One of my reasons for driving at least 4000 miles to Ohio and back over the holidays (the trip ended up just over 6000 miles in total) was to be able to take my tintype supplies with me. For various reasons I didn’t make any, however, other than a portrait of some friends in Memphis, until I got to the warmer climate of southern New Mexico.
At least one mine entrance is visible in the back-right side of the photo, with a large pile of dark tailings in the center.
In my quest to avoid major highways as much as possible I found a few roads that led past “Lake Valley (ghost town)”, and thought that might make for some interesting tintypes.
I stopped, scouted out the place, and identified at least 8-10 photographs that I would like to make. In the end I only had time to really work on two of the shots, so I’ll have to go back, but here’s what I have for now!
It was getting pretty dark by this point, so this is my only shot of an old water tank.
Speaking of water, I had neglected to fill up my rinse water jug at the hotel this morning and ended up using first my reserve “emergency” water jug and then rinsed the last plate with what was left in my canteen. Ooops. My car’s check engine light has been on, but according to the codes I didn’t think I was in imminent danger, but then my fuel gauge started dropping as I was climbing into the mountains of western New Mexico. Yeah, kinda stupid: no water, low on gas, check engine light, night coming on, heading into mountains. But it worked out, I made it to civilization (obviously).
