Sub Rosa Photo | TrekEarth

Photographer’s Note

Searching around Kalamazoo (yes, there really is a Kalamazoo) in mid-western USA for interesting subjects I saw this sign. The motel it advertises is a very dodgey dive of a place but I thought the sign itself was pretty cool and amidst the myriad of neon in the US it stood out as unique.
This is my first post taken with a digital camera so I'm hoping it comes up a little crisper than my scanned efforts. It was taken in color and originally had a very blue sky in the background but I've been playing around with PS and decided I liked it better with the background desaturated (which I did with the magic wand tool). Other than that I just added a border.

nwoehnl, bgladman has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

khawaaja (1031) 2004-04-05 14:44

Nice retro feel to the whole composition. And good framing. Your decision to desaturate the background is a good choice. The whole image says 'Hitchcock' to me :-)

nwoehnl (120) 2004-04-05 14:50

Yes, Kalamazoo, MI is one of the coolest names of places I've also been fortunate to see. You made a good composition from this quite simple sight, by finding an effective upward angle and placing the graphical elements of the sign really well. The wires are making fine diagonals in the left part of your frame. Good idea to desaturate the sky - you missed some parts like the area between the star and the "L", but it actually adds to the feel of it. Well done, Ian.

I have an "Americana" theme in which I collect this kind of shots. Yours makes a fine addition, I think.

bgladman (1153) 2004-04-05 22:15

hey mate, cool shot. The composition is good - I like the converging verticals and diagonals. The desaturated background adds to the feel of the shot. Wondering if you lost intensity in the red of the sign? Nice work and the digital image does come out a lot crisper.

merpb (1970) 2004-04-07 3:04

Great use of a dynamic perspective Ian and the desaturated background is inspired (it needs cleaning up though).

mspearman (47) 2004-04-08 18:23

This is one of the few pictures I've seen where the cables actually improve the pictures. Something is strange in the color of the clouds though. Nice photo.

Zartan_74 (0) 2009-04-20 5:11

I really love this photo!

This a really great shot all around. I like the Desaturation, Dodge & Burning, Angle, Framing and pretty much everything else. The only thing I have to say that's even remotely "Negative" ( ha.. ha.. I made a joke. OK, I know that was a really stupid photography joke. ) is that I would have double checked the sky to make sure that all the masking effects were complete, unless that's what you were going for. It is a great looking photograph, minus that however, in my opinion.

I love Photography and I love using Photoshop, I have been using it for about 10 years now. Version 5 was brand new when I first started using it, if that tells you how long its been around and how long I have been using it. Photography, CD covers, Posters, Flyers, Brochures, you name it I've done it with Photoshop. I know better now to use other Adobe programs for certain things but thats all I had for quite a few years. You gotta use what you have! ( That really was not a sales pitch. I hope no one thought that, it kinda sounded that way to me after I read...lol )

Also let me say that I always thought that was a really creepy Motel too! Plus it had 15 minute rates, you know what that means...lol

BTW - The Motel is gone now so that picture could be worth some money.
There is a brand new 5 or 6 story Marriot Hotel there now. ( I think thats the name of it )

Sorry for such a long winded Critique/Comment, sometimes I just cant stop when I'm really interested in something and have something I wanna say. :-)

So anyway, Awesome job and I look forward to seeing more work from you in the future!

Zartan_74