Brad Templeton's Photography
Burning Man 2006

Burning Man 2006

Each Burning Man is different. This year had lots of great art and our mini-village was active with two funded art projects and many others. We did a power collective with three other camps, running on recycled biodiesel.

For more information on Burning Man in general, check out my essays of prior years such as 2005 and my Panorama Intro Page and my 2006 Panorama page which features the first panoramas of the man burning..

In addition to improving various projects such as the Panorama Wall and the Phone Booth (which worked almost too well, generating long lines where people overheated,) I also improved the ATM. Vandals destroyed the first one so I fortunately brought two.

I did another good aerial survey, but that is not yet up on the site. Google did a great series in Google Maps, but my survey is much higher resolution. The problem is I have perhaps 400 shots and no time to process and label them.

The most exciting new photographic project involved going up on a boomlift for the burn itself. There's more on that in the section on the burn.

You can read a recent essay on thoughts on the nature of Burning Man.

Are you in here?

If you're in one of these shots naked and don't want to be, let me know and I'll see if I can find an alternate or blur you. I wasn't always able to get permission on group shots.

Photography & The Wall

Photos again were taken mostly with the new Canon 20D and Canon G5. Most panos shot with my 50mm and 20mm prime lenses. Some were with my new 10-22m super-wide-angle lens designed for the 20D.

The Panorama Wall has gotten so big it had to go double sided. That also meant it could not have a deep curve. We tried to make it straight, but that's actually unstable, so it was given a slight curve. People could still see the photos. Fancier lighting was needed.

Power

Some of you read my essay on desert power.

This year our camp shared a central generator with Ojai Bureau of Pleasure, DOTA and Monkey Puzzle. We had to hunt far to find a supplier who would allow biodiesel. We ended up joining a pool of 5 such generators (3 for Burning Man itself) that had to be hauled at huge expense from Las Vegas. But at least we had a carbon-neutral generator which smelled like French Fries.

Of course, no battle plan survives contact with the playa. We had a ton of oldtimers rejoin the camp at the last minute and had to arrange an annex on the other side of the street, and trench generator wires. Our shipping container got plunked down in the wrong place in camp, disrupting the camp plan, and structures got put too close to the esplanade, forcing the photo wall to have to be on a strange angle and very close to Ed's Oasis dome and the Mondo Spider garage. It's always something...

I've come to expect chaos, but to my surprise as a 9-time veteran I managed to get dehydrated on the last day, while tearing down installations. Due to that I missed the burns of the temple and Euchronia ("the waffle") which I heard was pretty fast and spectacular. Another lesson learned.

This year I finally managed to get our quadcycle working. While not perfect, quadcycles are great for burning man. Social bicycling, and you can go as slow as you like because you are stable. I plan to improve it this year and make it easier to get on and off. I also decked it out with CCFL tubes to make it glow very brightly on battery power at night.

Your body does something really stupid when you dehydrate. It throws up. It won't take down water. Without medical attention, you will die. Seems crazy from an evolutionary standpoint. I lost my stomach 3 times and took many bags of fluid before being up for the trip out. So no matter how experienced you think you are -- drink, drink, drink.