Essense of Bakersfield

I decided at some point that my only real goal in terms of photography is to take one cool shot that I really like in each place I stay for a prolonged period of time. This was somewhat of an issue for Bakersfield though, because everything here is just kinda dry with lots of oil rigs and dead stuff.

The picture I liked the most was a panorama of a railroad bridge while standing in a “river” just before sunset (the river was dry). It’s stitched together from 13 vertically-oriented shots. I had some fun fooling around with this image, because I liked the high-contrast desaturated look, whereas Travis wanted me to try for a post-apocalyptic look (which I’m not sure I got).

#1 – High-Contrast Desaturated

#2 – “Post-Apocalyptic”

#3 – Original (very little post-production)

I’m not sure which one I prefer (either #1 or #3 for me), but so far I think this image is the most interesting of my Bakersfield bunch.

Couple extra shots that turned out okay: