TRONA

time traveling to the Pleistocene

By Ellie Pritts

December 18^th, 2020

Once upon a time...

Approximately 10,000 - 100,000 years ago to be precise, where now stands Trona, CA was a gigantic lake. This lake is now known as Searles Lake, and it's dry. But back in the day, it was at times over 600 feet deep with mineral-rich brackish water. It was deep under this water where the Trona Pinnacles were formed.

Strange Shapes

The rock formations we now call the Trona Pinnacles are scientifically knows as tufa formations, and the ones you see here were not all formed simultaneously. The youngest clusters are 11,000 years old and the oldest are up to 100,000 years old!

These unique formations have been the backdrop of many TV shows, films and of course, car commercials. Most recently, Lady Gaga filmed a music video here. But you can also catch the Trona Pinnacles in Star Trek V, Planet of The Apes and Battlestar Galactica, to name a few.

trying new things

As you can probably guess, I very much enjoy editing my photos.

I was inspired to give Lightroom another shot with these pictures, after having been strictly a Lightroom Classic user for years. I ended up really loving editing in Lightroom and I created a ton of presets while I was on my late night editing spree (which was also a Radiohead discography spree but that's another story...)

I'm also pretty new to the preset game. I only started making them and using them this year! Over the summer I did a workshop for the Joshua Tree National Park Association where I shared some of my presets and they were a big hit. I plan on releasing them publicly after the new year, if you want to be the first to know when that happens please sign up here :)

w i d e l u x

A visit to the Trona Pinnacles felt like the perfect way to test out my recently acquired Widelux camera. The Widelux is a panoramic swing-lens film camera which shoots 140° on 35 mm film (there is also a medium format version $$$). It can be somewhat finicky and limiting but I overall found it pretty straightforward to use after watching a few YouTube tutorials.

I first became aware of the Widelux after coming across the photography by Jeff Bridges. I wanted one ever since, and I am very grateful to finally have one.

The photos below were my first roll on the Widelux and I am very happy with how they turned out! Also, this film was soaked so that's why it looks all weird. A lot of the color came from the soak but I did edit some in Lightroom afterwards.

how to soak

I get a lot of people asking me how I soak my film and get it to look like this. I'll start by saying there are many methods and probably no one "right" way to do it. But here are some things I do!

I like to soak in things like wine, cleaning products like powdered detergent, and salty + vinegary things like pickle juice. Citrus juices also work well. I have soaked my film both before and after shooting it. It is easier for me to soak it after, but if you rinse your film super well you can definitely soak ahead of time and not have any issues with your film sticking together. Either way your film will need to be completely dry before you shoot it or process it, so keep that in mind. I would let it dry for at least 2 weeks.

I typically soak my film overnight in a mason jar. I also would recommend heating up the "soup" you want to soak your film in. If you're interested in trying for yourself, check out this great film soup tutorial.