One of my main reasons for attending Jeff Clow's Mono Lake Photo Tour (other than hanging out with my best buddy) was to visit and shoot the famous ghost town of Bodie. Over the years, I had seen many photos of the town but never seemed to be able to fit it into my travel plans. Now I can say that I can check it off my bucket list and would have loved to spend more time there.
Bodie was a bit different than I expected but enjoyable nonetheless. What was different? More non-photographers for one. Trying to photograph a popular spot can be challenging, as many people aren't interested in taking photos and often don't even think about the fact that you have been standing there waiting for the scene to clear so you can photograph it. They have every right to be there as much as we do and, while we wish that they weren't there, we have to learn to be patient (a tough task for me). The second surprise was that many of the structures there were not open and we had to shoot through windows, sometimes through very dirty windows. The added challenge to doing this is that you have to have the lens touching the glass to avoid reflections (I have a gadget that fixes this problem but I left it in Connecticut). This minimizes the number of compositions you can capture.
Those challenges being said, you sometimes come upon a scene that works out fine. I spotted the inside of this house through a not so dirty window. I have a fondness for roofs that are decrepit and allow beams of light to create an interesting play of light and shadow on the inside walls. I knew immediately that I would capture this scene come hell or high water. I knew I got what I wanted when I got home and looked at this photo on my big screen.