I have in my hands the first copies of my fifth book, Junkyard Nights. I’m ecstatic about the print quality and the way the layout came together. I know I say this with every book I’ve ever done, but this one truly is the best book I’ve ever done. It contains some of my most web-popular images, many personal all time favorites, and the most on point writing I’ve ever done on the meaning of creating art from abandoned things. There’s even a demo written in there for you do-it-yourselfers. It’s all auto salvage work, from Big M and Turner’s in Fresno. Make sure you buy two to get the full side-by-side impact of the wrap-around cover.

It is now shipping.

Shipping costs killed interest in signed copies of my last books, so I won’t be doing that this time.

Buy it from amazon
If amazon is sold out, you can also order direct from the publisher.

Early sixties Chrysler Newport convertible, one more space-wreck, crash landed at Big M Auto Salvage in February 2020. A minute-thirty-four in total darkness, with purple and red from outside and warm white diffused inside for ambiance. Protomachine flashlight, hand-held, single frame.

Another view of one of the F-86s (The Australian CA-27 variant) in that location I was asked not to divulge by the owner from the “Boneyard” book, but never shown online. Shot a few minutes after yesterday’s post, facing the other way, just after midnight in March 2011. Stormy, cold, and camera-killingly windy. 3:13 of broken full moon, with red and white LED flashlight. Someone should put some wheels on it and see how fast it’ll do a lap at Daytona.

F-86s, stored in that location I promised not to divulge as part of my permission to enter. On a bitterly cold and windy winter night in 2010. A 2-page spread in the “Boneyard” book, but not posted online before. 257-seconds of full moon and a little LED flashlight bounced around.

Here’s another favorite from one of those broiling hot summer nights in 2012 at Aviation Warehouse. Never online before, but in the “Boneyard” book. Broken airliner landing gear tower over the endlessly shifting dunes. 25-minutes total exposure (in several stacked images) with blue and pink from the Protomachines flashlight, and then layered together in Photoshop.

747 and 737 wreckage at Aviation Warehouse, a 2 two-page spread in the “Boneyard” book, but never online before. EXIF notes say: 7/31/2012 12:23 am. 280 seconds. Under full moon, broken by summer monsoon clouds. Lit with the Protomachine flashlight using red, lime and warm white settings.

The Mojave consumes a neighborhood on the north edge of Newberry, east of Barstow. A slow motion tsunami of sand, this is the top of a collapsing two-story house. Night, two-minutes of full moon behind the clouds, with red and white LED flashlight. Shot March 2019.

Spacewreck (2016)
B-52 in the Mojave. Blown up to appease the START treaty in 1991 and left for the road runners to find in 2016. Night, full moon for 88-seconds with cool white flashlight from the right and red by reaching into the cockpit from the far side. In my book “Boneyard”, never online before.

Beer (2020)
This “socially distant” full moon I visited a cemetery less than a mile from my home for a little night work. Blasts of ambient light and surrounding apartments made a lot of the site unshootable but I found a few dark spots to skulk around in, even if I had to burn down the backgrounds in photoshop. Cool white and red from the Protomachines flashlight in only 42-seconds.

Fraternal Twins (2019)
They may look the same, but according to those grilles, one’s a Dodge and the other a Plymouth. Both are movie prop cop cars in storage at Paul’s junkyard. 2 minutes of full moon with white, red and purple from the Protomachines flashlight.

Troy at Work (1989)
This recently unearthed photo of me “working” at Galoob Toys in 1989 is in Tim Smith’s new book “Micro but Many” about the history of the Micro Machines toy line. I was a product designer there from ’86 to ’99 and did a ton of work on MMs. That art department was the craziest, filthiest, most hilariously Animal House sorta locker room of a place to work.

Lincoln in Fresno (2019)
58 seconds of junkyard late-night light, with a little added red and white LED.

Sarlaac (2018)
Airliner engine parts at Aviation Warehouse. I want to chuck a Boba Fett doll in there every time I look at it. 1:23 of full moon and Protomachines flashlight: red and lime wash with a white spot, and blue backlight. It’s in that book, Boneyard, but never online before.

I shot this, one-handed, about 30 minutes after falling and tearing my rotator cuff in July 2019. Just another amazing pile of movie prop junk, destined for the shredder, at Paul’s. Four minutes of full moon (most of it spent doubled over in pain) and some LED flashlight from a couple of directions. And yes, my shoulder still makes that *klenk* sound too.