"Good bye God, hello Bodie" is what people used to say when they went to this wild western town when the west was still pretty wild, and Bodie was one of the wildest of the wild. There were more drinking parlors per capita than just about anywhere else. Fighting and shooting was the order of the day. Now Bodie is but a ghost town. Back when I went to Bodie they did not allow people in when the light is nice (early morning). Nevertheless, it is well worth a visit.

          Today I would like to talk about juxtapositioning. Juxtapositioning is where you juxtapose two objects; you place them to show contrast (not light contrast but "story" contrast) between them. You can juxtapose a dilapidated shack with a rich large house for example. Using this technique you get to tell a story and show the vast difference between the two juxtapose objects. In the case of Bodie I used this technique not to show contrast but to create depth and to tell the story:

Placement is really important in this type of shot. You want to place objects in such a way so that the viewer's eyes move back and forth between them. Perspective is also important as you can size one object small and the other large. It is fun to make the smaller object (wheel) appear larger than the large object (house). This creates depth (distance) because the human brain knows that the house is bigger than the wheel so the only logical conclusion the brain comes to is that the house must be really far away. To get this effect we use a wide angle lens and move in really close to the object you want to appear larger.

          Use a small F.Stop to get everything in focus. Hyperfocal distance focusing is a good technique to use to control your focus. Once again, the idea is to tell a story, to make the viewer question what happened and why. Placing objects apposed to each other aids good composition. Go ahead try some juxtapositioning.