Interstate 5 Update

With the Bay Bridge now open and mostly complete, I’ve been turning my attentions to other projects.  Some of you may know that I’ve been shooting on Interstate 5 in California, that forlorn but necessary major artery between San Francisco and Los Angeles, that virtually everyone in the state has used, at least once.

Begun as a challenge three years ago to show that there are visually stimulating views to be found and made, I have been taking many extra hours on my drives between the two cities to explore and photograph with my view camera.  As I’ve mentioned on a previous blog post, I’ve been shooting this project now for over 2 years, and I find there are still many more views to be made at different seasons and weather, and times of day.

 

Most consider I-5 a flat, linear ribbon of concrete, but it does, indeed undulate and turn.  By getting off the highway, you see that it’s not as flat as it might seem from the driver’s seat.  I’ve explored each and every exit between SF and LA and have even shot from many of the overpasses that have no exit (more on that in another blog post).  This late afternoon shot is about light and shadow and simple graphics.  All the signs are very readable in an enlargement.

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This image, also a late afternoon fall shot shows how much the highway ramp has been built up on the descent coming north at the town of Grapevine.  It took some 15 years to build the highway, working around the existing highway US-99.  The “Grapevine” has an incline of 6%, one of the steepest interstate highway grades in the state.

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In the northern section, these three abandoned trailers among the sagebrush made for some interesting tones in the partial overcast light.  I-5 is in the background.

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Here is another late afternoon shot, made heading back to LA.  Notice the swallows’ nests under the overpass.  They were darting around quite a bit this time of day feasting on flying insects.

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On this evening, I slipped into a closed rest area that was being remodeled.  The light on the highly reflected signs is from a security lamp.  The wind was really blowing on this hot summer night (it was still over 90 degrees).  You can tell by the moving trees and even the sign on the right was wiggling and creaking in the wind (and is slightly blurry).  Yes, that’s I-5 southbound in the background in this 2 minute exposure.

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This is my favorite time of day, after the sun has set and there is this glow in the sky.  The sunset is behind me in this shot, and we are looking east.  The sky was, indeed this magenta and the transparency looks as intense in color as this, if not more so.  What you are looking at is the Earth Shadow or Belt of Venus.  The blue band near the horizon is the actual shadow of the earth seen in the Valley haze.  This only last a few minutes, at most.

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I got off on a dirt road to a farming area when I came across this water pumping station.  I-5 is in the background.  It’s difficult to see the detail at this resolution, so here is an enlargement:

If you look closely, you can see the streaking headlights on the highway in this 90 second exposure.

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I’ve stopped at this fruit stand many times, but as it closes at 5pm, it’s almost always closed after dark.  In mid-November, there was still some twilight in the sky when they were about to close.  In the last seconds of this 90 second exposure, they turned off the lights.  The tail lights streaking along the interstate through the open windows adds another dimension to this image.

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There is an overcast sky in this twilight shot.  The red streaks are from a truck getting off the exit.  The highway headlights are visible center-right, as the highway curves into the distance.

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I was setting up for another shot, when this semi-truck rig pulled in and stopped.  I re-composed, as the driver moved into his sleeping area and turned on his TV, giving the glow in the cab.  It is night-time with a near full moon illuminating the sky in this 10 minute exposure.  The driver never saw me, as it was much darker than appears here.

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Time of year and weather really makes a difference even in California, where many people seem to think we have no seasons.  In these two shots, the first was taken from a farm road last February, when it had been raining quite a bit and the sky is dense overcast:

The trees are bare and it has a wintry look, especially for central California, and the wild grasses are green for a change.  The next image, taken from virtually the same spot, was shot last month, in November, nine months later.

Here we have a sunny but cool day and the nut trees show some fall color.  The grasses are brown like they usually are from being scorched by the 100+ degree days of summer and no rain.

These two images show why there are so many options to photograph the same subject in different situations.  I especially like this view because it shows how much material was moved to build up the roadway to make I-5 seem “so flat and boring”.  In reality, I-5 is fast and efficient.  It still intrigues me and I’ll keep shooting…