Salton Sea

The Salton Sea as we know it now was formed in 1905 when a heavy snow melt and extra heavy rain caused the Colorado river to swell and virtually wipe out the Alamo canal. The flood created new rivers which over the course of two years filled what was known prior to this time as the Salton Sump in the Imperial Valley.

It is a wonderful place to shoot, I first visited in early 2000 when I met up with a photography group from San Diego that I had met online. I drove down very early, long before the scheduled meet time and watched the sun come up over North Shore.

Baaltis

Sea of Liberty

In the 20's & 30's the place was alive with activity, the lake attracted wild life and the high mineral content of the water was thought to be very therapeutic, many people visited and many moved here. But the sea had no outlet so through evaporation the salt concentration kept growing year after year eventually the water became saltier than the ocean, which continues today so the water life continues to die off. The shores are now littered with dead fish and most of the structures nearby are laden with salt covering.

Down By The Seaside

It's a bit of a drive for me but I've been able to find some great locations, it's such a unique area I'm sure to plan more photo shoots here.

Where The Earth Met The Sea

Summer Salt

These are the type of places I love to bring a model who has never seen it before, part of the magic I feel is watching them interact with the strange new environment. The down side to location shooting is not knowing what type of conditions you'll find, the day Pearl & I were there we had horrific winds. That's just the adventure part of the experience, a good part of why I love doing this is having the opportunity to go, to find strange new lands and capture it's beauty. If there was a way I could do this full time I would leap at the chance because when I'm out in places like this with a beautiful art model and a camera in my hand, I feel alive.