Yeah, I know; lame name for a picture and blog post. Â So sue me! Anyway, I promised I’d mix in some URBEX here and there with my other stuff, so hear ya go. Â I shot this one at an abandoned Chocolate factory in former East Germany. Â I don’t know… somehow yummy chocolate and East Germany just don’t seem to go together. Â Anyone out there ever tasted any?
I had not really planned to put up a blog post today, but I suppose I should at least try to post something new 5 or 6 times a week, perhaps leaving Sundays as a BLOG POST-free day for me.  While I usually post HDR photography, I started working on this non-HDR shot this morning and liked how it turned out.  I liked it well enough to post on Google + , and it seemed like folks there seemed to dig it, so I thought that you guys who come here to the blog and don’t follow me on  Google + might like to see it as well.  As I mentioned in my  Google + post, I was experimenting with a mix of B&W, high-key, colorizing and, finally, onOne’s FocalPoint software. I may reedit it to fix some mistakes I see, but curious to hear what all of you out there think of this one.
Our new friends in the Bay area have one of the coolest old houses I’ve ever seen. Â I could spend a full day there exploring and photographing everything. Â My youngest daughter was especially fond of the “doll house” (play house) built out back by the previous owner for her daughter. Â It has fully functioning water, A/C and more. Â Heck, I’d live in that kid’s cottage. Â Inside the main house, I just had to grab a shot of this awesome old phone box. Â Man I love “retro” eye candy!
I’ve always been a big fan of sci-fi and horror flicks, and I’ve got a pretty good imagination to boot, which is probably why a lot of the URBEX environments I visit remind me of some movie I’ve seen before. Â Sometimes, that can be a bit creepy, especially if I’m in one of those rooms alone with only the dripping and creaking sounds of decay. Â This particular room reminded me of the scene in one of my all-time favorite horror flicks, the 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers remake, when Donald Sutherland’s character’s pod-self is transforming as he sleeps. Â Click here if you want to see that still (to me at least) creepy scene. Â Speaking of which, it’s midnight as I post this, so I suppose I should go to sleep now. Â Wonder if it will be me who wakes up in the morning?
I had fully intended to post another URBEX shot today, but decided instead to toss this photograph I made down in Bonitas, California last week onto the blog instead. While I was shooting this bad boy, a surfer dude came out of a nearby house and asked me if I wanted to buy it. Uh, um, no thanks, bro. But I’ll be glad to send you a shot of the car when I’ve processed it. Cool! Everyone’s happy. Let’s see what he thinks of my treatment of this grand old blue bomber.
