Salton City is an odd place. In the 50’s developers planned out over 25,000 building lots (complete with utilities), installed 200+ miles of roads… but there where few homes built. You can see thousands of telephone poles bringing power to empty lots. There are more streets than homes. Many of the homes that were built are abandoned, but there are still some people living in the area (the population is around 300). It’s feels really odd to drive down dozens (if not hundreds) of streets with For Sale signs and no homes… the streets, complete with street signs, curbs and more, but no homes.
I ended up getting the Jeep stuck in some much while trying to get to one location to Photograph. My new iPhone was a great help when I needed to find the closest tow truck. I could see exactly how far each place was on Google Maps and browsed the web for a while before someone drove by and gave me a ride to a possible alternative towing arrangement. I was out of the muck in about an hour… now I have spend some time cleaning my wheels/tires because they are way out of balance with all the remaining muck attached, so it’s not fun to drive above 40MPH.
Above are three shots that I took today in the area surrounding Salton City. As usual, you can click on the images to see larger versions.
Hey Ben!
How’re you likin’ that iPhone??
Pretty great, isn’t it?
That Salton City place looks wild! Great shotz!
Just to let you know that we’ll be at The Great Sand Dunes in late Aug and then teaching at Art Wolfe’s school in Seattle, on Whidby Island in early Sept. Then back home by way of the Badlands mid Sept. Then fall in NH and ME.
So, if you’re close to any of those locations around those times, we’ll buy you lunch!
Tony and Sue
Hi Tony and Sue,
It’s been a while since I’ve heard from you… hope all is going well on your end.
I’m lovin’ the iPhone so far. It helps to have big nice looking photos loaded on it so you can show people who you have to ask to get permission to access certain areas you want to shoot, etc.
I might be near NH or ME in the fall… check back then and we’ll see if our paths will cross.
-Ben
Nice shots, Ben!. Were they done in PS HDR? The Salton Sea area is on my “must shoot” list. It’s amazing one can still find places like this anymore. Here’s another view of the area if you haven’t already seen it:
http://www.marktucker.com/r_saltonsea/intro.html
Pam… nope! they are Photomatix Pro HDRs with some further Photoshop processing.
Thanks for the link to the Salton Sea shots… I had not seen that set before.
-Ben
local realtor 760-808-9252
WELL I LIVE IN SLATON CITY AND U R RIGHT ITS BORING UNTIL IT COMES TO VACATIONS THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE HERE. WELL THE PEOPLE HERE ARE GREAT SO IS THE SCHOOL(I MEAN THE PEOPLE)BECAUSE THE PRINCIPLE CANT HANDDEL IT. I AM JUST 16 AND I THINK IT IS OK AND THOSE ARENT REAL PIC DID SOMEONE DRAW THEM.
Hi Lizette,
Those are manipulated photographs… I take three shots and combine them along with a bunch of tricks and they come out looking like drawings.
-Ben
as a french journalist looking for informations about salton lake today, i look for some help.
What is going on there today. I read there is works of depollution going on, paid by californian government. Is ti true. It doesn’t seem, but…
If you knox something or if you have some press about the subject, il thank you to et in touch.
Best regards
CG
CG,
I didn’t see anything happening to clean things up, but there easily could have been and I just didn’t notice.
-Ben
Greeting. Each body has its art…
I am from Austria and learning to read in English, tell me right I wrote the following sentence: “Well the coach or epidemic will be the other coach, with such years having a same lace.”
Regards 🙂 Villette.
don’t believe lizzete about the school.
about 1/4 of the people who graduate can’t even read, just look at her grammar. I went there from 8th to 11th grade and switched to home studies because the school is so terrible. None of the teachers did thier jobs and the place was alway really filthy.