Studio City Sunset

[Daniel Schaefer]

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[Ken Tanaka]

Daniel: My quick take...Not quite. This is a very iconic, post card, image with thousands of predecessors. So there's a large body to compare to.

1. You've timed this badly with a large mass (SUV) and bright headlights as distractions. You're also a bit careless with framing.

2. Your post-processing is very heavy-handed and insensitive.

Ditto your other images posted. At capture you're seeing a possibility but are not timing or framing carefully. You also need to develop a much keener eye and hand in working on the images later. You're crushing them to death. (A very common mistake.)

 

[Daniel Schaefer]

thank you for the critiques ken, and i will take them to heart

but on this particular image, there is absolutely no post processing, its just shot with a very old, very used Nikon D70 that has some very odd tendencies when it comes to color and saturation

that is straight from camera

 

[Asher Kelman]

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Daniel Schaefer: Studio City Sunset!​

Daniel,

Glad to see your pictures. Your D70 is a good camera to keep in your pack while you use its big brother the 700D. Is it that the D70 is so much lighter or else less expensive a risk to carry around all the time?


"Sunsets in Studio city" - that's so funny to me as it's hardly a place of romance or great beauty. I've never heard anyone remark of the great enchantment as the sun sinks in the Studio City sky and the moon rises. Your picture can be improved. What's "there is" in Studio City is nothing like sunsets in Malibu or Santa Monica beaches. Rather it's almost monotonously mundane, packs of cars worming their way home under an orange sky. Strange, but not charming, pretty or memorable. I think instead of gentleman's clubs and card games late into the night with 30-something East European women, in tight shirts, picking the rich single widowers to help them gamble their money.

I encourage you to shoot more and maybe get those people in your work!

Asher

 

[Daniel Schaefer]

Full Size

Daniel Schaefer: Studio City Sunset!​

Daniel,

Glad to see your pictures. Your D70 is a good camera to keep in your pack while you use its big brother the 700D. Is it that the D70 is so much lighter or else less expensive a risk to carry around all the time?


"Sunsets in Studio city" - that's so funny to me as it's hardly a place of romance or great beauty. I've never heard anyone remark of the great enchantment as the sun sinks in the Studio City sky and the moon rises. Your picture can be improved. What's "there is" in Studio City is nothing like sunsets in Malibu or Santa Monica beaches. Rather it's almost monotonously mundane, packs of cars worming their way home under an orange sky. Strange, but not charming, pretty or memorable. I think instead of gentleman's clubs and card games late into the night with 30-something East European women, in tight shirts, picking the rich single widowers to help them gamble their money.

I encourage you to shoot more and maybe get those people in your work!

Asher

I have actually lived, worked and learned in studio city for the past 12 years of my life, and I can say without a doubt, studio city is NOT a play of romance or beauty in the least!

that being said, at least a night a week, I walk around my neighborhood trying to find those little moments of Beauty in studio city, and believe you me, they are few and far between.
in part, thats what i enjoy about this shot, it reminds me of those postcards of malibu or santa monica instead of the mundane, grey, concrete and asphalt lots that make up studio city.

i have actually been working on a series of those very eastern european women and elderly armenian gentlemen who mingle with the hipsters and wannabe screenwriters. the series is on hold at the moment because of school scheduling and sickness, but as soon as I can get back out on the dangerous streets of studio city, and trust me, they are a whole lot shadier than you might think, in the past few months, i have witnessed a shooting, two muggings and a stunning number of drunk in public arrests in my quiet little corner of Los Angeles

to attest to the sudden decline in studio city safety here is a photo I took just before the school year started, less than four blocks from my house when a man was found bound and gagged in the trunk of a burning car, the area was cordoned off for a week before I could get to it, so i was only able to capture the aftermath


http://www.flickr.com/photos/outlierimagery/5455136739/


and the reason i am carrying the D70 again for the time being, is the D7000 is off at the Nikon Center getting some Tender love and care along with the bulk of my lenses.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Daniel,

I commend you for your steadfastness. You have an important and rich career ahead of you. I'm privileged to have met you! I know you are talented and public spirited and am proud of you! Thanks for sharing your pictures with us!

Asher

 

[Ken Tanaka]

Are you familiar with the project that fellow Angeleno Charlie Chipman has undertaken?

Good luck on your project and stay safe.