Happy Hour in the Gold Country, a photo from California, West

Photographer's Note

Here's a shot of "dueling" drinking establishments in Downtown Auburn, California.

Auburn is one of the many interesting little historic Gold Rush towns strung along State Route 49 in Northern California's Gold Country. Auburn is better known for a couple architectural gems that I've posted previously, its gingerbread firehouse and the county courthouse.

Since there's not a whole lot to Auburn's downtown area, there seemed to be a rather high proportion of drinking establishments here. There were a couple others not pictured here. Perhaps it can be attributed to the legacy of the hard-drinking gold miners. Another thing I found interesting about the signs is they appeared rather old and vintage. But with the resurgence of the Martini as a popular drink, they also have a sort of "retro" coolness about them.

Being close to Sacromento, Auburn is a great place to start a tour of California's Gold Country.

Regards,
Doug

robertosalguero, bakes888, pboehringer, jwmunro, alford, stego, alejandroguzman, plimrn has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

robertosalguero (292) 2006-11-10 2:20

A little shot of the old west eh? Nice picture Doug. Good use of the signs to create contrast with the old style architecture. I enjoyed reading the note about the history of this town. I wonder too if there is still any gold in the surrounding areas of this town. Cheers :-)

Roberto

bakes888 (18499) 2006-11-10 2:27

Hi Douglas. Nice sharp, bold almost graphic photo. Strong composition and colours make this shot. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers, Paul.

gunbud (34066) 2006-11-10 8:17

Hi Douglas,
Dueling martini glasses, very 1950-ish feels like a Jack Palance movie, enter at your own risk, nice colors and excellently framed.
Regards, Tom

pboehringer (770) 2006-11-10 17:40

Funny detail out of the daily Auburn life, Doug. Very good framing of those nostalgic - old fashioned - martini glasses. Established in 1933 is almost very historical in California. You got a very color and focused effect by the sunlight falling straight on to the ads but not at the building walls.
Regards, Peter

jwmunro (286) 2006-11-11 10:50

Good morning Douglas -

I've driven through Auburn numerous times but have never stopped. This is an interesting observation. Maybe you are right about the hard drinking miners but the gold fields panned out many decades ago maybe this is part of the logging and railroad remnants of the area. The signs have that 40's-50's look to them. Well expose and composed!

Thank you for sharing and the interesting note and observations.

John

kmarscher (2887) 2006-11-12 9:25

I really, really like the sense of time and place you created here. Everything seems to last so long in the California climate, even the neon signs from the fifties. Just great ephemeral!

[workshop] [compare] +

alford (4063) 2006-11-15 0:08

Hi Douglas! The red sign and black background really attract the eyes! Looks like an old small town. You framed the structures well, just enough to make it interesting and attractive, I think if you zoomed out or zoomed in more, the effect won't be the same. rgds.

alejandroguzman (4684) 2007-02-06 11:50

Hello Douglas:

Very nice compo.
Simple and contrasting.
+ DOF
+ lighting
+ saturation

have a nice day
Alejandro
no Martini, no party !!!

plimrn (21344) 2007-07-27 3:53

Hi Doug,
Good eye spotting those two martini glasses, their retro look, together with the false front, give a good feel for this town's downtown area.
It would be nice if one could swap the the WS for the original without dumping the critiques!! I have a some of those myself, although the difference between the two is not as dramatic as some of mine!! But that's what makes TE great, see what can be done from another's viewpoint. HLJ, Pat