The coolest motel in the world
Here's a pair of photos of the Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, NM along Route 66, and I also share some insight into shooting this amazing little gem of a town.
Ok, I haven't been to every motel - that's obvious. But can you deny that the Blue Swallow Motel should at least be high on the list?
I love places like this - lots of character, some neon, tons of history, and so much visual interest that you cannot help but take some photos. When I arrived at this hotel in Tucumcari, NM along Route 66, I immediately parked and took some iPhone shots. I then checked in and stayed 1 night in the motel, and thus I spent a copious amount of time taking all sorts of shots here.
The entire town of Tucumcari is very photogenic, in a Route 66 "the best days are behind it" sort of way. That may sound mean, but I mean it as a compliment. It's historic and there are some amazing things to see in this little town, and nearly all of them beg to be photographed. So I obliged. :-)
I drove and walked up and down Route 66 in Tucumcari and shot all sorts of old hotels and motels, so in use like the Blue Swallow and some boarded up and empty. There are multiple old gas stations, also in varying degrees of disrepair. And then all the lovely signs. I spent only about 18-20 hours in town, but boy did I walk away with a lot of great photos!
Moulin Rouge at night
A long exposure of the Moulin Rouge in Paris, taken after dark one evening...
This place is magical after dark!
I love neon signs when they are all lit up at night - I just find it gorgeous. On our last trip to Paris, I made sure to get over here to the Moulin Rouge one evening so I could capture it. On our previous trip, I ended up here during the day which is definitely not as exciting.
So I arrived after dark and set up on a little pedestrian island sort of in the street, trying to keep people from standing in front of my camera while I took this long exposure. Generally they were considerate, which is great, and I was able to capture exactly what I wanted.
Yes, that windmill thing atop the Moulin Rouge does turn, and that was my goal - to capture a long exposure so it would blur out and look like it is spinning pretty fast. Done!
A night along South Congress Avenue
South Congress Avenue in downtown Austin is quite a fun place for photography. While I have often shot this area at sunrise, I recently changed things up a bit and shot in the evening instead. Here's a few pics to give you a taste of it! I hope you like neon!
Restaurants and hippies and neon, oh my!
Home Slice Pizza is very tasty!
I love shooting down along South Congress Avenue here in Austin. It's sort of the center of the "Keep Austin Weird" vibe, by which I mean it's an interesting sort of hippie part of town. It's awesome, and I love heading down there. It's just fun, and as you can imagine, it's a very popular part of town for locals and visitors alike.
There are cool shops and restaurants, lots of food trucks, some great graffiti and one of my loves - neon signs. In my early years of photography, I didn't get down here too often. I'm not sure why, but I only came down here once or twice in several years. But over the last couple of years, I have been down here many times with the camera and always walk away with shots I like. Perhaps I am making up for lost time!
By the way, I have been experimenting more and more with Pinterest, and am enjoying it. I am finding some great stuff (content) there, and have been sharing more and more of my own things there. So I created this image on the right which is "Pinterest-sized" and thus easier to pin there. Pin away my friends! :-)
I also enabled direct pinning to Pinterest with all my images, so you can just hover over an image and a "Pin It" graphic pops up on the top left corner.
I plan to keep experimenting with Pinterest and should I find enough good info and tips to share with you, I will do so here. If you are interested, you can find me here.
Anyways, back to this post...South Congress Avenue.
Guero's has some pretty excellent Tex-Mex food!
i just had to shoot this sign!
In my opinion, sunrise is the best time to shoot here, because you can avoid the crowds and traffic, and can literally stand in the middle of the street for a shot if you need to. I've done that many times, and will do it again. Some shots just require that you stand in the middle of the road. Don't try that in the evenings, though. You might get crushed!
But today's post is about an evening shoot I did there. I had been out that day shooting around a few spots here in town (trying to get things off my never-ending list!), and then met up with my wife and daughter for dinner nearby. After dinner, I headed out for a little bit more shooting, which is when I grabbed all these shots. It was mid-week so although it was somewhat busy, it wasn't weekend-crazy-busy.
For some reason, I don't normally shoot much at night. Usually I shoot from sunset on through blue hour, but once darkness falls I tend to call it a day. I'm not sure why, really. It's just something I have done for a long time. Anyways, I made an exception this time and I'm glad that I did. It's good to change things up and do something different at times.
I absolutely love Amy's Ice Creams - so delicious!
While sunrise is my preference, the evenings along South Congress are pretty awesome too. Yeah, you get lots of folks in the photos, but it's still a very interesting place with a lot of photo opportunities. I tried to work around the crowds as best I could, but it's unavoidable. If you enjoy street photography then you will love it here in the evenings (especially weekends) - lots of interesting people and things going on. It's not really my thing, but I understand the attraction of it.
But what is my thing? Street scenes, neon signs and things like that. So yeah, this is a kind of heaven for me. It has all that and more. It's wonderful for HDR (which is what most of these shots are, except for the neon signs which are single exposures) and with all the colors in the area, you can come up with some pretty interesting stuff!
And if you are planning a trip to Austin, take a look at my list here on the blog for all the best spots in town - there's a lot to shoot here. South Congress Avenue is definitely on the list, and frankly, it's high on my personal list of the best places to shoot here. Be sure and visit this location if you make it to Austin!
Good advice!
the continental club has been here as long as I can remember!
Signs you're in Portland
Portland Oregon is a great town! While we were in Oregon this summer, we spent a long day there exploring quite a bit of it. Here are some photos of some cool signs I spotted while there. Enjoy!
Just some wonderful Portland signage today!
I love signs and tend to shoot them a lot when I travel. On our big summer trip, we took one day and drove up to Portland to hang out and have fun (and eat doughnuts!). It was pretty awesome, and made more awesome by the fact that I got to enjoy some tasty beer, incredible doughnuts, and even got an amazing sunset while there! Good times!
So today's post is a short one, in terms of what I'm writing, but I wanted to share these shots and encourage you to go to Portland, and to take some sign photos while there! (oh yeah, and try the doughnuts!)
(click any photo to enlarge by the way!)
Experiencing a different side of Las Vegas
Good old Las Vegas - so much to shoot there, and such an interesting place! Today's post is a collection of pics from Fremont Street, which is in old Vegas. It's a cab ride away from The Strip, and a much different experience. Enjoy!
There's a LOT to aim the camera at when in Las Vegas - and it's not all on the strip!
I like Las Vegas, photographically speaking. I don't want to live there, but I enjoy traveling there and taking photos of the place. It's a bit of a photographic wonderland. Regardless of what you like to shoot, you can probably find it in Vegas.
On my last trip out there (back in February of this year), I made a point to get away from The Strip and had read about a section of old Las Vegas that has been redeveloped. It's Fremont Street, and there is a lot going on there.
In addition to some old casinos (with a lot of character), there are some cool neon signs to shoot as well, which is something I love. So I got there late one afternoon and fired away. It was a lot of fun, and a nice diversion from the insanity of The Strip (which is the only part of Vegas that I had ever seen before this).
So today's post is a small collection of what I shot there that afternoon. I took many more shots as day turned to evening, and will share those another time. I just need to find some more time to process them. I say that a lot don't I? :-)
And as you can probably tell, I processed some of these photos a bit differently than I normally do. While I am a creature of habit (and do like my normal style of processing), I thought that these signs were much more fun and interesting when done with a bit of a vintage twist.
So I took them all into Analog Efex Pro2 and hammered away at them. It was fun to experiment and I always find that I learn something when I do experiment. In fact, I hope to experiment more with both my shooting styles and processing styles as this year continues to unfold.
Well that's it - just a quick tour of a few spots I found interesting in Las Vegas! If you find yourself in Sin City, take a break from The Strip and head over to Fremont Street! You'll be glad you did!
Dear Seattle, you are beautiful
Today's post is an ode to that wonderful city in the Pac Northwest - Seattle, the Emerald City. I love it there, just absolutely love it. I hope to return someday soon (but it's not currently in the plans, darnit!). Take a look at all 22 photos - yes there are 22, count 'em! - and let me know if you love the city as much as I do!
In my continuing quest to publish more photos, today's post is a bit of an ode to the Emerald City, Seattle. It's so beautiful. Have you been?
I have been there several times, and I guess I am lucky because I have never really been rained on there. Maybe it's my timing, or just luck, but I have generally gotten great weather and sunshine when there. Not entirely, mind you - but plenty often.
Now full sunshine doesn't always translate to great photo opportunities - just ask any photographer about that - but nonetheless I have been able to work with it and piece together a decent collection of shots from my various trips.
And in case you haven't noticed, more of these longer posts that I have been sharing lately have contained photos of signs that I encounter in my travels. It's not a new thing - in fact, today's photos were taken on a couple of different trips dating back a few years - it's just that I happen to really, really like taking photos of signs. Well, interesting ones at least. You're not going to catch me shooting in front of Walgreen's, for example. A guy has to have standards. :-)
But in the past, I was somewhat fearful of putting that sort of photo on the blog here. I'm not sure why, other than I thought it was so different from my "HDR travel" stuff that it would turn off viewers like you. But I have changed a lot over the last year, and have decided that I will be sharing here whatever it is that I find interesting in my travels, in hopes that you will find it interesting as well - even if the photo was taken years ago.
Some of today's shots are also from a family trip we took to Seattle a few years back, and from there we took a ferry over to Orcas Island - Friday Harbor, specifically. It's a part of the San Juan Islands, which are a fairly short ferry ride from town (seems like it was 2 hours or so, but I can't recall specifically - long enough to take some photos and drink some hot chocolate though!).
The entire area is just incredibly beautiful - that is, if you like seeing heavily forested islands dotting the sea, in every direction. I assume everyone likes that stuff. How can you not?
So once the ferry departed the terminal in Seattle, I went to the upper deck with the camera and fired away. It was pretty cold, but I don't mind suffering to bring art to you. I'll happily take that one for the team!
And of course you will notice several shots here from Pike Place Market, which is the famous farmer's market downtown. That place is a gold mine for photos, and fresh fish! :-) You'll also notice a few shots from Snoqualmie Falls, which is about an hour away from Seattle but well worth the drive (and the hike down to the trail along the river). That place is pure awesomeness. And just for fun, I threw in a couple of pics from the Wall of Gum, which is exactly what the name implies. You'll figure out which photos are from there pretty easily. Just another interesting spot in a town full of beauty and interestingness!
Anyways, enough rambling. Enjoy the photos, thanks for stopping by, and let me know if you have any questions!
The incredible neon in Nashville
Today's post is all about that great American tradition: neon signs! In particular, this is a collection of photos of some of the wonderful neon signs in downtown Nashville, TN. I was there last week, and I shot a bunch of this stuff. Hope you enjoy it!
Do you love neon signs as much as I do?
I have a serious thing for neon signs. They seem to just scream "Americana" to me. I'm certain they are not exclusive to the US, but with the wide usage of them back in the mid-20th century here, they seem to be a hallmark of the old days in this country.
I just love to see them, and of course photograph them. So on my recent trip to Nashville, I made a point of getting downtown to Broadway Avenue a couple of times, so that I could do just that!
For the uninitiated, Broadway Avenue in downtown Nashville, TN is pretty much the center of their entertainment district, and it's populated with a LOT of country and western bars, honky-tonks, restaurants, shops and of course - AMAZING NEON SIGNS! Click!
Every time I go to Nashville, this is a place I end up shooting. It's just that awesome. So I spent a fair bit of time here last week, firing away, wandering, firing again, taking a few steps and firing again...it's rather addictive. Well, to me at least. So here's a collection of shots. I hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I enjoyed shooting them!
And if you know any other towns with a great collection of signs like this, let me know! (Las Vegas for sure!)
