I bought a blue (raspberry?) Slurpee to use as a prop. It was way-weird for 10am, but Tony actually drank it.

here's a list of ingredients, per foodfacts.com:

Corn Syrup High Fructose

Water

Citric Acid

Flavor(s) Natural & Artificial

Quillaia Extract

Yucca Extract

Sodium Benzoate ( To protect taste )

 Blue 1

 Who doesn't need a little Blue 1 in their morning?

Last Week in the snow..

We went up to ski Tahoe a few days ago and I brought my lights and camera gear.

Traffic got bad at one point on the drive back, so we pulled over and I shot another portrait of Tony in the trees.

Not sure how valid it is to be working on a series of photos of my boyfriend.. but I am true advocate of a project working itself into play. So maybe that will happen if I shoot him enough.

how awesome: a subject who carries the gear..

this week in Reno

Adding to the growing number of photos of my boyfriend Tony, here's from this week's ski trip to Sugar Bowl and then an industrial park in Reno, after:

normal

with large squirrel