The dancing L-Ken’s sign

I’ve photographed the L-Ken’s sign in Colonie for as long as I’ve owned cameras.  And I’ve chronicled my photography of the sign – whether with digital or with film – on this little weblog.

And you ask me, “Chuck, there are ten million other things to photograph in the Capital District, why in the world do you keep trying to photograph a rusted, decaying old sign from a business that doesn’t exist any more?”

Fair question.  I know that at some point in time, a new tenant will move into the property on Central Avenue, and despite pleas by the locals to keep the sign around, the new owner will probably replace the sign with something generic and stale.  Trust me.  The possibility of that sign disappearing at some point in time, some wrecking equipment knocking it down like the old Latham Water Tower – still kinda bugs me.  The L-Ken’s sign is one of the last examples of Googie architecture in the Capital District – along with the Bob & Ron’s Fish Fry sign, the Westgate Shopping Center sign, Ted’s Fish Fry in Watervliet, and maybe a couple of other locations.  And as for decaying old signs, there’s still some rusty charm to the Quinlan Motel sign in Colonie, the Olympic Bar in Albany, and some other dingy beacons of beckoning.

And whether we like it or not, someday those signs too will disappear, the way calligraphy has disappeared in the wake of Comic Sans.

So it’s Memorial Day weekend, and I felt like getting a good shot of the L-Ken’s sign that morning.  Every so often, I try to find a new way to capture this iconic Capital District sign.  But nothing seems to work – expired film, splitfilm, cross-processed film, this and that and pass the hat…

So anyway, here’s one of the original images from the photo shoot.

After I shot the sign, I re-shot it with different filters.  Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet…

Okay, the pictures turned out decent.  But yeah, this is just another L-Ken’s photo.  Just another boring rusting photo of an old, rotting sign.  I can’t even turn the neon on, that would make for a way cool picture if I could still get the neon to work.

Although the reverse of the L-Ken’s sign has lost some of its neon tubing, the sign’s obverse – the side you see here – still has all its neon tubes.  And I would have loved to see what the L-Ken’s sign would have looked like if it was lit up one last time.

DING

That sound you just heard was the little light bulb going off over my head.  And trust me, I’m energy-efficient.  That was an LED light bulb, compact florescent bulb, if you please.

What if I found a way to light that sign up for reals?

At that point in time, I had three options.  I could either:

• (a) contact the real estate operator and see if they’ll light the sign up for me.  I mean, the phone number’s right on the side of the sign.
• (b) search around the sign and see if there’s some sort of “on” switch.  Surely I could still get some juice to the sign…
• (c) string up my own set of neon wiring.  I can string up some electrical wiring and a really large battery, and if the Colonie Police don’t see what I’m doing…

And in the end, I chose Option D.

In this case, Option D meant using my PhotoShop masks to recreate the flashing neon signage of days long past.  I carefully traced every single neon tube on the front of that L-Ken’s sign.  And since I wanted that thing to dance like Carrie Ann, Len and Bruno were holding up glittered score signs, I painted each and every individual neon tube as its own PhotoShop mask.

And after all that…

And in stitching together yet another cinemagraph…

This came out.

So tell me…

How’s that for bringing back those great memories?  Don’t you want to drive to Central Avenue right now and order a trayful of fried clams and and a sausage sandwich?  Sure you do!!

And I hear some of you grumbling, “Hey Chuck, L-Ken’s didn’t have six different neon colored flashing panels here and there.  What are you going to do, claim artistic license?”

You know what?  Maybe I will.  Because right now I’ve got that L-Ken’s sign dancing.

And just you wait.  I’m already figuring out what I need to make this sign dance in a place other than on a computer monitor.

You know I’ll find a way.

Don’t ever bet against me.