Flickr Buddy Photo: Polar Bear Drive In

Polar Bear Drive In - Merrill, Oregon, originally uploaded by Vintage Roadside.

Brought to us via the retro photo stream of Vintage Roadside. The Vintage Roadside folks live here in our town, Portland, OR USA. The Polar Bear drive in lives on in Merrill, OR.

Thanks, Jeff!

Photos by Chris: Vintage Signs

Pfeiffer Photos is a team effort.  I manage the daily ins-and-outs of our little photo biz, write the blog, all that good stuff, but without the images we wouldn't be Pfeiffer Photos.

Mar-Don Motel 

I often think of Chris as my semi-silent business partner.  I admit it, I have a tendency to highlight much of my own work from the cameras (we have four now!), but some of our best-sellers in the shop have come from the viewfinder of my husband.  We have very different techniques and shoot in different styles, and I have to say, I am often surprised and really admire his unique point-of-view.

Capital Hill Motel

This post is my first, but not my last, dedicated 100% to his art.  These photos are fresh from his memory chip--captured this week.  Feel free to leave comments because he does follow my blog and he will read them all! :-)

TV and Electric Heat

Happy Weekend, All!

Photos displayed in this post by Chris Pfeiffer, copyright Pfeiffer Photos 2009 - all rights reserved.  

Signs, signs, everywhere are signs!

If you've been reading our blog or visited our Flickr gallery or Etsy shop lately, you might have noticed that we've been bitten by the sign bug.

The happy fact is, we can blame it on Flickr and all the neat people we've met there that photograph and post vintage signs. We've joined photo sharing groups for fans of vintage signs, neon signs, night photos of signs and it's really fun to view all the signage from every state across the USA!

The art of making signs has a long history including the craft of hand-lettered signs, which has a national group--The Letterheads--dedicated to sharing and preserving the history of their art. As a design student, I recently completed a course that covered the history of graphic design from the beginning (prehistoric cave paintings) through the 20th century. Famous sign makers include European poster designers and the art they developed for advertising products, cultural and sporting events, concerts, and political propaganda in the 19th century.

As a photographer, I learn from the poster designers and sign makers of the past and present. I've always loved letters (and numbers) used in or as part of a design. Signs are a classic expression in the art of typography (designing with letters). A vintage sign can be a window on the past.

Driving through the city after dark, hunting for great neon is our new summertime activity. Finding these signs--vintage or not so much--and capturing them in pixels is a just another neat subject for us to add to our photography adventures!

To view more sign images and to purchase please visit my Etsy shop.

copyright pfeiffer photos 2008 - all rights reserved.