Hope everyone's ready for some more barbershops, because here they come! The Service Barbershop, in Bowling Green, OH, has been servicing the small Northwest Ohio community for over 20 years. Located a hop, skip, and a jump from Bowling Green State University, with a healthy student population of ~25,000, this shop owner keeps VERY busy pretty much year round. Also, he's located in a mall around the corner from one of the best Dairy Queen franchises I've ever been. a total plus! Some people ask me why I like to shoot super wide of these barbershops, and I end up telling them the same thing. Everything in these barbershops adds to the atmosphere! Whether it be the customers, memorabilia, the lighting, or even yourself, it all aids in the composition of the image. As long as you can minimize distracting, distorted foreground elements, wide angles always add a touch of drama to an otherwise stale image. Eastman Commercial B 8x10 Schneider Super Angulon 121mm f/8 1/2 sec. @ f/45 + back swing, back tilt Ilford HP5+, N Development Pyrocat HD 1:1:100

... and our ‘home’ while in NYC, the New Yorker Hotel. The 43-story New Yorker Hotel was built in 1929 (same year my dad was born :) Much like its contemporaries, the Empire State Building (opened in 1931) and the Chrysler Building (opened in 1930) the New Yorker is designed in the Art Deco Style that was popular in the 1920s and 1930s. From what I read about it, the hotel was much grander back then. For instance, the barber shop was one of the largest in the world with 42 chairs and 20 manicurists! Under new management and following extensive renovation, the hotel reopened its doors in June of 1994, a part of the Ramada franchise since 2000. Our room was small, as in the style of the day, but comfortable with its new appointments. Still, I could not help but wish more of its heyday oomph had been restored too.