Here’s a short set of photos from an infiltration of an abandoned winery in the heart of Sonoma wine country, masterminded by greenkozi. What happened here? Surely they were printing money with fine wines for the rich and famous, until something went dreadfully wrong! Some say the place is haunted. I know for a fact it is — by cameras and flashes.

Song if you want it: “These Are The Ghosts” – Band of Bees

I have some friends that love to take pics of stray shopping carts in compromising positions. I have other friends that chronicle the free sofas that pop up on our city streets. The curiosities of an urban civilization in decline make for morbid, yet wonderous, fascination. This is for all of them.

On a Friday, while driving in the afternoon, I saw this juxtaposition on the street and knew it had to be shot. I pulled over immediately, only to notice the street was one minute into No Parking designated time! Curses! So, I pulled away and went about my business of the day. The sight, though, lingered in the back of my mind. That night, I decided to go back and see if it was still there — only since it was midnight, I figured the light might not be optimal. But, in a spirit of adventure, I slung my lighting rig over my shoulder and headed out on foot.

I was afraid one or the other would be gone, but there they were just past midnight. Waiting for me. So I set up lighting right there, shooting on location! Two lightstands, two umbrellas, two 430EX flashes. I started firing away. ST-E2 on the Canon 5D with my ultrawide lens cranked to 12mm because there wasn’t much space on the sidewalk. Parked cars created a cage to restrict my vantage. People drove by, people walked by. Nobody appeared to give me a first glance, much less a second. Shooting flashes at 12:14 A.M. Of course, I realized. In Los Angeles, this was probably the first of five location sets they’ll see during their day. I need to remember that in the future.

I took a number of shots, moved the cart about a bit. Got something I was happy with in about five minutes of shooting. To me the shot is a paparazzi snap of a celebrity couple on the street after a party. The sofa is comfortably numb, the cart is buzzed, hyper, and in-your-face agitated.  I broke down my kit, slung it back over my shoulder and walked home.

That was fun.

Play track: “Takin’ It To The Streets” – The Doobie Brothers

I read this ad for a LEICA C LUX 1,and I see in my mind’s eye a photographer who married for money. She’s borderline illiterate, yet worships him completely. Therefore she must be hideous and thanking her lucky stars someone will put up with her. The mother keeps kicking down the expensive gifts to remind him not to screw up and leave her poor wretched daughter alone.  If ever a photog needed a neckpunch ASAP, it’s this guy.  I envy his cameras but not his life which surely must be unbearable. I imagine he was too drunk to post the ad, so that’s why she got the call.

Play while you watch: “Dead Cities” – Future Sound of London

greenkozi plotted some glorious exploration today. we infiltrated this abandoned naval base and took over full operation, with the help of the manual that some lackadaisical admiral had carelessly left laying about. Here are some highlights. Full set’s on Flickr. Koz’ll be posting soon, I’m sure.

Forty-one days later, my phone rings as I step off a Bart train, Fruitvale station. It’s the default ringtone. I’ve never changed it.

Me: Hello this is Michael.
Female Voice: Hello this is Fujicolor Labs
Me: Yes?
Female Voice: We do processing for Rite-Aid
Me: Yes??
Female Voice: We have some pictures here. Can you identify them?
Me: Yes! They were black and white. C-41. Uhh, I think there was a car?
Female Voice: A Volkswagen?
Me: Yes!
Female Voice: A chihuahua? A door? A coffeemaker?
Me: Yes! Yes! That’s them.
Female Voice: Okay then. We’ll get those right out.
Me: You’ll send them to the store?
Female Voice: Yes, that’s right.
Me: Do you have an ETA?
Female Voice: A what?
Me: Do you know about when they’ll be there?
Female Voice: Wednesday or Thursday.
Me: Thanks!
Female Voice: No problem.

Song of the day: “Never too Late” – Journey

Since no one believes my tales of battling Hedgetea in the ’70s, here is a video from one of our fights in Morocco in 1977. It’s very shaky, the grain is atrocious, and my transfer from Super 8 to digital was hurried. Hedgetea is in his signature “white warrior” costume, I am in black.

Our battles were always fierce and evenly matched. This time, he bested me.

The Impossible Project is a company that looks like its going to try to manufacture instant film for classic polaroid cameras. Important note: They are doing “integral” type film, not the pack film. That is to say they will not be producing pull-apart type film. So this isn’t the coolest news ever. But, it is interesting.

I recently ran across a Greasemonkey script for Flickr that adds a handy gadget to Flickr photo pages that lets you change the background color for the photo. The change happens instantly on mouseover, and it also removes all other visual elements from the page.

The script is by Rafal Smyka and has been around for a while. I found it while perusing a Digital Photography School post on GM scripts.

Some screenshots below. Notice the black-to-white scale next to the photo. When you roll your mouse over it, the background changes immediately. If you wait one half second, the scale itself disappears for a clean viewing experience. Move your mouse away to bring the the page back to normal. It’s very clean and usable.

Greasemonkey is a Firefox add-on that allows you to run scripts that can change Web pages viewed in that browser. It’s a very powerful tool.

Play song “Ridin’ Dirty” – Chamillionaire

They see my Rollei
They hatin’
Patrollin’ and tryin’ a catch me shootin’ dirty!

I picked up this old beat up Rollei on Craigslist. The seller listed it as a 3.5F but after checking out Rolleiclub, I’m pretty sure it’s an Automat from around 1949.. It also has a shutter that seems to be non-standard (“Synchro-Compur” instead of “Compur-Rapid”) which means it only goes to 1/250 instead of 1/500. I also lost 2 rolls of film when the shutter completely gummed up. But, I was patient and after some work it seemed to loosen up. I might save up some cash to take it to the the mack daddy Rollei guru in Manhattan Beach one of these days.

But, it works for now. I shot and developed a roll of Tri-X. I like the results. Some color pics will be back today or tomorrow.

Play this song: “Ser O Parecer” – RBD

Thanks to the wonders of Google Image Search and the popularity of Mexican television, my behind-the-scenes photo of pop group RBD just passed the twenty-thousand views mark.  It’s easily my most popular photograph ever.

It dated to a couple years ago when I was with Yahoo! Music. I was a product manager for software, but moonlit as 2nd unit still photographer on my break time. This is the performance. I was right off to the side.

Less well known , but much more interesting to me, is my sequence of singer Dulce Maria’s flirtation with the photographer, or perhaps just with the camera.

Bonus track: “Smile for the Camera” – Sam Friend