During a recent trip to California, I had the opportunity to visit Bodie. It's been a place I’ve wanted to go for quite some time. Unfortunately, Bodie isn’t a place where you might take a wrong turn and find yourself there; it has to be a planned excursion.
Bodie is a ghost town in the Sierra Nevada Mountains about 75 miles south of Lake Tahoe.
The elevation is approximately 8400 feet and the drive is 13 miles off the main highway, the last few miles being unpaved…yes, in case you’re wondering, it makes for a really nice, and sometimes bumpy, ride!
Thru the years, I've seen numerous photos taken in Bodie and I was really looking forward to seeing the town and taking a few shots of my own.
Bodie began as a mining camp in 1859 after the discovery of gold. Eventually, Bodie boomed and by 1879 the mines in town were producing large amounts of gold and Bodie had become one of the largest cities in California. Over the years, it is believed Bodie produced gold valued as much as $34 Million. Eventually, the gold rush slowed and the town started to dwindle. The last residents left Bodie in the early 1940’s and Bodie is now an authentic Wild West ghost town.
Bodie is a bucket list destination for many photographers. It would be awesome to be able to plan a trip there for a period of time so you have multiple opportunities to shoot at different times of day and, hopefully, in perfect light. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for my visit. I was in the area and was able to spend part of a day in Bodie. It was the wrong time of day, no clouds, etc., I had to take what I could get…but I was glad to be there.
As I walked around town, I was surprised at how large the town was even though many structures are gone. The buildings have been left in a state of decay and appear as though folks just closed the doors and left everything behind.
As far as the photography goes, there is nothing special here, just basic tourist photos shot hand-held, in aperture priority mode. My main concern was trying to do the best I could with the harsh, mid-day light. All the enhancements were done in photoshop.
I've never been the superstitious type but legend has it that there is a "Curse of Bodie." It's believed that anyone taking home any souvenirs will be cursed with bad luck. I left everything as it was and tried to imagine what it would've been like to live during the gold rush and to live in the Wild, Wild West.