The Idea:

“Ellis Island In the Desert” was shot while I was on a short trip to Las Vegas. During the day I’d noticed this walkway with its tall, curved fence and the “Statue of Liberty” in the background. The walkway was packed with people. Maybe everyone thinks it when they see this, maybe no one, but Ellis Island popped into my head. As the day went on I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty stood, to so many, as a symbol of hope, opportunity, and freedom. Vegas seemed like the modern interpretation where glitz=hope, loose slots=opportunity, and money=freedom. I knew I wanted to come back at night and do the long exposure. The long exposure gets me blurred faces - anonymity, blurred bodies - huddled mass, and movements to add to the disorder and disorientation in an attempt to further tie the people from the real Ellis Island to the tourists in modern day Las Vegas. Am I saying the two groups are the same? Absolutely not. But when your dream is to have the American dream, and now the American dream stinks of plastic, maybe it’s time to dream a new dream. Maybe.

The Tech:

“Ellis Island In the Desert” was taken with a Canon 5D and the 24-105 L at f13 1/6 sec. 400 iso. I set out for the night without a tripod, wanting to draw as little attention to my self - and my gear - as possible. So how did I take a 1/6 second exposure that is relatively steady? I held the camera tight against a lamp post that was conveniently placed just about where I wanted to take the photograph from. This was a natural/existing light shot so there’s not much point in putting up a diagram of the lighting setup. Instead, I’ll just say I positioned myself with a large light up sign (maybe 50×30 feet large) down about twenty feet behind me. I needed enough light from the sign to fall on the crowd and light them up about the same amount as the “Statue of Liberty” in the background. The first shot I took I was too close to the main light source (the sign) meaning good old (built in 1996) lady liberty was too dark or the crowd was too bright. So I slid down the walk way away from the sign until the people were in balance - well, light balance at least.

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