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Pictures taken along La Cienaga Blvd and Washington Blvd

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Going to the Dentist, Optician or getting bumps fixed in my car entails me going to places in parts of town I usually don't hang around. So this is an opportunity to photograph places and folk that I don't generally come across. So here I'm sharing some pictures from the yard outside the lens maker. I had scratched up my computer glasses and then tried to clean them rendering them cloudy. For $35, the lenses were cleaned and recoated in a factory! They came back to me with priostine lenses! I am so impressed and it's easier to see what I'm editing!

So here to start this off are my first two pictures of abandoned stuff in the yard of the optical workshop.

_MG_1226_Abandon_01_800_OPF.jpg


The Mops


_MG_1216_Abandon_2_800.jpg


The Jar

Both snaps are taken with a 5D, 24-105mm ISO
 
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Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Here's the pallete and some old metal cabinet.

I'm surpised that there's no benefit to recycling this material!


_MG_1182_Palette and metal_cabinet_800.jpg


Wooden Palette Oblique on Inverted White Metal Cabinet

I hate to see waste, so at least I get to photograph the stuff and elevate them to mes objets d'art!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Hi Kathy,

For some reason Safari doesn't show things. I must have something illegal in the file name! It works fine with Firefox! OOPS! I discovered the culprit. Safari doesn't like the é in abdandonné I had in the file name! Firefox is obviously has a French girlfriend! I shortened the name so it should now work!

Asher
 

Ken Tanaka

pro member
It's hard to resist snapping stuff like this, isn't it? The string mops are particularly interesting subjects, mainly I think because there are two -side-by-side-. Given their nature they are similar but each has its own character.

The mop on the left looks dour, "Nobody's ever going to come back and use us again...EVER!"

But the mop on the right, because of its cross strands, seems a bit more optimistic and resolute, "Yes they will. We must be patient! Hey, things could be worse; we could have been furloughed in Dertoit!"

OK, I have too much time on my hands today.

Personal tip: Be careful about out-of-focus foregrounds, such as that jar. I want to read that embossed label.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
It's hard to resist snapping stuff like this, isn't it? The string mops are particularly interesting subjects, mainly I think because there are two -side-by-side-. Given their nature they are similar but each has its own character.

The mop on the left looks dour, "Nobody's ever going to come back and use us again...EVER!"

But the mop on the right, because of its cross strands, seems a bit more optimistic and resolute, "Yes they will. We must be patient! Hey, things could be worse; we could have been furloughed in Dertoit!"

OK, I have too much time on my hands today.

Well, Ken,

That was a perfect example of "Intent" going in a line

  • from mind to eye,
  • through the lens
  • though what Adams called "work"
  • to me to say "Yes"
and then on publishing it, you to "Get it", an "Arc of Intent" completed. To me that's satisfying since there was no instruction.

Personal tip: Be careful about out-of-focus foregrounds, such as that jar. I want to read that embossed label.

Thanks,

There's no label on the glass, it's part of the glass and then there's the sudden change in reflection on its surface. However, I'll study it carefully. There's no message there, just an exercise in taking something ordinary that we pass by and looking at it. I think the foreground wood may not be delivered. That perhaps is what you may be reacting to.

Asher
 

Rachel Foster

New member
Asher, there is a gold mine to think about here. I have to be honest, though, the blurred jar doesn't speak to me. That could be because I struggle with focus issues. Will comment in more detail on those I think are wonderful later.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Asher, there is a gold mine to think about here. I have to be honest, though, the blurred jar doesn't speak to me. That could be because I struggle with focus issues. Will comment in more detail on those I think are wonderful later.


_MG_1216_Abandon_2_800.jpg


The Jar

Rachel,

Now I think I see what you think is so "blurred" and the appearance of a label! The latter is merely the reflections of the building with the roof and to the right, cars in the parking lot! The jar has no voice, unfortunately, to speak to you and it's empty anyway! It's just a snap to find out what I could get out of that object. If it works, then I'm lucky. I frankly didn't expect so much here, but I had hopes of instructive feedback. (At the very, very, best, it might allow your own imagination, bringing your own ideas to it, to work for you in your own personal way. However, I really didn't entertain anything as important as that!!)

This is very different from the "Mops" which arrived at Ken's brain as I intended. :)

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Asher,

le pot est parfait!

Glad that perhaps I have been a bad influence for you.

I LIKE it.
At last, a fellow softy! I actually wondered if it was too sharp! Note also the wood palette and mops. Of course I should have done this with my LF camera. I think I will.

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
So here's the building adjacent to the optics workshop. This is not abandoned b ut just locked up and neglected! It's as if they are saying, we aren't using this place and we can leave it as an eyesore and it's none of your business!



_MG_1174-2Buildingby OpticalWorkshop_800Version_02.jpg


Bird on the Wire



I was struck by the presence of the lone bird standing on the wire above this urban blight. The bird makes sense of it, for sure. I thought of Leonard Chen's Song, "Bird on the Wire", " .......... I tried in my own way to be free!

Asher
 

Rachel Foster

New member
First, the mops. I love the shapes and directions along with the muted colors of this. The strings of the mops next to the harshness of the gutter, the direction of the strings playing off the diagonal of the gutter works well. You've also hit some emotional triggers here. The deeper level triggers (depending on the perceiver) include a symbol of cleaning up the psychic detritus we all carry with the knowledge that even this need to clean is psychic clutter. Another deeper level trigger might relate to existential anxiety. This anxiety might be fear that as we age, we become "useless," and whereas we were once the agent of order and "cleanliness," now we become just something to be disposed of. I've not yet worked out the meaning of two mops unless it involves aging as a couple. The meanings will be idiosyncratic, of course, but the cultural symbols of cleansing, trash, and worn out are powerful ones.
 

Rachel Foster

New member
The palette and filing cabinet are not as apparent to me in terms of triggers. I just like the textures and shapes on this one.


The last one you posted.....ah, that reminds me of home! That's the LA area of my childhood. I suddenly was longing for a shot of the LA river where it crossed Compton Blvd in Compton. We used to walk over the bridge and would have loved to play in the concrete river canyon but knew if we got caught we'd be in biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig trouble.
 

Ken Tanaka

pro member
... I suddenly was longing for a shot of the LA river where it crossed Compton Blvd in Compton. We used to walk over the bridge and would have loved to play in the concrete river canyon but knew if we got caught we'd be in biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig trouble.

"Them!"

Sorry...one of my favorite 1950's sci-fi films. It culminates with giant ants infesting the enormous storm drains that empty into that LA River trough. Ahh...nothing better.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
"Them!"

Sorry...one of my favorite 1950's sci-fi films. It culminates with giant ants infesting the enormous storm drains that empty into that LA River trough. Ahh...nothing better.
Ken,

I didn't see ,"Them!" but I now will. I like getting the little signposts to interesting things you seem to carry around in your pocket.

Here's another one of them, a pair of bricks that stayed behind.



_MG_1184_Bricks copyTROMPE loeil800.jpg


A Pair of Bricks


There's a minor tomple l'oeil. So if you think it's slightly strange, it is. If you think there's nothing strange, look again.

Asher
 

Will Thompson

Well-known member
Both snaps are taken with a 5D, 24-105mm ISO

I like the picture of the palette, especially that it has those red letters on an almost B&W image. But what F stop? I'd have thought it was done with a 50 at 1.2 or else it was at the long end or perhaps photoshop?

Will
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I like the picture of the palette, especially that it has those red letters on an almost B&W image. But what F stop? I'd have thought it was done with a 50 at 1.2 or else it was at the long end or perhaps photoshop?




_MG_1182_Palette and metal_cabinet_800.jpg


Wooden Palette Oblique on Inverted White Metal Cabinet


Hi Will,

Thanks for even thinking of the 50 1.2L, one of my most favorite lenses. After all, it gives a great soft Bokeh that is very flattering, gently bringing in your subject from a world of ghostly spirits to the foreground! I love that lens and would have used it had it been with me.

However, not only was I using the 24-105 f4 IS for my street shoot, but also the camera was set up at ISO 640 and f10 for best depth of field for shooting at anything that caught my fancy from my car. The speed here was 1/60 sec with IS on.

So the softness in the periphery is done in photoshop in masked layers and then painted in as required.

Asher
 
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