* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #889 / Revived #109 on 2025 04 30*

Interesting image. The glowing moon is shot through with the contrail so that it looks like a glowing jewel on a velvet band, stretched across the sky. Nice gradient of colors too.

I still do not understand your remark, but thanks anyway for looking and commenting.

Thank you for looking and commenting. My goal is to show the entire statue. I tried to town down that window. Is it better now?

I do think it's an improvement! - less distracting this way but you might could get by with a little less mitigation, just enough to get rid of that distracting glare. It's worth experimenting with since the details of the statue are so interesting.

I like it Mike! It has a Norman Rockwell look and the music on the jukebox must have been a very happy addition! For myself Mike, I would adjust the verticals, horizontals, and make a crop from the right. Example below. I did read why you did not crop from the right but personally I thought the crop made the characters a larger part of the image while maintaining the atmosphere of the location. Also, I did not care for the towels so much. For me it was a better balance.
Andrew

Thanks Andrew. Your version is a worthwhile improvement. It also keeps the lines and items on the right that I wanted. And the blue that is part of my memories from "modern" 50s as well.
I'll play with my original to get something like yours.

I agree that Andrew kept all that the image needed while still "zooming" in a bit on the characters.
A square format also ties in with the nostalgia, lilke this could be a polaroid picture.
I personally don't bother often with correcting verticals and horizontals (I do correct an actual horizon, but wide angle distortion is part of my reality...).
But I must say that the distortion correction is also an improvement in this case.

I agree with the Norman Rockwell appearance. Keeps me focused on the image.

I do agree that just a bit of brightening (left) and darkening (right) would improve this image.
Maybe a linear gradient slider would do the trick.

Other than that, this is a fascinating display that says a lot about the mind of the collector.
Methodical, obsessive.
(Imagine what the poor man would have to go through if he finds a missing keyhole cover that needs to fit in between two already on display... It would be like having to reprint a dictionary because a new word needs to be included.)

The jigsaw idea is brilliant.

These swamp images remain intriguing.
The inclusion of a few other shots (the path through the forest) brings context, but the actual swamp images with their reflections are the star of the show.

This gives me a "Road trip on Route 66" vibe.
Onwards to the Hotel California.
The Mustang is an effective center piece for an altar of automobility, flanked by roadside scenes that seem timeless, but are firmly grounded in current reality (if only by the fact that the lady on the left is engrossed in her smartphone).
The only thing I feel could be improved on the Mustang shot, is a more consistent symmetry left and right of the fraction of the headlights shown.

Arresting and disturbing images. This must have been an incredibly emotional effort for the artist. It gives me a very uneasy feeling now, in the current political climate of the United States. A situation inconceivable to absolutely unthinkable only a short time ago.

Rich

The images with the water included are magical mirrors. The ambient quality of the light and the glowing color is mesmerizing.

Rich

Gorgeous scenery and fascinating tale of the countryside. (And I think I'm doing good to walk 2 miles twice a day on relatively flat terrain!)

How in the world did they haul the materials up that mountain and build a castle up there? Astonishing!

Great image overlooking the whole scene. My hats off to you for such an effort!.

Rich

An irresistible collection of shapes and textures and shadows and light. Chaos yet organization. Craftsmanship and mechanization. I like how you squared up the shot and made it a graphical exercise.

Rich

Roel, Minnie, Mike, Chris,

Thanks.

I'd like to explain this trio as the way it came together was very satisfying.

A few days ago my wife said, "Let's go down to the harbor, get lunch and go for our walk" (a 5-mile route we take from Oceanside Harbor, south along the coast on "The Strand,” beyond the Oceanside Pier and back.

I never like to take my camera when I'm with others as it's not fair to them that I'm constantly stopping and not fair to me that I can't take the time I need to capture what I see. I took it that day only to see if I could consistently manually focus a Nikkor Macro lens adapted to my medium format camera. I wasn't really going to try to "capture" anything. Just randomly focus on "stuff" and see if the focus was good.

We were in an enclosed outdoor seating area of the harbor's only coffee shop (The Nautical Bean) finishing drinks. I was fiddling with the "focus assist" feature of the camera which puts bright colored outlines on in-focus objects, just pointing the thing here and there. I was in deep shadow trying to focus on the brightly-lit outdoors. A few people were milling around in the doorway, blocking my view. The scene suddenly cleared and I saw the girl standing there. I was fumbling with focus, trying to see the bright outlines. She looked up for an instant right into the lens, almost as though she knew. My wife asked something, I turned to answer and when I turned back the girl was gone.

The Mustang was at the very end of our walk. Back in the harbor, we were in the "home stretch" heading for the car on an elevated walkway about 10 feet above one of the parking lots. I passed the car, walking fast. Remember, I wasn't going to do any “real photography this trip.” It was very red. A completely open convertible. The day was crystal clear. Bright sun. Blue sky. I'm not sure what was going on in my brain, but the farther I went, the higher the pressure built. Shoot that car!!! At a certain point it exploded and I ran back. I yelled to my wife, "You keep going, I'll catch up!,” breathlessly taking several images, using the “bright lines” very carefully, I was disappointed that with that lens I could get no more than the hood in the frame. I would have needed to be 20 feet higher to get all of it.

My wife drove that day and I enjoyed the trip back along Pacific Coast Highway (101), because I could actually look at things.

I was a teen in 1956 when “The Terror of Highway 101” was released.

“He wore black denim trousers and motorcycle boots . . . He had a hopped-up cycle that took off like a gun . . . that fool was the Terror of Highway 101”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtiEtPQUmAM

Growing up in Philadelphia, PA, I knew then that I was destined to become a Californian and to experience that highway!

We drove past Cafe 101. I got several shots as the light turned green.

I was surprised by the first image. I remembered it was only a focusing test. I didn’t realize I had captured it.

My brain put the three images together. It just said, “BOOM! Wow. These go together just like this. Don’t argue!” I swear, there was no conscious effort to do that.

Sometimes I have to ask it, “What are you doing? I don’t get it.” I had to sit and look at the “composition” for a while and figure it out logically, verbally.

Yes It’s about the “open road” zeitgeist of California - the most automobile-oriented sub-set of the automobile-oriented culture of the United States. There are two cars and a highway. But it’s really about lifestyle and myth of eternal sunshine and beach life that is the “Hotel” of Hotel California. Once you’ve succumbed, it really is a problem to leave.

A care-free, independent-appearing woman stands in front of a vehicle oozing fun and power - with tow hooks, special headlights, capable of both highway travel and off-road performance. Plus, iconic muscle car, a Ford Mustang with red paint so intense and saturated, it’s almost dripping from the sheet metal. The only other car that could have served here would have been a Corvette.

And that would have been a spectacular choice, that would, of course trigger echos of Route 66 rather than Highway 101. Just remember, as anyone who diligently watched every episode of that TV series from 1960 to 1964, Route 66 was just the gateway to California. There was really no other reason for driving that storied highway than to get to L.A. Everything else was prologue. We all knew that Martin Milner and George Maharis would get there as the high point of the journey.

The blue sky and palm trees on the left are mirrored by the same on the right. The Jeep’s tow hooks are red, tying in with the Mustang and the red rail, curb and sign lettering of Cafe 101. The green curb in front of the Jeep is balanced by the green traffic light on the right. And lastly there’s a yellow theme from the Jeep’s lights and mirrors through the Mustang’s license plate numbers and the sunrise motif on the cafe.

But this is sunny California. Where’s the sun? It’s not in the sky . . . Look at that reflection off the Mustang’s chrome bumper. Makes one want to squint!

Thanks for indulging me, everyone.

Rich

Rich,

Thank you for a great story of photography (and much more).

I mentioned Route 66 because that is probably the only route number in the US that I really know (and even then I would not be able to point it out on a Rand McNally road map. I am sure there are many (better) routes to follow and explore.

I do remember that we took a few spectacular routes while we were roadtripping in SW-USA roughtly 12 years ago :
I remember a road through Monument Valley and one through the mountains south of Las Vegas.
And of course the road that hugs the pacific ocean between SF and LA.
(The exact year of our trip was the year of the Obama re-election - we toured the NW-USA in the year of his first election - easy to remember.)

Galleries if you are interested:
SW-USA pt 1: roelh.zenfolio.com/p824276430
SW-USA pt 2: roelh.zenfolio.com/p628175461
SW-USA pt 3: roelh.zenfolio.com/p681193600

Thanks, Chris. I agree with your preference, some of the spring images get drowned in green so the differences in yellows and greens as defined by the lighting help make sense of the image.

Thanks Mike. Both the tupelos and the cypress have wide trombone shaped bases that widen as the trees get older/taller. Both are adapted to live in water, their trunks acting as pumps to suck up and store water. The tupelos have broad leaves and produce berries that squirrels find addicting. Cypress are deciduous firs that shed their needles in winter. Cypress are surrounded by "knees", root structures that emerge from the water in a circular pattern around the tree. The tupelos have taken the upper hand since the derecho 4 years ago.

Thanks Roel. The water is always smooth as glass in the swamp because it has no movement in or out, and it sits in an old riverbed protected from wind.

Thanks Rich. The lime greens are rather overwhelming in spring. They will subdue a bit in summer.

Great galleries!

You have seen more of this country than 99% of those of us who actually live within a few miles of the places you have visited! Good for you!

One of the great ironies is that people who grow up and live in iconic "tourist locales" anywhere in the world don't get to see a lot of those places until visitors come and want to be "shown the sights."

I lived on the island of Maui for 15 years. Our house was at the 2000 ft elevation of Haleakala. Haleakala is a 10,000 ft dormant volcano. It is a prime tourist destination with organized tours and thousands of people experiencing the spectacular view at the top, looking into the extinct caldera and otherworldly, moon-like landscape.

Every day, for ten years, I drove down the mountain to work, at sea level, and back at night. My shop was a few feet away from one of the tourist bus services. It wasn't until my son and his fiancee came to visit that we drove to the summit on New Year's Eve to watch the New Year sunrise (de rigueur for tourists visiting at that time of year). And like all the "stupid tourists," we froze our asses off because we weren't dressed warmly enough. It was balmy, warm and tropical at sea level when we started, but 30 degrees F (0 C) at the summit with constant winds of 40 knots.

Rich