“An artist's duty is to reflect the times.” Nina Simone

California Contrast

I set out to capture the orange light of the setting sun on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California.  I had scouted a handful of locations that would allow the warm hue to light the street sign emblazoned with "Sunset Bl."  For this self-imposed assignment, I brought a telephoto lens.  I had a sliver of a window in time to capture the street sign and I did.  Then I walked home.  As I crossed the street, I turned back again toward north, and saw the Rolls-Royce Dawn out of the corner of my eye heading to my intersection.  I was shooting vertically, as I was hoping it would stop at the light, and the white bands on the crosswalk could be used to lead the eye towards the Spirit of Ecstasy; you can see a portion of them at the bottom right.  Suddenly a man appeared out of nowhere in my viewfinder pulling a train of shopping carts across the street.  I didn't even switch to horizontal shooting as I was now watching the scene unfold in my viewfinder. 

There is so much to say about Los Angeles in this photo.  So much to say about our country, our values, etc.  However, I will let the image speak for itself.