Posts in Photography

Joe Rossell sent in these great shots from the Yuri’s Night show on Saturday. He used a Canon 40D and from what I’ve read, it’s a comparable model to the legendary 5D but at half the price (there’s a good discussion of this issue at the Flickr 400D group). I want to ditch my Nikon D80 sooooo bad, I really loathe that thing. Seeing filmic results like this from the 40D just makes the decision so much easier. But I feel like I should hold off since there’s been talk of the 5D’s successor being release very soon, supposedly early 2008.

The show itself was a pretty interesting event. I played in the day time but the whole thing went on until 2am (here’s a shot of the same stage later in the night, a bit different vibe). The day set was great though, a very mellow vibe and a totally great crowd. And besides all that, how often do you get to play on a billion watt sound system inside of a NASA research hangar? The only issue I had with it was the DJ format. I don’t really like when they hide you way up there behind all these counters and gear, it sort of takes away the intimacy of the show. But then again, it was an airplane hangar, so how intimate was it really going to get. I also couldn’t do visuals since it was still daylight, but not much you can do about that.

And by the way, the observant might notice the 1976 variant I’m wearing. It’s brand new and will be available at the shop in the next couple hours. I’ll be doing a proper release and newsletter tonight, but consider this an early warning.

A sad day indeed when something this amazing is left to decay. This is of course in the vein of the previous post. Via Daniel Carvalho via yusheng.

"From what I can gather online, this place was built in the 70s as a resort but was later abandoned. I couldn’t find any definitive explanation about why exactly it was abandoned, however. There’s some talks about failed partnerships and/or real estate bubbles. Apparently the location is too hot in the summers and too cold in the winters. The fiberglass shells of these houses certainly don’t help with insulation. I also couldn’t find out whether they were ever occupied in any capacity.
If you are in Taiwan, it’s definitely worth a visit. From Taipei, head towards Danshui, get on Route 2 and follow the direction for Sanzhi. It will be on the left side of the road, along the coast. You can’t miss it. See the aerial view from Google Maps."

I love the idea of abandoned buildings. It’s always so intriguing to think about how something that took so much time and effort to create ended up left behind and in disrepair. I once found a house on a Sea Cliff in Northern California that was just empty, no one there doors open, furniture gone. It had this beautiful view and was probably sitting on a very valuable piece of land but from the looks of things no one had been there in about 20 years. Sort of creepy but amazing at the same time. When I lived in Sacramento I was able to find my way into the old locomotive works where they designed trains. I brought my Lomo, when I get around to scanning those slides in I will post them.

For the time being here are some interesting shots from an abandoned Paper Mill in the UK via maraid complete with awesome 80’s-era industrial computers and corporate art. Click any of the pics above to see more. There’s also a Flickr Pool dedicated to abandoned places.

We also have a lot of similar stuff going on here in San Francisco. The Hunters Point Naval Yard yields some of the most interesting results: here and here.

Wow. Via FFFFOUND

Wow… via Metahan

Thanks to everyone for the great tips in the comments of yesterday’s Portland post. We’re going to try and hit those places. Last night we ended up hanging out downtown. We had dinner at Voleur -  amazing mac and cheese, highly recommended. Then we hit a great little place called Bo’s for Martinis. We ended up at a really cool bar where a wall hit me above my eye opening up a nice little gash and drawing blood; I’m an idiot. In my defense the wall hit me unprovoked; I was pretty much minding my own business. Unfortunately none of us could remember the name of it this morning.  The middle picture above is the DJ at the place, if anyone recognizes it speak up in the comments.

Please excuse the picture quality, as I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I neglected to bring my camera so I’m using my friend’s point and shoot Canon. I actually enjoy using it, at the expense of quality of course. It’s just nice for a change to not be lugging some 10 lb. chunk of metal around everywhere.

In Portland right now and of course didn’t bring my camera again.  This place is always great; we hung out in one of my favorite spots today, the Pearl District. It’s a great little neighborhood which really reminds me of Midtown Sacramento and Wicker Park in Chicago. I’ve got my friend’s little point and shoot so I will try and snag some shots here and there. Trying to figure out where to go tomorrow night, heard good things about hollocene, any suggestions?

Denise and Ryan rocking some ISO50 prints on their wall. Photo by Alison Conklin.

Not sure if this vintage Playboy action qualifies as NSFW, but it seems pretty tame by today’s standards so thought I would post if not just for that amazing psychedelic swirl going on.

My friend and yours, Dusty Brown, recently covered Elliott Smith’s "Can’t Make a Sound" for a tribute album and it turned out incredible, dare I say, better than the original. You be the judge, have a listen below.

Dusty Brown – Can’t Make a Sound (Elliott Smith Cover)
Available on the album Hope You’re Happy

Incidentally, the last two images above are of the wall in Los Angeles that was used by photographer Autumn de Wilde as the backdrop for the Figure 8 album cover. Since Smith’s death it has become a sort of memorial for fans.