Sean Duggan Blog

The Cost

Small Town Billboard, Chatham, New York
(click in the image for a larger version)

This is a companion piece to the previous image of a small town Main Street window memorial to a fallen soldier in Iraq. This image was also taken during my journey through some of the smaller towns in the Northeast. Like Wilmington, Vermont,  where the previous photo was taken, Chatham is also a small town in a predominantly rural area. It is in upstate New York, not far from the Massachusetts border, and not far from Wilmington, Vermont.

High Hat Regency Motel

High Hat Regency Motel, Las Vegas [Canon 10D]

Well, I had planned to post a pinhole shot today, but then I found myself looking through the folder of Vegas images again and this one spoke to me. It also goes well with yesterday's image.

The color version was primarily a study in blue and white and, although I did like it, after some experimentation, I felt that it worked better in black and white (with a dose of my usual uneven sepia toning). It was close, though, and there are still aspects of the color version that I find appealing.

I'll save the pinhole image for tomorrow's post.

Lucky Motel

Lucky Motel, Las Vegas [Canon 10D]
(click to see a larger version)

This is the sign for the motel where yesterday's image of the abandoned pool was taken. I love the letter "U" that is hanging askew from the word "Lucky"...in terms of photographic serendipity rich with symbolism, it just doesn't get much better than that! Interestingly, I did not notice that hanging letter at the time I took the shot. It was only much later while sorting images from that trip that I saw it.

It's always fascinating to me what photographers are drawn to and why. In many cases, I expect that we might not even be sure why we're drawn to a particular type of subject, but we just know that we are. I have always been fascinated by grungy, decaying, falling down, abandoned, seedy, peeling, weathered locations that have seen better days. If you proposed a photo walkabout and gave me the choice of a beautiful hike through mountain meadows with rushing streams, wild flowers and old pine forests, or an old boulevard in a questionable neighborhood dotted with several down at the heels motels from the 1950s, I would take the latter without a moment's hesitation.

Don't get me wrong, I love to be out in nature and hike on beautiful mountain trails (indeed, I live in an area where such places are common, quite close and I do go on frequent hikes), but in terms of making photographs, I would find more grist for my creative mill in the beat-up weathered places that time and fortune have passed by.

For those who are wondering, this image has received some custom toning techniques as well as some dodging and burning on certain areas of the sign.

Abandoned Swimming Pool

Abandoned Pool, Lucky Motel, Las Vegas [Canon 10D]
(click for a larger version)

This is from the seedy side of Vegas photo safari back in early March. I played around with this shot in black and white, but in the end I just couldn't resist the colors of the decaying pool.

Though the pool was obviously abandoned and pretty decrepit (at the lower right corner you can the edge of the stagnant water in the deep end), the rest of the motel looked to be open for business, though, from the state of the pool and the motel sign (tomorrow's post), I would hate to imagine what the rooms were like. An angry man came out and yelled at my companion and I that we couldn't take photos of the pool (perhaps he thought we were from the Tourist Safety Board...). My companion replied that since we were on the sidewalk and the pool was immediately adjacent to the afore-mentioned sidewalk, that we were well within our rights. He got into his truck and appeared to drive off, but then kept circling back to check up on us and we continued to take pictures. Eventually we got bored with the Lucky Motel and moved on to seedier pastures.

Change

Change Machine, Santa Cruz, California
Click for a larger version

In a post from two days ago, I gave a short summary of how the image was processed in Photoshop. I included a screen grab of the new Camera Raw dialog in Photoshop CS2. I have just updated that image with callouts that identify what the new features are.

Blue Markers, after Christo

Blue Markers, Vacaville, California

On my way down to teach a weekend workshop for UCSC Extension in the south Bay Area, I stopped along a country road that ran parallel to the freeway. I found  hundreds of these blue markers along the side of the road and inside a fenced hillside of lush green grass and oak trees. I have no idea what the markers signified, but they had echoes of a project by Christo, such as the recent The Gates in New York's Central Park (which, alas, I was not able to see).

Bling

Bling, Fremont Street, Las Vegas [taken with a Lensbaby]

Neon Milkman

Neon Milkman (c. 1956), Las Vegas [taken with a Lensbaby]

This is one of the old neon signs that comprise the open air Neon Museum in the Fremont Street area of Las Vegas. Most are from the 1940s, 50s and 60s and even though the businesses that inspried them are long gone, you can still enjoy a glimpse into the neon styles of times past.

Society Cleaners

Society Cleaners, detail; Las Vegas

Just back from Photoshop World in Las Vegas (certainly a leading contender for the designation of "most bizarre city in the world" ). Look for more Vegas images in the days ahead.

RE: "Society Cleaners": I love the idea of a firm that comes in and cleans up a society. They would find a lot of business in Vegas!