Roy’s Motel

Posted on | November 30, 2009 | 9 Comments

Roy's Motel and Cafe on Route 66, Amboy, California

Roy’s Motel and Cafe is an iconic Route 66 landmark located in basically the middle of nowhere. Only the cafe is open now while the doors to the motel is open so you can wander around stepping on shattered glass every step of the way. It is definitely an interesting place to photograph americana or add to your Route 66 postcard photo trophy hunt.

This place seems to attract a lot of bikers. One guy on a Harley was telling me that he takes the original Route 66 out to Vegas because it is more fun to ride off the main highway (I-40). He also recommended to check out the Kelso Train Depot because it is an interesting place to shoot according to him. I’ll definitely make a point to visit on my next drive to Arizona.

For nearly all of my work, I do pretty straightforward image processing with contrast and saturation adjustments but for this version of the picture, I wanted to try some Lightroom 2 presets to get a vintage sort of look so I dug around on various websites until I found this preset which is called the PH Fashion Shot II v in combination with slight contrast adjustments. I think it came out pretty cool. I’ll probably end up submitting the original warm sunset version to the stock agencies while putting this vintage version up on my website galleries.

See more of my Mojave Desert pictures.

Comments

9 Responses to “Roy’s Motel”

Greg Russell
November 30th, 2009 @ 11:49 am

I like the vintage look here a lot! Very cool shot. I need to get up to this area sometime.

Isn’t Amboy the town that was on sale at Ebay a few years ago?
latoga
November 30th, 2009 @ 11:49 am

I think that preset that you used adds a historical feel to this image. Almost like it was shot with my parents 110 camera…
Ron Niebrugge
November 30th, 2009 @ 11:50 am

That turned out great Richard! They have really fixed that place up over the last couple of years. I drive that was on my way back from Vegas – nice and quite. The Kelso Train station is really cool.

Ron
Richard Wong
November 30th, 2009 @ 3:02 pm

Thanks guys. I wasn’t aware that Amboy was for sale but that is interesting.

I took a look at your Route 66 photos Ron, and yes, it does look a lot more cleaned up than when you visited.
erica
December 1st, 2009 @ 12:24 am

Cool photo! Is the motel still open? It looks Bateslike.
Richard Wong
December 1st, 2009 @ 4:19 pm

Thanks Erica. It is no longer a functioning motel but the cafe is open along with the gas station.
Amboy Crater | In the Field: Photo Blog by Richard Wong
December 3rd, 2009 @ 6:02 am

[...] what the terrain is like, history, and what other photographers have done. It was while researching Roy’s Motel a couple of years ago that I discovered the Amboy Crater was located nearby so made the long drive [...]
Mark
December 5th, 2009 @ 6:26 am

I love Lightroom for just this sort of thing Richard. It makes it so easy to explore possibilities with any image. I think it is pretty cool to find presets, say designed for a wedding photographer, and have them work well for something completely different.

Cool shot. The processing really fits it well.
Richard Wong
December 6th, 2009 @ 12:08 am

Thanks Mark. That is interesting you mentioned wedding photographers because I look at a lot of wedding photographer sites for ideas. Jessica Claire’s site in particular, I check on a regular basis. Presets and actions don’t work for every image but sometimes they are pretty awesome.