A California Yankee in King Cake's Court

I went on vacation at the end of October/beginning of November, and I spent part of the time at my parent’s condo on Dauphin Island, a barrier island in Mobile Bay. I had with me a shiny new Holga; I had a Holga before, but for some stupid reason decided I didn’t need a Holga and a Diana, and since the Diana was literally the first lo-fi camera I bought since re-discovering film, I felt loyal to it.

Well, that was the wrong decision–not to keep the Diana, but to sell the Holga. And then they quit making Holgas, and I felt like that was probably that. Except nothing is ever that in the analogue film community, and of course another plastics factory bought the molds and started cranking them out barely a year later.

Anyway, this may look familiar to you if you’re a Tim Burton fan, it’s the abandoned “Town of Spectre” movie sets from Big Fish. They were built on Jackson Lake Island near Montgomery, AL, and because it’s privately owned land, the owner just left them. You can get onto the island for a $3 ($10 for overnight camping) fee.

The tree is fake, too–it’s made of styrofoam, and you can see where the brown paint has rubbed off.

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