Friday, January 4, 2008

Spike's, and I don't mean Snoopy's cousin's place either

spikes_bw_enhanced
I love the name of this business, especially in relation to what takes place there--automobile upholstery. It's located just off SE Morrison, on SE 6th Avenue. I discovered it last Saturday while making the block to get another bunch of photos--more photographic serendipity.

I couldn't find out much about the business online, other than its name, address, and phone number. I do like the fact that when I typed "spike's auto upholstery" at Google, without a mention of Portland, this very Spike's is the first hit, the first 14 hits in fact. I wonder if that would happen on a computer located elsewhere in the world, or did it happen on mine because Google knows I'm in Portland? As you can tell, I truly don't understand how searching works, I just love to do it.

At one of those hits, I found an absolutely gorgeous rehabilitated 1969 red Volkswagen Beetle convertible, complete with a new convertible top "supplied" by Spike's, quoting what I found across from the last photo on the right. Beetle-lovers, look here and drool at the photos provided by Rewerks VW Air-Cooled Specialists, located right here in southwest Portland.

Now for a question. How do you think this photo works in black and white, please? The washed-out gray sky, complete with light rain, seemed to me to make this a good photo to try in black and white. I value your input.

14 comments:

Andrea said...

The black and white picture gives it the old look. I love it. Great shot. And interesting post.

WendyB said...

Whew! I thought you'd moved to Needles for a moment. Isn't that where Spike lived?

Bob Crowe said...

Very nice local atmosphere. I see that Spike even uses a drawing of a spike for the I in his name. This doesn't seem to me to be a great way to attract customers to any kind of upholstery business. It makes me wonder if his office chair has a bunch of upturned tacks glued to it.

dot said...

I really like it in B&W! Spikes sounds like an interesting place.

Anonymous said...

I love black and white as while you loose the color, sometimes it gains and says far more, even tells a story. I think B&W which is why i think its perfect for this picture!


Greg

Hobart Daily
Bicheno Daily

Bergson said...

I like this black and white the photograph seems to leave the Fifties.

Gerald (SK14) said...

I love this in B&W - gives it an age-old charm.

I sometimes use the "sepia-toning" or "aged newspaper" setting in PaintShopPro on appropriate images rather than true grey-scale.

Rune Eide said...

I adore B&W, but that maybe because I'm an old man who has worked with this since I was a teenager in 1965. Just right for this kind of thing.

Now, just a question - did they put spikes in you tyres?

PS Thank you for your own nice comment!

Ali said...

It seems Google works the same world over, I too had a stream of this very Spikes in my results.

I think the photo works perfectly in black & white, it allows the atmosphere through where colour might mask it.

Gwen said...

Black & white would be a nice version. And other tone settings on your camera.

Olivier said...

J'aime bien les photos en b&w, et le nom de ce garage est vraiment très original.

I like the pictures in b & w, and the name of the garage is very original.

AVCr8teur said...

I like the black & white photo. With those raindrops on your window, it looks like a gloomy photo from the 60's. When I searched for "spike's auto upholstery" on Google, I also found your place in OR. For fun, I just searched for "spike's" and it found "Spike's Junkyard Dogs", a hot dog place in the east coast. Sounds like an interesting eatery.

Photo Cache said...

I like that fact that this is in b/w. I thought it added to its character. I also noticed the ground wet. Well, we, your neighbors to the south, are currently being battered with rain and strong gusty winds.

Unknown said...

The black and white is fantastic. I like the way you composed it and I also, like you, love the name. I Googled "spike's auto upholstery" and got what you got. It's not geographic and there's a logorithmic formula that some engines use to rank sites. There are pages worth of how the searching works but like you, I just love to google it all. :)