Reception from the series Insomnia – Hotel Noir photograph copyright of Douglas Stockdale
If a story needs a begining and an end, I think that the photograph Reception is where Hotel Noir starts. This is a nice lobby and reception area considering some of the places that I have been. When you drag in after midnight, pulling your luggage along, there are usually not a lot of folks waiting with open arms and warm cookies. sigh.
But sometimes there is that warm smile (especially if you have been checking in every Monday morning for about a year) and maybe some warm cookies. There is usually some human contact and the receptionist does want to make sure your stay is okay. So that is not so bad, but more reality, as the receptionist is not your family. You even miss your dog pawing and drooling on you, looking for a familiar scratch behind the years & his favorite treat.
So however unintended, even with the brief personal contact, the feeling of isolation and disconnectiveness may increase. Perhaps you are lucky, you are traveling with a group or meeting up with a client, so there is still an opportunity for dinner to spend time with someone, avoiding the room and the pending night. Perhaps you are not so lucky and now you have to decied where to get eat by yourself.
Room service starts to become more appealing after a few nights going out to some nice resturaunts, but at a table for one. (Yikes, I just had a recall of a photograph that would fit in well with this! nice when that happens) More time by yourself in isolation, which why eating at the resturaunt’s bar is not so bad of an alternative. A chance to pick up a conversation with someone nearby or at least the bartender if he/she’s not that busy.
So maybe it would appropriate to add a little warmth to the person in this photograph? hmmmm. Meanwhile, the image as is has been added to the Booksmart template at the begining of the series, but it can be changed out if I decide to tweak the toning a little.
Now to go looking for that other photograph, as I know it is somewhere on my external hard disk…..
Best regards, Doug
Singular Images 
Doug, this really hits home. I think that the external, key on the word external, success of a project is how closely someone else can relate to what you are saying. I can certainly relate to what you are saying all the down to the pawing, slobbering, treat-wanting dog.
I don’t know what your final product will look like, but I certainly hope that you will include the narrative. It is powerful. The pictures, I’m sure, would stand on their own, but add the words and anyone who has traveled extensively, or perhaps had to work away from home can make a substantial connection with your series.
You’ve given me some great ideas.
Curious: I noticed that everything in the frame is sharp, except the movement by the desk person, which leads me to assume that either:
a) You have extremely steady hands.
b) You used a tripod or some other support.
Did you take this as you were dragging your suitcase in the door?
Paul, for the photo, B a tripod. He was watching me most of the time (not much else to do at night and I must appeared a bit unusual), so I pretended to fiddle with the camera and out of the corner of my eye, I saw that he went back to work. So with the cable release and looking away, I winked a number of exposures, this one I liked the best for the amount of “medium” blurr.