This past weekend I spent in Colorado Springs at a conference. During a break I walked around the hotel hoping something would catch me eye. This is what I was given, simple and common.
Simple and Common
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Muted Colors -
Umbrellas in Hotel Lobby
Armstrong Hotel Lobby I had coffee at Mugs in Old Town this past Sunday morning. Even added a bagel and cream cheese so it was an even better morning. As I stood up to leave I noticed these umbrellas in the Armstrong Hotel lobby through the shared window/wall. So, I went next door and asked to take a few images of the umbrellas and the chair in the lobby. Pretty sure this will look familiar to Tom as this is where he and Kathy stayed while visiting Fort Collins. I chose black and white because the chair and umbrellas are black. It just seemed to fit the mood.
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Playing Around
Hotel Strater in Durango “Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.”
Gloria Steinem -
Hotel Room
Hotel Room Hotel life as seen with my camera.
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Bring Your Camera
The Grand Ball Room “Jay Maisel always says to bring your camera, ‘cause it’s tough to take a picture without it. Pursuant to the above aforementioned piece of the rule book, subset three, clause A, paragraph four would be…use the camera. Put it to your eye. You never know. There are lots of reasons, some of them even good, to just leave it on your shoulder or in your bag. Wrong lens. Wrong light. Aaahhh, it’s not that great, what am I gonna do with it anyway? I’ll have to put my coffee down. I’ll just delete it later, why bother? Lots of reasons not to take the dive into the eyepiece and once again try to sort out the world into an effective rectangle. It’s almost always worth it to take a look.”
From the book: “The Moment It Clicks: Photography secrets from one of the world’s top shooters” by Joe McNally
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Warm Sunlight
I spend a lot of time in hotels and airplanes, about half the month, actually. I’ve had people tell me they could not do what I’m doing and at the age of 60, I’m surprised I am to. But the variety of people I encounter each day and the places and sights I get to experience have added immensely to my life. Sometimes they are the just the small insignificant things such as my hotel room. The views from hotel windows, both looking out and in, are awesome. The evening this image was taken was just before the sun dropped below the horizon. I just loved the color of the sunlight against my bed and pillow. So, I spot metered and added one extra stop of light then went back to reading my book in the warm sunlight.
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Inviting Light
Hotel Lobby in Montreal Light makes photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography.
George EastmanIn continuing with the hotel theme from yesterday, here is another photo taken in our hotel just outside the elevator on the fifth floor. These vases are huge, standing almost four feet tall. The inviting afternoon light had a warm glow and beckoned me to find the best perspective I could.
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Love That Sound
Lamp in Window The virtue of the camera is not the power it has to transform the photographer into an artist, but the impulse it gives him to keep on looking.
Brooks Atkinson – 1951, Once Around the SunAfter a day of flying my routine is to walk into my hotel room, throw my bags down, kick off the shoes, peel off the uniform and let out a big sigh. And, if it’s been a long day, I just flop down on the bed. Aaaaahhhh! The quiet. We call this “slam-clicking”. But, there are those times when I just quickly change clothes and head for the lobby to meet up with my crew for dinner or site seeing. Don’t want to miss out on something.
But every once in a while I walk in my room and see a potential image because we photographers are always looking. I see many scenes like the one above but for some reason this particular day it looked so different to me. Impulsively, while still in uniform and shoes on, I pulled out the camera and pressed the shutter button. Man I love that sound!
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This is My World
My World Wow, I’m sneaking up on my 60th birthday this summer. Gasp! Where has the time gone? Even at this age I ask the questions about where I’m at in life and where I’m going. The life I live is not what I dreamed or envisioned in my youth. I know I cannot live in the past nor in the future but every once in a while I venture to those places. The only life I can live is the present. I must always remind myself to stay here.
I’m nomadic at this time in my life. After my divorce and selling the house I drove away from that chapter of my life with all my belongings in the back of a small pickup. It was a freeing moment. Of course, I’ve since added a few items to carry around with me so I may need two truck now. I spend half my month living in hotels and flying with passengers in a long metal tube. For the past year I’ve started carrying a laptop, an iphone and my journal along with my camera wherever I venture. I search out images of the world in front of me, the people or places or objects or patterns I see. This is the present, this is my world.
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Hotel Lobby
