Geothermal plant on the shore of the Salton Sea

Even out in the wilds I’m as drawn to the beauty a power plant as I am to  a majestic shoreline or a graceful cactus. But it hasn’t been until recently that it has dawned on me that there are companies that are behind the design and construction of these structures. A while ago I was asked to shoot a HNTB design engineer that worked on the expansion of the south runway at LAX so that it could accommodate the new Airbus A380.

Sean Naismith redesigning a runway at LAX

I hadn’t heard of the either the company or noticed the profession before and when I visited their website I discovered that they design and build the sorts of structures that I consider man-made art. They create freeway interchanges, parking garages, ports and skyscrapers.  I organized some of these photos into a mini-portfolio and started to show them to some of these firms and it has landed me some commissions to make portraits of their executives, but I want to shoot the structures.

Two views of steam hiding the sun

We are once again in a national conversation about infrastructure, perhaps we can talk about the beauty of it as well.

Mark Harmel

harmelphoto.com

@MarkHarmel

The Salton Sea trip was triggered by great desert spring weather and a blog post by John Paul Caponigro where he shared his enjoyment with shooting with Vincent Versace.

I’ve done this before with my friend Josh Mitchell – most recently as we were chasing a snow storm in the high desert.

Josh after we were turned back by a snow storm in Yucca Valley

Not only do we end up shooting in very different directions in the same location we respect each other’s signature work and serve as scouts for each other.  At the Salton Sea my traveling partner Martin Trailer, not surprisingly has a thing for old trailers. I left him to shoot his decaying Airstream at Bombay Beach and went for the afterglow at the ruins of a old dock.

I went for the dock and Martin went for the trailer

The astute viewers will notice that there is some mystery light on the pier posts. They came from a truck turning around during my long exposure.

Mark Harmel
harmelphoto.com

The rendezvous location for the Salton Sea trip was in Oceanside. I was there back in June 2007 scouting to shoot Team Type 1 for Abbott Diabetes Care in their quest to win the Race Across America bike race. It was then that I discovered a set of teeny, tiny pink rental cottages by the beach. They didn’t fit into the plan to make rider cards, but I knew that I wanted to go back and shoot the cottages sometime.

Rider card for Team co-founder Phil Southerland

I picked up Martin at the Amtrak station and we headed down to the beach in the early morning light.

Little Pink Cottages

These cottages remind me of the great work that Joel Meyerwitz did in his Cape Light book.

Waiting for the beach towels

As we shot the beach community began to wake up give us the opportunity to include dog walkers, joggers or some odd new exercise contraption into the frame.

Enter a new exercise gadget

Does anyone know what these contraptions are called?

Mark Harmel
harmelphoto.com

I always like surprises. Once again on the Salton Sea trip we came upon a brand new truck stop in what was a desolate intersection coming out of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. I was first attracted by the bright primary colors of the red signage, yellow construction tape and the blue sky. And then I saw her….

The primary colors attracted me to this new truck stop

It was almost too good to be true. A matching vision wearing a yellow blouse with a red hat and matching shoes jumped out of the corner of my eye. I first thought that it must be a mirage. Did she dress to match the station?

A mirage of matching colors

Using mostly sign language I implored her to move from under the overhang in front of the “Diesel #2″ sign. It turned out that she was there with her husband, who helped to translate my direction into Spanish. He was installing the pumps at the truck stop and she was there either to help or keep him company. Either way it was my lucky day!

Mark Harmel
harmelphoto.com

Many photographers only want to shoot in the “golden hours” at sunrise and sunset. I recall being in a workshop with one of my heros Ernst Haas and hearing him talk about “looking for the light”. He believed that there was always good light at every part of the day. You just had to know where to find it and more importantly – how to see the great light.

What is fabulous about the desert is that even the high noon, burnt-out light that I often avoid looks right in the desert. The subject matter lends itself to that hot and desolate look that goes with the harsh light. Here is a blooming occotillo cactus positioned against an open sky.

Near high noon show the empty expanse of the desert

You can then revisit the same subject matter later in the day to achieve a completely different look. This time it was close to sunset, with the help of my friend Martin who helped to flag the sun off my lens, I was able to shoot right into the sun and place the tall occotillo cactus against the mountain instead of the blue sky.

Late afternoon lighting shooting directly into the sun

Different treatments of same subject shot with very different light. It is all a matter of of telling the right story at the time of day you are shooting.

Mark Harmel
harmelphoto.com