I imagine Robert Capa had one just like this:

Leica IIIa + Lenses and Accesories.

$500? nah…

A series of funny listings for real gear in the “photo/video” section of Los Angeles Craigslist. Some homophobic tics make the seller even more nutty. That’s Reseda for you.

The ad for the Vivitar reads:

Stock the Vivitar 283 flash comes with an inferior, sub-standard, faggot hot foot mount. But this flash has one of the bitchin’ aluminum mounts from Holly Enterprises. Plus a velcro-attach bounce card. With this flash you will be swinging big and taking the best of the best exposures. Plus if some snobish photog blocks your once in a lifetime shot of the ghost of Jim Morrison, you can smash him over the head with your camera without worrying about the flash breaking off…then take the image of backdoor man’s vapors.

Feb 20 – TAMRAC PHOTO BACKPACK – $50 - (Reseda)

Feb 20 – LOWPRO TREKKER BACKPACK CAMERA BAG – $25 - (Reseda)

Feb 20 – MINOLTA IV F FLASH METER – $100 - (Reseda)

Feb 20 – QUANTUM TURBO BATTERY PACK – $75 - (Reseda)

Feb 20 – NIKKOR 16MM 3.5 FISHEYE – $100 - (Reseda)

Feb 20 – VIVITAR 283 FLASH WITH HOLLY ENT. ALUMINUM MOUNT – $50 - (Reseda)

Feb 20 – NIKKOR 50MM 1.8 MANUAL FOCUS – $50 - (Reseda)

Feb 20 – TOKINA 28-70 AT-X AUTO FOCUS LENS FOR NIKON – $75 - (Reseda)

Sounds from breakfast on the road

As I walked closer to this industrial grade vent in back alley Missoula, MT I heard eerie sounds emanating from it. I tried recording the sound on my phone:

Play sound

I spent only six minutes in Montana. I crossed the border and exited the first chance I got, in order to turn around. I had seen a creepy looking ruin at the last exit in Idaho, listed as Humphrey. I went back into Idaho and exited Humphrey — there was nothing there. The road was roped off, and only this massive ruin remained — notable for its sheer size. I had to walk seventy yards up the off-ramp to get near it. I started to walk across the snowy field to it, and whoomp I went in up to my waist in crunchy snow. Undaunted I kept going, but after a while I came to the barbed wire barrier — which was made extra threatening due to the deep snow. Snow already starting to melt into my sneakers and jeans, I gave up at that point and got this picture with the Rollei Automat. Kodak 400NC has been good to me in the past, but this image came out rather strange. It may have been x-rayed at the airport, or perhaps Humphrey is just haunted.

Play “Hollow Hills” – Bauhaus

For unspecified but very valid reasons, my roadtrip actually started in Salt Lake City. Ascending north on the 15, it wasn’t long before my first unscheduled detour. I saw signs for Syracuse, UT. Thing is, I didn’t know there was a Syracuse, UT. But, I began life as a human in Syracuse, New York so I figured there must be something interesting there in Utah. Syracuse surely a place of auspice in any state. I saw signs, brown signs, suggesting a “Syracuse Museum” right this way. Following the signs, however, led me down and around and past a roundabout. Abruptly I was on a gravel road as rural and unhistoric as can be. I stopped to turn around when I noticed a rusted truck in a quiet field with some horses milling about, so I got out to see if there was a picture there. There, out in the middle of silent, sunny nowhere Syracuse, UT. As soon as I did, the horses all came over to me. Perhaps they were bored. They mugged and jostled for position, like I was the attraction there. The quietude and beauty of the horses overwhelmed me then, and I fully expected my car to explode. But, somehow it didn’t explode at all, so I checked the light, took some pictures, and got back on my way. Found my way back to the 15 and beyond.

Song of the day is “Can You Tell” by Ra Ra Riot, a band also from Syracuse — the one I’m from.

Noted in my Flickr mailbox:

Hi Mick,

I used one of your incredible Coachella shots on CBC Radio 3. (I climbed this guy at Burning Man!)

CBC Radio 3 is a “profit-free” division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which is not unlike your NPR.

radio3.cbc.ca/blogs/2009/02/Top-Canadian-Acts-Heading-For-Coachella

Hope that’s cool?

Yes, it’s very cool. Check the CBC site, it’s playing great music!

Original photo:

Music to Read By: ” Scattered Black and Whites” – Elbow

Saturday night’s a bad time to lose a car window. Or a wallet, or a phone, or some cameras. So, I chose all of the above when my car was broken into back in December. It was a brutal twist to a desolate holiday season, and I was shaken deeply, alone and at the end of my rope. I spent Sunday in a daze, but Monday morning, despite the freezing rain, it was time to rebuild.

I went to an auto glass place that was happy to have me, and happy to have me wait about three hours for a window to be delivered so they could put it in. Given the rain, I wasn’t about to argue. Kicking around the garage, I was antsy and restless. I missed one of my cameras – the trusty Canonet that I was just starting to love. I played with the dog that lived on the couch in the garage, but I couldn’t sit still.

Impulsively, i walked out of the garage to a drugstore and picked up a disposable camera. A disposable black and white camera no less! I walked around the yard, in the rain and I saw things I wanted to remember. It felt normal, so that was good. Life isn’t all that dramatic, and much worse things have happened to better people, but it was a moment I was profoundly thankful for.

I took the camera to Rite-Aid for some One-hour processing. One thing, they told me their “machine” was broken so it would be two to three business days. No rush I thought.

At that point, my pictures were lost.

I kept going back to Rite-Aid day after day. Nothing, nothing, nothing. The routine was the same. Go in to Rite-Aird walk back to the deserted photo counter. Try in vain to attract attention. Wander to the front and flag down some disinterested clerk to call for assistance. I went in seven times and never less waited less than twn minutes for someone to run through the same look-in-the-drawer-when-did-you-drop-them-off-check-back-thursday routine.

Eventually I gave up.

Then this week, I got the call. 984 hours after dropping them off at the one-hour photo counter, my pictures were ready. I went in to Rite-Aid, walked back to the deserted photo counter. Went behind the counter and started rifling through the drawer myself. An agitated voice instantly came over the intercom asking for assistance at the photo counter. The eye in the sky was watching the whole time.

A disapproving but too-bored-to-care clerk came over and told me to move to my side of the counter and I’d be served. I cheerfully obliged and finally got my pics. Which was good, because as it turns out there were some keepers. That disposable camera rocked!

And, I’ll never set foot in that Rite-Aid ever again for any reason.

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