200 Motels - One day too many on the road

I always loved Frank Zappa's album title 200 Motels. It captures in a very simple phrase, the grind of traveling for a living.  It doesn't matter if your a musician, salesman or circus performer, the travel can be great, but at the same time a lot of down time between performances. Like the title 200 Motels, I have tried in this photograph to capture the essence of that one day too many in a tired motel. I saw this one morning in my room in a old motel in Galt California. It is the morning light just starting to peak around the curtain in the room. I thought the tear in the fabric was a lot like that one day too many. I'm tired and torn and just want to make my way home. It's a bit of a risky shot in that it is simple in composition and hopefully conveys the end of a long trip out. 

If you have followed my other posts, you probably see that in many of my photos, I try for a very simple strong graphic to represent a place and a feeling. This type of photograph seems to generate either a strong positive or negative response. It's a healthy visual exercise to try to reduce what you want to convey in a simple way. If you have some similar photos with this type of simple graphic, I'd  love to see them or hear your thoughts. .

Have a great day.

Tuesday Morning - Galt

Mike

I will be adding this photo to my web site.  www.stillslife.com

Revisiting old photographs to find a hidden image

Northern Hotel - Original

This image of the metal strap on the Northern Hotel wall was one of those things that worked out of finding a strong graphic image shooting at mid day with very bright sunlight. This photo is for all intents and purposes a black and white photo due to the white wall and strap with its shadows. I really was pleased with this version, but did experiment with  Corel Paint Shop Pro water color effect this week.  
This worked out well adding slight color to give more of a wall with old paint layers. It's not as strong a contrast as the original, but works pretty well.  I think it is equally effective but in a softer way. 
This is another revisiting of an old image shot in 2004 to come up with a different effect. The Corel Paint Shop Pro software is pretty easy to use and can add very strong effects to quite subtle changes. 
Hope you like these two versions of the same picture. 
Regards
Mike

These images are on my web site  http://www.stillslife.com/

Northern Hotel - Water Color

StillsLife: New Car Show Abstract photo subjects

StillsLife: New Car Show Abstract photo subjects: "Open Road Cadillac - Mountain Ave. The car show season is finally underway and I love to look for nontraditional more abstract shots t..."

New Car Show Abstract photo subjects

Open Road

Cadillac - Mountain Ave.

The car show season is finally underway and I love to look for nontraditional more abstract shots that make you ask, "Just what is going on here?"
The Cadillac - Mountain Ave is fairly recognizable but bends and twists the reflected images in the gorgeous 50's chrome.

In the "Open Road" photo I was drawn to the exhaust pipes exiting through the holes in the hood sides of this beautiful black hot rod.  I realized as I was looking for the shot that if I stood on a sharp angle to the hood and the street, I got an entirely different view. Are the pipes coming out of holes in the asphalt? Is this some strange Government experiment? I really enjoy the bending of reality in this photo.

I hope you enjoy these.  They are both on my website:  http://www.stillslife.com/

Thanks for looking
Mike