Category Archives: Americana If you take the subway to Coney Island, you can get off either here at the Aquarium stop or at the Coney Island terminal two blocks down. As this stop comes first, I would expect that many impatient travelers would get off the train here, and if you’re on this end of the train platform,...   Very little remains of the glory that was Gregory & Pauls, later known as Paul’s Daughter, on the Coney Island boardwalk. It may or may not still re-open, or be relocated. Accounts vary. But the glorious signage is now almost all gone, leaving only this figure and his counterpart, affectionately known as Mama Burger and...  This is the entrance to Luna Park, which I suppose is now the largest amusement park area in Coney Island. That’s the Cyclone behind it. Tweet  The Coney Island Circus Sideshow bills itself as “the last permanently housed place in the USA where you can experience the thrill of a traditional ten-in-one circus sideshow.” Photograph of sign for the Coney Island Circus Sideshow, taken with Diana F+ plastic lens camera on Velvia 100 slide film, cross processed. Tweet  Photograph of the Eldorado Arcade sign at Coney Island, taken with a Diana F+ plastic lens camera and cross-processed Velvia 100 slide film. “El Dorado” is Spanish for “the golden one” and refers to a legendary “lost city of gold” somewhere in the new world. Why this arcade combined “El” and “Dorado” into one...  I could not decide whether I preferred this storefront shot straight on, or from an angle that also showed the Parachute Jump tower behind it, so I’m posting them both. The Coney Island Beach Shop is a family owned, purveyor of souvenirs, printed t-shirts, and beach supplies, located in Coney Island next to Nathan’s. This image...  Shooting 35mm film in the Diana F+, and choosing to expose the sprocket holes, creates a near square aspect ratio. So there was really no reason for me to turn the camera sideways, but I did anyway. I did not even think about how it would move the sprocket holes to the sides. This is,...  Let’s see, how many retro clichés elements can I incorporate into one image: plastic lens? check film? check cross-processing? check visible sprocket holes? check double exposure? check kitsch and Americana? check This is I’m not even sure where the smokestack came from. Completely unrelated, I have to share an XKCD comic from a few weeks ago....  Coney Island is a fairly small area, and as I previously mentioned, much of its old structures have already been razed, so while it is fascinating to photograph, there are not so many subjects. In addition to presenting the same subject in different styles, as I have already done, I am sometimes going to show...  This week I’m going to feature cross-processed shots from my winter morning trip to Coney Island. I showed a few in this post, where I went into the details of cross processing, and the tricks for scanning cross processed images, but since then I acquired a scanning mask that let’s me th scan the part...  I know it’s too urban, with the asphalt, parking meters and institutional apartment buildings, but otherwise this is what I imagine Area 51 would look like. A giant old fashioned radio tower that somehow looks a little weird, a big radio dish next to it, and a field lit with flood lights. Nearby, a pickup truck with a...  You can see some flaws in the scan alignment here: sprocket holes on top and an edge of another image to the left. This would be, of course, the easiest type of problem to correct with a simple crop, but I decided to keep them here, just, well, because. The main element here is of...  This is the souvenir stand next to the Cyclone roller coaster at Coney Island. As with all other images in the series, it was taken with real film, early on a Saturday morning in January. Having just been to Disney World last week, the parallels and contrast stands out for me here. Every Disney ride has an associated...  This is the exterior front of the Dreamland Roller Rink. As far as I can tell, it is currently closed (not just for the season) and unlikely to open. A very cool building that I think is unlikely to survive long,so I’m glad I was able to capture it. You can see the light towers...  This will be the last image in the series, but only for a while. Starting tomorrow I’m presenting another series of images from Grand Central (both the Terminal and the Station), all black and white and like this series, all film. This series will continue, but I’m not sure when. I also have black and...  The fenced off amusement park rides are the most modern and well maintained features at Coney Island, even though most of them have an inherently retro look that reminds you of decades past. There’s also something unsettling about their painted cheer when you see them put aside and unused for the off-season. I’m not certain,...  The deeper I get into film, the more I need to use digital post-processing tools. These pictures could almost have been taken in 1968. I used a plastic Diana F+ camera. I also used slide film, and instructed the lab to cross process it. That means using the process and chemicals used to develop...  I’ve put up numerous images of closed diners on Route 17, but none of functioning Diners. There a a few my family have frequented over the years, but none of them make great photographs, or at least they don’t inspire me. But driving home last Thanksgiving weekend I did get some shots of three signs...  If the timing were not wrong, I would be certain that this hotel was created when the owner told his design team to build something that looks like a lair for Dr. Evil. As it turns out, the first Austin Powers movie post-dates the building of this hotel. But come on, it even has a frickin’ laser beam coming...  |
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