Andrea: Ghost Town Shoot

Sep 3

I recently went to Las Vegas to be able to spend some time with some of my friends from Ireland and the UK who were in town. While there, I arranged with a local family to have their two teen girls meet me and two others for a sunrise shoot at Nelson’s Ghost Town.

Now, I have to say, I like photography in the desert. It is a land of colors and textures, and despite rapidly rising temperatures (in the course of about two hours it went from the 70s to the 90s, and the daytime highs were averaging between 105 to 108), and one where softness might come with a spring bloom but not when it’s summer. That’s an environment of rough edges, hard light, and a little bit of attitude. And I dig that.

Andrea may be reflecting the mood of the topography but in reality, she is a lovely girl - ne who was quite happy to skip first period math at school to be out with me and my friends.

The ghost town is just outside the small community of Nelson, Nevada. As the proprietor’s daughter explained to me when I asked who lived in the scrambled collection of homes and trailers that make up Nelson, she said, “Half are retired folk and half will answer the door with a shotgun - they just want to be left alone.”

I can believe that. The day before, I was in the area and met this gentleman. He told me, "This is where I used to live," and gestured around him. "Only, it was in Iraq and Afghanistan."

"I am going to move here," he continued. "I don't want to be around people, except my family."

But this post is about Andrea and how she matched the mood and feel of the desert ghost town. Check her out.

It is easy to get a cinematic feel in the desert when every thing is surreal. To a local, I am sure it is commonplace but I have been photographing for so long in the green lushness of the Smokies, it is nice to play with a different palette.