Unpaved Road.
Lincoln County. Nevada
It's the same old ritual for me... fly into Vegas, pick up a car and head North on I15. After about 15 miles theres a service station on the right hand side where you can stock up on anything from cowboy hats, Country & Western music, toy lorries, toy indians, food water and maps. For some reason I chose not to buy the Atlas of Nevada with it's incredible detail of unpaved roads. I decided to head into the wilderness with my little pocket fold out map which showed a limited amount of unpaved roads. I guess my reasoning was that if my little fold out map showed them, then they must at least be well maintained and fairly driveable.
Heading South from Ely on 93 where the sign says 'next gas 90 miles' I decided to cut across country and head West. My little fold out map showed me an unpaved road that would do this... must be OK.
People laugh when I tell them I sometimes navigate using the sun and the stars but when you've done eight or nine miles of dusty track and you suddenly get to a labyrinth of road junctions that simly aren't on your little fold out map, you have to rely on techniques like this. Either that or give up and turn back and stick to the tarmac. I now regretted not buying the atlas.
It was a case of picking the best maintained West bound road.
About another 6 miles on I came to this location.
Like most of this huge country there were no sounds except for the light breeze. The only thing you are likely to hear in these sort of Nevada locations are the sounds of the nomadic cattle as they slowly walk around the scrub stripping out whatever vegetation they can find.
My dilemma at this location was that I wanted to get the fork in the road into the composition but wanted the upturned car as a focal point. This meant it had to be clear and detailed. I couldn't do it on a telephoto as it would have compressed the vast landscape and destroyed the sense of remoteness in the picture. I had to go large then to maximise the detail and minimise the grain......
This was shot on the old 5x4 camera with a slightly wide of standard lens and a yellow filter to bring up the sky. Built in 1955 this camera is a complete dog... the dim viewfinder on the back is dreadful and I've not gone for the intenscreen option yet. The only compromise to this is that you can go further back from the subject and still have more neg space than 6x7. you can stop the lens down to get everything in focus and weather permitting, fire off a rock steady timed exposure. This was one of the rare occasions where there was no wind.
I love the Nevada wilderness.
Location: Nevada South of Ely
Photographer: Christopher Hartford
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