American Southwest (3), a photo from Colorado, West

Photographer's Note

The last in a small series of scenes that I think embody something important about the American Southwest - the area of the country that includes New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada and California. On my most recent trip, we went only to two of those states: New Mexico and Colorado.

I was drawn to this shot because of four elements: the lighting, which was just bright enough to cast a dim light around the restaurant; the rich wood paneled wall with wine bottles; the buffalo head; and the man doing the accounting at the table across the aisle. Combined, these elements gave the place an air of an Old West Saloon, right down to the old-fashioned vest the man is wearing here.

Sadly, it was a far cry from an Old West Saloon: it was in fact a chain restaurant started by media mogul and CNN founder Ted Turner called Ted's BBQ which is a nationwide chain of medium quality burger and barbecue joints done in this style. Still, it's nice to be able to pretend just a bit.

Every time I look at this shot, I get the feeling more and more that the buffalo is actually looking straight into the camera - amusing, to say the least.

danos, Sonata11, rigoletto has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

chrisvek (7003) 2012-09-08 6:05

Hi Andrew

So peacefull atmosphere on this shoot.Very clever look with superb composition.Also perfect lightning,and i think that's the most ideal.Very good job.

Best Regards
Chris

rbellemare (2109) 2012-09-08 8:24

Hello Andrew,

Nice atmospheric picture. The light is perfect. The blur sections created by the fan and the woman at the right give some movements to this image. The rustic decorations are very nice to look at.

Great job

Réjean

SNOOP_Chan (4377) 2012-09-08 8:30

Hello Andrew, u caught a nice moment here, i love the atmosphere. Never been to Denver, i can only imagine how it is down there. Good composition, i'm not into shooting defenseless animals and displaying them as trophys but i can accespt that as a mark of the American heritage and culture.
Regards!

holmertz (102834) 2012-09-08 8:35

Hello Andrew,
I would find it hard to imagine a restaurant belonging to a medium quality burger chain looking cosy, but there is an undeniable cosiness in this picture. It's probably mainly thanks to the warm light shining on the man, it could also be due to the long line of bottles of wine. As for the food, I would probably have preferred another place. Your picture is entirely satisfactory, on the other hand.
Regards,
Gert

danos (110407) 2012-09-08 10:32

Hello Andrew,
beautiful snapshot in the interior of the restaurant,with the light management to makes the image so effective.I like the atmosphere that created with the low light as the above part of the image with the bottles and the head of the buffalo to decorates perfect the scene.

Regards,Danos

mjw364 (1466) 2012-09-08 10:58

Andrew

This place may well be a simulacra and a mildly post-modern recreation of the history of the place but for me that Buffalo is saying it all because it dominates the man benath him and is kind of saying "We were here first!".

No doubt there is a discourse that circulates suggesting that really we ought to return to the old subsistence economy, living in harmony with nature and the animals in keeping with notions of American Indian culture.

Nice lighting - well observed.

Mike

rychem (72187) 2012-09-08 11:00

Very nice and peaceful atmosphere in this restaurant, nice scene, good management of light, well done
regards
Ryszard

Sonata11 (34119) 2012-09-09 19:24

Hello Andrew,
sorry, that I can not gives any point, but I like this picture very much so. Fantastic captured of this scene with this thinking man. Magnificent photo. Love it. Fantastic work.
All the best and have a nice Sunday,
Barbara

divail (8334) 2012-09-09 19:51

Bonsoir Andrew,
C'est une très belle scène, bien naturelle. La lumière est parfaite. C'est rare qu'on voit des scènes intérieures de ce genre, avec des personnages aussi naturel que cet homme. Bravo.

Diane

rigoletto (34279) 2012-09-23 13:58

Hello Andrew,
Difficult light, great result, i can say.
Interior photos are sometimes really difficult to manage because you may have all these three: Tungsten, fluorescent and daylight. And now, you have them all. In order to avoid overexposure, you needed to have underexposure at some places but this is no problem for me, because i can see all the necessary details. And i like a lot those interesting details in there: the old man, the bottles, the funny buffalo, the waitress in movemet and more. These details submerged in black give me a taste of Baroque.
Best regards,
Deniz

lpi (4857) 2012-10-07 13:16

Salut Andrew,
une très belle atmosphère se dégage de ton cliché.
Très bon shot!
Amicalement,
LPi

speedymanu (3701) 2012-11-17 1:08

Hello Andrew,

Indeed you've captured quite a few iconic elements of this part of the U.S.A. Your composition has got a real mood to it, some movie like touch, could be the colors, the fans on the ceiling ... All in all the viewer keeps coming back at it to dig it a bit further.

Thanks for sharing,

Emmanuel