Morning at the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, Arizona

by hankinslawrenceimages | Jan 23, 2011 | Arizona, On the Web

One of the more unusual photo shoots of my trip along Route 66 in December was the morning we spent photographing at the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, Arizona. The trip itinerary had us meeting in the parking lot about half an hour before sunrise and we were scheduled to be photographing for a couple of hours. I will admit I had no clue what we’d be photographing for that length of time

But I figured – Alain knows what he was planning – so I was ready to photograph before the sun was up. I was really glad I did get up for sunrise – it was a beautiful sunrise – with pinks, purples, oranges, reds & yellows.

(c) 2011 Patty Hankins

Once the sun was up – I was a still rather perplexed and unsure what we’d be doing for the next hour or so. After all – we were in a motel parking lot – surrounded by wigwams and old cars. It turns out the cars were what we were going to be photographing.

My guess is there were probably 20 cars from between the 1940s and early 1960s in the parking lot. Now I’ll be honest – old cars aren’t something I know much about – much less have much interest in photographing. So it took me a while to get into the spirit of the photo shoot. Fortunately, some of the guys in the group were able to help me see some interesting things to photograph on the cars. Once I started looking at the details of the logos, the chrome and the hood ornaments, I was able to find some things to photograph.

As I spent more time looking at the details of the cars I realized they were actually pretty neat – and had a much greater sense of style than the details of any car I’ve ever owned!

So here are a few of my photos of the cars at the Wigwam Motel – and no – I have no clue what type of cars these were from – but I’m sure some of the guys on the trip can tell you!

Hood ornament on a Ford

(c) 2011 Patty Hankins

Side mirror on the same car

(c) 2011 Patty Hankins

Airplane shaped hood ornament on another Ford

(c) 2011 Patty Hankins

Even the gas tank covers had a sense of style

(c) 2011 Patty Hankins

And one last hood ornament – practically glowing in the early morning light!

(c) 2011 Patty Hankins

Despite my initial skepticism about finding anything to photograph – I did get some interesting photos that morning. However – it wasn’t interesting enough that I’m likely to seek out more old cars to photograph! So chances are this is the only set of photos like this you’ll see from me. Hope you’ve enjoyed them! 🙂