Untitled

Built in 1900 and abandoned since 1945, this house once belonged to a

courageous and headstrong woman who refused to sell her property to

the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power when they were

attempting to purchase all of the land in the area in order to obtain

the water rights that came with the property (so that they could

divert that water to the burgeoning metropolis of Los Angeles). I've

always thought the place looked kind of spooky but if you throw a few

lights inside and paint the landscape with light, it's not so bad.

This is my first attempt at something like this so I'm curious to hear

your opinions, thoughts, suggestions, disdain, joy or ambivalence

regarding the outcome. It can be viewed larger and that would

probably be better. Thanks for taking the time to have a look, thanks

even more if you write something!

Great mood, indeed and technically perfectly rendered, congratulations, Jeff!

Best regards

PDE

I agree with Pierre about the execution of this.  I'm curious about why there is light on inside the house.  Is someone living there now?  And what did you illuminate the sagebrush with (is that what it is?).   I'd prefer the house slightly off center.  I tried a square crop, and I'm not sure that's the answer.  It almost loses its sense of place, which I think is integral to what you you were trying to capture.  I really like it the way it is.....just trying to offer other ideas.

Thanks Christal and Pierre!

Christal, the house has been abandoned for about 70 years, there wasn't another person for miles although there are stories about what might lie beneath your feet.  The lights inside were placed there by me, small LED spheres I bought at a craft store.  The sage in the foreground (it is sage) was illuminated using an LED flashlight.  I agree about the center composition being debatable, artistically.

congrats on this photo being selected as photo of the day!

Very beautiful photo! :)

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You did a really good job of lighting this old place and partial foreground with LED's. You've obviously put thought into it before pressing any shutter or cable.

I love the feeling of isolation, made even stronger by either daybreak or twilight.

I do find the house too centered and would definitely crop some of the dark, negative space from the right. Moving the house off center. I tried a quick crop on it

A few observations of my own.  I wish that I had shot this at ISO 200 rather than 800.  I could have reduced my aperture to f/5.6, my shutter speed to 30 seconds and produced a very similar exposure without the noise.  I also wish that I had at least attempted this shot from other perspectives.  The most difficult part of this was lighting but once that was done, it would have been relatively easy to move the camera and tripod around.  I was so focused on getting this shot to work before the sun completely set that I failed to attempt anything else.  Next time, I will not be so myopic.

I do like the isolation provided by centering the subject and feel that some of that isolation is lost in Ken's interpretation.  I feel like the photographer is trying to hide something just out of frame to the right.  I don't completely disagree with the reasoning but think it would have to be accomplished by recomposing the shot, not just cropping this one.  As I've said before, I am aware of the rules, I'm just not a huge fan of following them.