Thanks to a slew of contributions this week from E.Y., Photobooth.net can finally put Utah on the map, bringing our current count up to 114 photobooths in 19 states and two foreign countries!

During a cross-country road trip in 1997, my best friend and I determined that Utah was the home of the best milkshakes in the country, found at the plentiful Frostops we came across around southern Utah.

Now we can confirm that Utah is also the capital of affordable photobooths. Six of the seven booths Evita submitted charge just $1, and the seventh booth just $2. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a $1 photobooth — the Children’s Museum black and white machine in Boston used to be a dollar, but has since gone up. The price is definitely right in Utah.

I’d like to add that E.Y. gave us the best kind of submissions possible: photos of the booths, sample photos, and great documentation, including price, address, and description — including the official store number for each Kmart location. Thanks, E.Y.!

The new Utah photobooths: in Salt Lake City, The Utah Museum of Natural History, Kmart 4273, Kmart 4159; Kmart 7624 in Draper, Kmart 7618 in West Jordan, Kmart 3085 in Woods Cross, and The South Towne Center in Sandy.

After gathering together a list of locations from past research as well as a new crop of additions from Gary Gulley, I arrived in Chicago on Friday afternoon, ready to give it my best shot. I’d been to Chicago last October, and had managed to visit just three booths: at Hangge Uppe, Melvin B’s, and the Local Option. This time, I was ready with a big list and a free day. 

I had a little time in the afternoon when I arrived, and then I’d have the rest of the evening after meeting a friend I was staying with. I decided to tackle the daytime businesses first, and leave the bars for the evening. I found some parking downtown and immediately headed for the City of Chicago Gun Registration office, which had long been the most intriguing photobooth location on my Chicago list. I found my way to the Richard J. Daley Center and headed through security before finding out the gun registration office had moved to a new police headquarters somewhere else in the city. Oh well.

Back in the car, then, and up to my next location, the Crunch Gym location at North and Sheffield, cited by some sources as having a booth. After finally finding the place, totally unadvertised on the outside, I learned that they no longer had the booth. Strike two.

From there, I headed up to West Lakeview to Sam & Willy’s, a terrific pet supply store known for its pet-friendly photobooth. I utilized some of Chicago’s plentiful “15 minutes but use your flashers” parking and zipped in for a quick photo. I had a nice chat with Joe behind the counter about the booth and how many customers don’t even realize it’s there. I got a phone call from my wife as I was sitting in the booth, so the photos reflect fifteen seconds or so of our conversation. My first success!

I had just a little time left before I needed to be uptown in Evanston, so I headed west a few blocks to The Village Tap, a terrific little bar and beer garden on Roscoe. Thankfully, they’d been open since noon, and I popped in to use their nice black and white booth. My afternoon was complete, with two out of four successes so far.

I headed back into Chicago around 6:30 that night, and decided to just run the map north to south, hitting as many locations as I could, one neighborhood at a time. My first stop would be Uptown, location of the Holiday Club. It was pretty quiet at 7:15, but I enjoyed the Sinatra-themed decor and had a Coke at the bar to get some change for the photobooth. Next stop, Wrigleyville, scene of an afternoon Cubs game whose fans were now spilling into the area’s many bars. I stopped first at Sluggers , a massive sports bar in the shadow of Wrigley Field. I made my way into the third room of the bar and found the photobooth near the exit to the patio. A group of people who seemed to have gotten an early start on their evening were sitting outside the photobooth, and one of them invited herself in to join me as the flash went off. She waited for the photos to come out, but left shortly before they arrived, and I took off with the strip (my first to have words printed between frames), never to see her again…or so I thought.

I walked down Sheffield from Sluggers to Sheffield’s in Lakeview. I wish I’d had a chance to stop and sample some of their hand-pulled ales, but I was on a mission. I paid my $1 cover (?) and headed to the empty back room, where I found the black and white photobooth in between the ubiquitous Golden Tee video game and the Sopranos pinball machine. 

I hopped back in the car near Wrigley and drove down to legendary music venue Schubas in Lake View. The photobooth, an Auto-Photo Model 14 with nice rounded ends, was nestled next to the Golden Tee machine right before the entrance to the performance area. I wish I’d had more time to spend there; it was a great old building.

From Schubas, I walked down Southport to the Lincoln Tap Room, an unremarkable place where I ordered a Sprite to get more ones and waited while a couple of girls played pool before I could sneak by to get to the photobooth.

Back in the car, I headed across town (and across the Chicago River) to Diversey River Bowl, where I had my first disappointment of the evening: a black and white booth that was out of order. Oh well. 

Off, then, to Wicker Park, and The Silver Room, a jewelry boutique with tall ceilings and a big magazine selection. Their black and white photobooth was enclosed in a nice wooden shell that matched the interior of the store, neatly done except for the little shim sticking out from the corner of the box.

By this time, it was about 9:30. I walked up Milwaukee a few blocks to find the Double Door, where I faced my first bouncer of the evening. I asked if I might pop in to take a photo in the booth, but was  informed it would be “seven dollars no matter how you cut it.” It was somewhat more painful that I was paying to hear a band called Wet Animal, but I didn’t come all this way to pick and choose, so I handed over my seven bucks and headed in. The photobooth couldn’t spit out the photostrip fast enough for me, and I headed back out into the night and back to my car. 

A quick drive and another “15 minutes with flashers on” parking spot got me to the Rainbo Club, where I allowed myself my one beer of the evening. I brought my two-dollar PBR into the three-dollar photobooth and relaxed briefly, taking in the scene at the bar, picking up a photobooth calendar and donating to the food bank. Liz Phair apparently shot the cover photo for “Exile in Guyville” in that booth, or at least another photobooth that was there in 1993.

One more stop in this neck of the woods, The Empty Bottle on Western Ave. The gentleman at the door was nice enough to let me in and hold onto my license while I went to use the photobooth, avoiding the cover charge for the band in the next room. Unfortunately, the booth took my first dollar and wouldn’t take any more (or any photos), so I was out of luck. 

It was time to head over to Hogs & Honeys, a bar I’d seen when I went to check out Crunch in the afternoon. Parking was a nightmare on Weed Street, with valet parkers and stretch Hummers making traffic come to a standstill. I asked the bouncer if I could check out the photobooth without paying the cover, and he said no way. But he added that he thought it was broken, so I probably didn’t want to pay to get in to use it anyway. I suggested that I go in and see if it was broken, and then come back. He let me in, and I headed in to the clichéd mess of Harley stuff, license plates on the wall, and girls standing around a mechanical bull. I found the booth, over by the bathrooms, and it was in working order. I got another Coke for change, quickly took my photostrip and headed out, so happy that I’d avoided the cover that I forgot to snap a photo of the booth. Serves me right.

It was time to head into the heart of downtown Chicago for my next two stops, at Shenanigans House of Beer (I had to step out of the way of people making shots at the basketball hoop behind the photobooth) and Excalibur, where the woman at the door was nice enough to let me use the photobooth without paying the $10 cover.

Since I’d found a legal spot on the street, I decided to stop in for some dinner (as it was 11:45 by now) at a big sausage and pasta restaurant across from the huge McDonald’s. I took off on the longest stretch of the evening, from downtown Chicago four miles south to Pilsen, home of Skylark. As I drove down Halstead, I was reminded as I had been all evening of the other marathon I’d been through in Chicago, the actual 26-mile race I’d run last October. This evening’s photobooth crawl was taking longer and probably covering more ground, but I was constantly reminded of all of the sights and neighborhoods we’d passed through on the racecourse as I drove around. Aimee and I had tried to check out Skylark when we were down getting me registered for the race, and I remember it well — a disastrously long walk into the middle of nowhere to find a bar that wouldn’t open for hours, leading to another long walk back. Oops. This time, I had better luck: Skylark was open and the booth was functioning. 

All along, I’d planned to hit one more photobooth in Wrigleyville on my way back to Evanston, the booth at Smart Bar that I’d read wouldn’t open until 10pm. I took Halstead all the way up, and before I knew it, I was passing familiar old Weed Street, not far from Hogs and Honeys. When a parking spot appeared before me, I took and, and popped in, $5 cover and all, to get the photograph of the booth I’d forgotten to a few hours before. The same bouncer was working the door, so I didn’t try the “see if the photobooth is working” trick. 

My night came to a close up at Smart Bar, downstairs at the Metro on N. Clark. I found a somewhat legal parking spot and headed over, and passed a very intoxicated-looking girl on the street who said “High five!” and held her hand up. As I gave her a high five, I realized to my disbelief that it was the same girl who invited herself into the photobooth with me at Sluggers six hours earlier. I’m surprised she was still standing; she didn’t recognize me or demand the photostrip, thankfully. 

The staff at the door of the Smart Bar were brusque but accomodating; I was told I had five minutes to do what I needed to do to avoid paying the cover, so I zipped downstairs and hopped in the photobooth. Here at the seventeenth stop of the day, I finally came across someone else using the photobooth, and I waited with them for their photos, then mine, to emerge. As I headed back upstairs, I heard the doorman say “Here he comes…” to the woman at the cash register, as if they’d actually been waiting for me, thinking I might just stay down there. I’m glad I didn’t find out what would happen if I had. I headed back to Evanston, satisfied with my accomplishments and impressed at the photobooth mecca that is Chicago.

The next morning, I set out to find a few more booths in the suburbs, with mixed luck. The Heartland Cafe’s booth was in fine working order, as was the photobooth at Novelty Golf and Games (a.k.a. Bunny Hutch Mini-Golf) in Lincolnwood. The photobooth at Photo’s Hot Dogs in Mt. Prospect was also there as promised. The photobooth purported to be in the Lincolnwood Mall was a digital sketch booth, though, and the folks at the Purple Palace had no idea what I was talking about. Most of those tips came from the list in Rob Elder’s Chicago Tribune article, which is now somewhat out of date. 

On my way back from Chicago to Rochester, I made one last stop, at Big Fun in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. The photobooth there was impressively buried among tons of great ’70s toys and Jesus action figures and Simpsons bobbleheads. 

The grand total for the road trip was 26 photobooths, putting us well over 100. I think I’ve had my fill for now… Be sure to contribute yours today. 

A ten day road trip from Seattle to Rochester, NY, was filled with visits with friends and family, great road food, bizarre attractions, and more than a few photobooths. In this first of two posts about the trip, I’ll cover the booth locations I found in Seattle, Denver, and Kansas City. 

I had a list of photobooths that had been in Seattle at one time or another, and whether or not they were still there or, if so, if they were dip and dunk or digital, I didn’t know. Before a visit to the EMP, we headed over to the Seattle Center, only to find that both reported booths were digital. Afterwards, we headed to the Fun Forest, where we found one color photobooth in the indoor arcade area. 

After lunch, I decided to check out the Pacific Science Center complex, despite the $10 entry fee. I also managed to leave my debit card in the ATM getting money to use in the booths, but that’s another story… I asked the ticket sellers where the photobooths were, and found two traditional booths among a host of digital offerings. The first photobooth, in Building 4, had a nice red and black exterior and the island scene inside. The second photobooth, inside Building 3, was surrounded by kids and parents waiting in line to try out some new Nintendo games, I think. It was also, unfortunately, out of order.

We left the Seattle Center area and headed to Capitol Hill to walk around, and happened to park right next to a sign on the sidewalk advertising a photobooth inside a store called Galore. I hadn’t had any idea there was a photobooth there, so I’m happy they advertised it. Apparently the store has been around since March, 2005 or so, and the photobooth has been there since the beginning. 

We walked up Broadway a bit to Broadway Market, another location I’d noted from some internet research. Up on the second floor, next to Gold’s Gym, we found the photobooth, a color model. All of the photobooths we came across in Seattle were managed by Photobooth Services.

After leaving Seattle and passing through northern Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, we stopped off to stay with friends in Denver. By chance, we walked by the only bar I knew of in Denver with a photobooth, Sputnik. We hopped in Sputnik’s photobooth with our friends and marveled at the $2 price — go Denver!

The long drive across eastern Colorado and Kansas brought us to Kansas City, where I’d heard word of a photobooth in an underwear boutique. The rumors were true, though the booth wasn’t actually in the store; instead, Birdies’ photobooth was outside the store in an alley, with its own metal roof and customized “Birdies” glass sign. The booth wasn’t working because the shop wasn’t open, but we’ll try it out on a return visit. 

Next up, the great Chicago Photobooth Marathon.

As the week comes to a close we’ve got a few tidbits of photobooth news from around the country. First, from the various boroughs of the City of New York, some photobooth-spotting. In a review of L.I.C., Joshua Bernstein of the New York Press reports, “In the overlooked borough, a photo booth makes a fine bedfellow.” We visited L.I.C. and tested out the photobooth there last month; unfortunately, it was out of order, though the bartenders were nice enough to provide an unsolicited refund. 

Mr. Bernstein seems to have a nose for photobooths in the City; earlier this month, he reviewed the Williamsburg watering hole The Bushwick Country Club, and described a walk through the bar: “Cradling my beer, I shuffle past dusty golf clubs and a three-dollar photo booth. It’s ideal for R‑rated pics, but licentiousness must wait.” We have yet to visit the Bushwick, but thanks to the review, it’s on our list for the next visit.

Moving down the coast to the Herald-Mail of Hagerstown, Maryland, Julie Greene writes an article about unique proposals, including the story of Rob Slocum, who proposed (and showed proof of the father-of-the-bride’s permission) in a photobooth. Slocum apparently “suggested in December 1996 that they get their picture taken in a photo booth for their Christmas card,” and then proposed to his girlfriend, Kelly Boyer.

And finally, from the police blotter of the Lufkin (Texas) Daily News, a report of some photobooth indiscretion, though you have to give it a close read; the incidents are not separated from one another on the page, so it looks like one big, confusing crime:

A security officer at Lufkin Mall reported that two people were in a photo booth, and the girl was partially clothed and the boy was holding her breast. Police officers located the couple and found a photograph depicting what the security officer had described.

The boy was 19 years old and the girl 16. The incident is still under investigation, according to a police report.

Shades of the Kentucky amusement park affair of 2000…

Thanks to a tip from Elizabeth Cunningham and a list of possible Philly photobooths from Brian, I had a quick and painless afternoon of photobooth hunting in center city Philadelphia this past May. My wife Heather grew up in the Philly suburbs and we try to get back at least once a year to see her family. Heather kindly accompanied me on this particular booth hunt. As it turns out, the 3 booths I had on my list ended up being within 5 blocks of each other.

Our first stop was El Vez (not to be confused with the Mexican Elvis), a trendy place self-described as “gritty East L.A. meets a Tijuana Taxi vibe.” They have done a great job creating a unique and festive interior, a perfect spot for a booth. Just as suspected, a black and white 4‑pose photobooth sits near the back of the restaurant. Unfortunately the booth was broken and to add insult to injury, the staff was a bit salty. If you visit the El Vez official website, and are patient enough to get past the super-fresh splash screen and requisite techo beat, click on the piano icon (Restaurant Tour) to see a picture of some of the pictures (purportedly) produced by their photobooth.

Next stop: the Spaceport Amusement Center. The buildings on this particular block are not well marked, but we quickly realize the Spaceport Amusement Center is no more (and the crowd goes mild). In its place is a shoe store called Samsun Footwear (pictured at right).

Final stop: The Spaghetti Warehouse. This booth (a 4‑pose color unit) is not only exactly where expected, but it actually works. I sit for my strip of four, and call it a day.

Afterward, I realized another promising location was in walking distance of the other three: the K‑Mart at the Gallery (9th and Market) is said to have at least two. Next visit…

Out in San Diego this weekend for a wedding, we had a little free time to see what four-photo magic San Diego has to offer. The verdict? Not too shabby, actually.

My first stop was the The Museum of Photographic Arts, located where every other museum in San Diego lives, in Balboa Park. Next to the San Diego Historical Society and above the San Diego Model Railroad Museum, the MoPA is an interesting, if small, museum dedicated to photography. The gift shop features a wide array of photography books, picture frames, gifts, and not one but two photobooths. Side by side near the front entrance, a generic black and gray striped color booth and a beautiful rounded-end Model 11 B&W booth provide museum-goers with the opportunity to take both black-and-white and color photos, each for only $2. The photos aren’t perfect, but they’re certainly unique, and the price and convenience of these two booths in one place makes the MoPA a photobooth haven. On the outside of the black-and-white booth, a plaque tells users that the booth is similar to ones that they may have seen at a variety of California five-and-dime stores years ago. On the outside of the color booth hangs a photocopy of a San Diego paper article mentioning the booths (the article that had clued me in to their presence in the first place), as well as a mention from a school magazine about a photography class that took a field trip to the museum (and the booth).

Next up on the list was the Corvette Diner in Hillcrest. The only diner I’ve seen with valet parking, the Corvette was by far the busiest business around at 11am on a Saturday. Decorated with everything ’50s, neon, and retro, the diner is more than just a dining experience: a waiter throws a handful of straws at a table of children as a way of saying “hello,” waitresses in poodle skirts wear vests covered in flair, and portraits of every ’50s and ’60s icon from Sinatra to Buddy Holly to the Beatles, rendered a la Warhol, hang from the walls. In the lunch counter area in the front of the restaurant, just to the left of the stairs up to the main eating area, sits another gorgeous rounded-end Model 11. It takes crisp black-and-white photos, and looks to have been serviced a little more recently than the similar booth at the MoPA.

The next stop was Belmont Park, an amusement park in Mission Bay, just north of downtown San Diego. Home to an 80 year-old roller coast named the Giant Dipper, Belmont Park is a small amusement park with perhaps three rides in addition to the coaster. An indoor arcade features a digital photobooth, and I found two traditional booths located outside as I walked closer to the beach itself. The first booth is located in front of Waves Beach and Sportwear, and though it sounded like it was working, the green light wasn’t on, and the bill acceptor wasn’t accepting any bills. The booth was open on both sides, and a nice breeze blew through, brushing the curtains against me as I sat and unwisely dropped a quarter in the slot, just to see.

On the other side of the boardwalk, in front of the Krazy Kars building and under the shadow of the spinning pendulum ride, I found another outdoor color booth, with its little peaked roof and curtains on both sides. This booth was working, and came with the bonus of an abandoned strip in the drying slot. I took a few strips as the wind blew the curtain into the frame — not a problem you usually have to deal with — and called in the broken booth to Photo-Me.

The next day, I followed up on a rumor about a photobooth in a Kmart on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard in San Diego; unfortunately, the Kmart has become a “Sears Essentials” store, and I didn’t bother going in to check whether they’d retained their booth.

The last day of my trip to San Diego, I had a half hour to kill before brunch, and stopped in a used cd store to look around. A cd caught my eye: both the front and back covers were made up of a grid of old photobooth photos. Cool, I thought, and I held onto it while I browsed some more. Five minutes later, another album caught my eye: this one had five strips of photos, assembled together as a grid forming a single image. Same only different on the back cover, and more inside. What are the chances? I looked around for another, and came close with a few images on a Best of Everclear disc, but it only had one or two images, not enough for my newly-high standards. The DJ Shitbird and Wannadies albums will be posted in the Music section as soon as we create one. Well done San Diego!

Photobooth.net was on a mission this weekend, hitting four photobooth locations in three boroughs in one long afternoon, with a net result of twelve dollars spent, nine dollars refunded, three broken photobooths, one threat of arrest, and one photostrip. Not a bad haul, but not exactly what we were looking for.

Having met Bill from Photo-Me a few weeks ago, I called him up and asked him to leave me a message with some photobooth locations in the City, which he kindly did. I’d been to a few before, but most were unfamiliar, and I headed out to Long Island City in Queens to tackle the bar known, coincidentally, as L.I.C.. Great bar, well-placed photobooth, but no luck getting a strip of photos to come out. I went through everything twice, heard the blow-dryer come on, but no photos came out. The bartender was nice enough to give me my money back, without me even asking, and I think they’ll be getting someone in there to take a look at it for future bar-goers.

From L.I.C., I walked to the G line station and hopped the train down to the Atlantic Center in Brooklyn, in search of a color booth I’d heard they had. I passed a digital booth near the entrance, and came upon a traditional booth in the center food area at the base of the escalators. The booth itself was broken, and I snapped a photo of its ‘out of order’ sign. When I stepped back to take a photo of the booth itself, a security guard approached and asked me what I was doing. He told me it was “against the mall” for me to take photos, and even after I dropped the “Photo-Me” name and showed him my list (albeit scrawled on the back of a grocery list) he didn’t budge, but even went so far as to warn me I could be arrested for taking photos of mall property. Oh well.

From Brooklyn, I headed back into Manhattan and stopped off in the West Village to check out the booth at The Fat Black Pussycat. The bar was open but the lounge area wasn’t, but when I asked the bartender if the photobooth was still around, he let me into the lounge to take some photos. Like a bad case of déjà vu, the booth went through the motions but produced no photos. Rather than throw more money at it, I let the bartender know it wasn’t working, and felt around on the top of the booth, where I came up with some discarded strips from an evening sometime in the past. The bartender kindly refunded my money, again un-solicited, and I stayed to drink a Yuengling’s and watch Derek Jeter’s first career grand slam in an otherwise empty bar.

Up the West Side I went, heading for location number four, The Door Lounge. I had a little time to kill before it opened, and enjoyed watching traffic for the Lincoln Tunnel go absolutely nowhere for ten minutes on 9th Avenue in front of the bar. I also watched the legendary Wallace Shawn get unceremoniously honked at by some clod in an SUV before getting into a taxi. He looked like any other somewhat old New York guy clutching a plastic bag and minding his own business. It was a moment.

Once I got in The Door, so to speak, the booth worked fine, nice crisp color, and I had my first legitimate success of the day. The other booths in clubs and bars around the City will have to wait until the next trip; if any of our readers would care to visit Crobar, Lot 61, or Southpaw, take a photo of the booth and some photos of yourselves and send it our way.

Photo-Me USA was represented at the SPREE Trade Show (Specialty Retail Entrepreneur Expo) in Boston this weekend, billed as an “exceptional showcase of exhibitors that ranges from manufacturers, wholesalers and turnkey concept companies to property managers, mall developers and retail service providers.”

I visited Gary Gulley and Bill Lichtenwalner at the booth on Saturday, chatted about photobooths, and snapped some photos in the new DS-21. Gary was kind enough to meet me outside and get me into the show with my very own “Photo-Me USA” Exhibitor Pass, letting me become an honorary representative of the company for a day — or at least an hour.

The booth, a traditional ‘dip and dunk’ machine with new exteriors, was on display in an exhibition hall full of water-massage beds, healing rocks, and personalized chilkdren’s music.

Instead of a traditional painted exterior, the DS-21 is covered by posters set into metal frames, so the exterior of the booth can be changed easily and doesn’t require expensive re-painting. A flat screen tv is set into the exterior on the front side and on the end; at the time I came by, the tv was playing the recent “CBS Sunday Morning” segment on photobooths, but would normally be used for advertising. The segment had played so many times in succession that Bill and Gary could quote lines from it at will. “Why do they have to say ‘cheesy photobooth’?” Gary asked. I agreed — Charles Osgood, time to check your script.

It was a pleasure for me to meet Gary and Bill and talk about booth locations, the history of the company, and the recent convention. I’ve got a few new booths to check out the next time I’m in New York City, and now the world knows to look out for a DS-21 at a mall near you…

The New Times of Broward and Palm Beach Counties alerts us to a photography exhibition called Site Seeing, opening tomorrow at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a photobooth where museum-goers can snap a few photos of themselves. The materials included in the exhibition come from the collections of the George Eastman House (home to a photobooth of its own), featuring more than 200 photos and artifacts that explore ” the relationship between tourism, photography and motion pictures.”

Any Photobooth.net readers in the area care to contribute by trying out the booth and sending us a photo? The show runs until September 4, 2005.

According to an article in today’s Guardian, author and media darling Jonathan Safran Foer spent $2,000 in a photobooth “trying to get the right picture” for the dust jacket for his first book Everything is Illuminated. “$2,000 is a bit of an exaggeration,” he corrected, but apparently, he searched long and hard for just the right photobooth in Manhattan (I wonder which one he chose) and then did what it took to get the photo just right. We understand. I’ve read the book but I’ll have to revisit; I don’t recall the photo, but I was also in my “pre-photobooth-aware” days.