These "Better Late Than Never" threads will end eventually, I swear.
In honor of Season Five of
Breaking Bad premiering tomorrow, here's some photos taken on my crappy Insignia point-and-shoot from around Albuquerque, including some shots of locations filmed over the course of
Breaking Bad's past four seasons.
I went out with my brother last October, partly to look for employment and partly to tour the University of New Mexico's Law School. In the process, even though I was only there a short time, I kinda sorta fell in love with this city. If ever an employment opportunity arose, I'd take it in a heartbeat.
Anyway, enough of that crap. Here's some of what I saw wandering around Downtown along Central Avenue (Route 66) and other parts of Albuquerque. More on the
Breaking Bad filming locations towards the end of this thread.
Crank it, maestro:
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The skyline from I-40 eastbound coming into town from the west. Albuquerque's only about a 4-hour drive from Flagstaff.
My brother, who tagged along on this trip (I promised we'd go check out filming locations) was none-too-thrilled with my attempts at city photos from the side of a busy highway.
We stopped at a Blake's Lotaburger near where Walter White's house, car wash and Saul Goodman's law office is located (all three are within a mile of each other in Albuquerque's northeast quadrant).
Bad attempt at a skyline shot in the middle of the day from Mt. Calvary Cemetery
And the cemetery itself.
This is the neighborhood where they film exterior scenes of Jesse Pinkman's house. Its just west of Downtown and near the Albuquerque Country Club
The neighbors weren't really too thrilled to see two fat white guys in a rented hatchback taking pictures of the neighborhood.
Heading back into to Downtown. Albuquerque's tallest: The Bank of America Tower, at a whopping 107 meters.
Shooting in the late afternoon presented problems with shadows.
Their stoplights are horizontal, like Cincinnati's...
The Alvarado Transportation Center, just west of I-25.
And now heading west along Central/Route 66
Here's an odd tidbit: The city's tallest is called the "Bank of America Tower," (at least, according to the SSP diagram) but the sign on top says "Bank of Albuquerque"
Yeah, it was kinda dead at 5pm on a Thursday.
Pulling back. Yes, I need to work on my photo framing skills. I have no depth perception, you see...
I also like making fun of myself, probably too much. Anyway, on with the pictures.
Ah yes, the southwestern/art-deco Kimo Theater. My favorite building out of everything I saw Downtown.
Somewhere around here I got tired and decided to head east back toward the hotel...
Also, my then-boss called wanting me to check her in for a flight she was taking from Phoenix to San Francisco, despite the fact that I was out of town and nowhere near a computer...
Because I have a bizarre fascination with alleys
We're now one block south of Central on Gold
...And now we're back on Central
There's a lot of charming low-rise buildings along Central
Because I'm OCD, its really easy for me to get caught up in patterns/designs trying to figure out a formula/method or what have you...
...I also like colors
Somewhere around here a couple rednecks in a pickup truck pulled to the side and asked if I was getting pictures of anything good.
At least I didn't encounter any transients masturbating in stairways. That's always a plus.
Is this commentary getting too awkward? I'm trying to compensate for crappy photo quality.
And now we're back on Gold Street
I'm pretty sure this was used in a couple of establishing shots of ABQ during
Breaking Bad's run.
And now back towards Central
Just in case you forgot where you were. Zuni Sun insignia in the background.
I had the bright idea of going down on Caesar Chavez Avenue to try and get a few skyline shots in the sunset. Not the smartest idea.
I was approached by a drunken bum who got pissed off when I didn't know that "sandia" meant "watermelon." Anyway, here's a shot of the Sandia Mountains and part of the University of New Mexico (I think its part of the medical center)
And now, for some filming scenes from
Breaking Bad
The White family's house. The lady who owns it came out and talked to my brother and I for about twenty minutes. Very, very nice woman who told us about the infamous scene where Bryan Cranston threw a pizza on the roof of the garage in one take, while several other crew members tried the same thing with little success.
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I really can't say enough good things about this lady taking a few minutes out of her day to come talk to a couple fans of a TV show from out-of-town.
As I mentioned before, the White's house, Saul Goodman's office and the car wash are all about a mile from each other in the northeastern part of town.
The "Hooligan's" is, I believe, where Saul's office would be located.
The car wash that Walt and his wife own is hard to get pictures of, since it sits diagonally at a busy intersection. Plus, these places are still in business, so its hard (for me at least) to go in with a camera and geek out over a TV show.
"Twisters" in Southwest Albuquerque, aka "Los Pollos Hermanos."
I bought a soda while inside so as not to make too much of a scene.
And wouldn't you know it, there's still signs that they use this as a filming location.
This is, I'm pretty sure, the house used for exterior shots of Jesse's residence. This was in a seemingly upper class neighborhood, and the locals weren't too fond of me and my brother taking pictures.
The Simms Building in Downtown, on Gold Street. This building and the lobby are used for establishing shots of the DEA office.
It was incredibly difficult to get pictures of the spiral staircase, both because the camera I used sucks and because security didn't seem to be too thrilled by my presence.
And finally, a couple skyline shots taken from a medical facility on Lomas and Woodward Place
So thanks for taking a look at these. Needless to say, I have a strong desire to go back with my "good" camera to get better shots.
Next up: Flagstaff on a cloudy day after a snowstorm in November.
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