Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Neon Nights...

One of my favorite things from the era before I was born (besides the cars and music) is neon. One of our Noble (or inert, depending on your periodic table) gasses, neon has been used in signage since the '20's.  It really had its heyday in the '50's, when cars had fins, towns had diners and drive-in movies, and lonely dark roads were cast aglow in the light from neon signs.






The glow is what makes neon special to me.  Look at the sign above. Notice how each section has it's own distinct background color?  The green glow up top, the subtle blue glow at the bottom give this sign a warmth that you just don't get with LED or fluorescent lights. Neon signs are expensive to buy, expensive to run, and expensive to fix, but they are truly things of beauty. You don't see much neon around anymore, and that's a shame.  Sacrificing beauty for efficiency has taken away another bit of America and replaced it with Generica. 

So, what's this got to do with photography?  Not much, other than to reiterate one of my recurring themes through these blog posts: Look around for things that are interesting or different to shoot, and take a few shots. You never know what you might end up with, and you never know what might spark a new interest.  Remember, if you're not having fun when you're out shooting,then you're probably doing something wrong...

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