Bombay Beach, California

Along the eastern shore of the Salton Sea, Bombay Beach is a small community in the middle of the desert that resembles a post-apocalyptic ghost town. While several people still live here, if you drive over the flood berm you enter a wasteland of submerged trailers and buildings, left to decay since the floods several decades ago.
 
Like most of the areas surrounding the Salton Sea, there's an air of past potential that's evaporated faster than the sea itself. When the floods came, people simply didn't come back. The floods tipped the scale, but there were a lot of problems before then. A lot of problems about the ecological state of the sea that still have yet to be resolved.

The infamous airstream trailer, now just a wooden frame, is said to be one of the most photographed airstream trailers in the world. It's actually a bit of a draw for Bombay Beach. With the Salton Sea actually known for being a photographers playground, you can look back at collections of pictures from over a decade ago when there was still water surrounding the submerged trailer. These days it seems to be deteriorating quickly.
 
Despite the decay, the area is surprisingly beautiful. With mountains in the distance and the sea merging with the sky on the horizon, it's not difficult to see what initially attracted people by the thousands to vacation here in the 1950s and 1960s. Bombay Beach is still a fascinating and eye-opening place, although the reasons to visit have clearly changed.

Weddingstar Behind the Scenes: Series (2010)

Over the last couple of weeks the six behind the scenes videos that I shot and edited this summer for one of Weddingstar's magazine photo shoots have been going live on our YouTube channel and blog. It's exciting to be at a point where I can reflect on a year of videos that I've produced for the company and consider where this experience might take me next.

The short series of videos gives a sneak peek at some of the brand new 2011 product line and is meant to give customers a glimpse of how much work goes into creating our magazine (which can be found on newstands around the world by the way, *wink).

It's been a lot of fun creating all these different types of edits so far and the best part is that I can see our videos becoming bolder, even more ambitious, and more elaborate as we push forward. It's been such a great creative challenge and learning experience to work in the midst of so many big and ambitious ideas and I can't wait to see what the new year brings!

About to Expire

It's been one of my big experiments this year, creating a portfolio site to showcase my video work and provide an overall context for my experience. And although the additional website has provided some great contacts and shown me the potential for something that I haven't quite tapped into yet, come 2011 the Editing Luke portfolio site will be retired . . . sort of.

All the work that went into the portfolio site won't simply disappear and it may just be hosted in a reduced free format. I'm not yet entirely convinced that I won't just rework my site concept and modify it again. The only thing that's for certain is that EditingLuke.com wasn't pulling the numbers I wanted it to for it to be worth the current expense. Really, I'm just considering how I can use my domain to its fullest advantage, and right now things keep pointing back to this blog.

If my goal at this time last year was about expansion, my goal now is about efficiency. I'd like to take this blog further, inject more personality, develop more content, and find a broader identity for promotions sake. Creating a more cohesive theme and posting strategy is where I'll start.

In any case, I wanted to invite you all to check out the portfolio site as it is before the end of the year and ask you to send messages or leave comments if you have any advice or feedback about the space. What would make it better, what would make this blog better?

Big changes and a redesign to come for 2011.