This diner is pretty much in the middle of nowhere out in the desert in the northern Los Angeles area, a little outside Palmdale in an area called Lake Los Angeles. The location is called Four Aces and it has been used in many movies and commercials before. Here is their website: Four Aces
Since I was home for a few days during this challenge, I started doing some research on the diners in the Los Angeles area and found this place online. I decided to head out to the desert in order to find it. I was hoping that when I do find it, it would be around sunset time in order to get a prettier light in my shot. It was an hour and a half drive to get there.
When I got there, I saw a guy that was photographing some people in front of the diner. At first I thought he must be some photographer taking pictures of a famous location (or another DPC member shooting for this challenge??? LOL), so I got off my car with my camera mounted on my tripod in order to set it up. The guy approached me and asked me what I am taking the photograph for. I said "For a photo contest". He said that I am not allowed to take photographs of this place because "This is really a movie set". He also said that he is the owner. I'm thinking to myself "he is the owner and he is a photographer at the same time? Cool!" I explained it to him that I won't be making any profit out of this and this is just a pure hobby. He said "ok, I will give you 5 minutes and that is it". I said thanks and started composing my shot, but the problem was he was in my frame the whole time photographing others so I could not get a clear shot of the diner. I asked him "Sir, I know you have decided to let me take a few shots of your diner and I really appreciate that, but how can I when you are standing right in from of my camera?" ;) I had my camera's auto-bracketing on, continuous mode on, composed, focused and ready to fire with the cable release. He said "ok, I will move but make it quick". He thought he moved out of my way, but then he was still in my frame. I told him "Sir, excuse me but this is a wide angle lens … 16mm and you are still in my shot, so could you move some more?". Now, I am ordering the owner around, LOL! He said "OK" and moved some more. As soon as he was out of my frame, I held down the shutter release button and fired off 3 shots at 0, -2, and +2 and said "thank you, I am done". He was surprised that it was over so quickly and wished me good luck in the contest.
Btw, that car is not mine! It was parked there when I go there. As soon as I saw it I knew immediately I had to get it in my frame to give the picture an extra dimension. Glad to see many people like it being in the picture.
I know I have been severely penalized by some voters for not including the location in my title. It hit me right after the voting had started and I'm like "ugh, I can't believe I went through all this and now some voters will kill me for not including the location". Besides, isn't putting the location in the title a little silly and defeats the purpose of anonymity? I am glad it still finished hight in spite of that. Thank you for your votes and comments!
Statistics
Place: 2 out of 57 Avg (all users): 7.1040 Avg (commenters): 7.9048 Avg (participants): 6.5000 Avg (non-participants): 7.3297 Views since voting: 7502 Views during voting: 344 Votes: 125 Comments: 49 Favorites: 5 (view)
Maybe if you make a print for the owner as a thank you, and tell him you won a ribbon he'll be happy and let you shoot there more often as long as it's not for profit.
That car is great. It's in some of the car photos on his site.
Congratulations on 3rd - this received my highest score so I'm glad you ribboned with it. I can't believe anyone would score you down for the missing city/state. I thought that stipulation took away from the anonymity of the challenge so never even looked at the titles and didn't know that portion of yours was missing! :-)
The Woodie adds so much to the image - what good fortune it was parked there.
I loved it so much I never even noticed that the location was missing. Congrats on the ribbon and thanks for the story, I'm so glad you were so assertive. It's my lesson for the day.
Looks to me that "Diner" IS the name of the place. LOL Love the story. Talk about serendipitous to have that old fake wood sided station wagon in the shot!! Congrats.
True! That is in fact the name of the Diner ... "Diner" :)
Looks to me that "Diner" IS the name of the place. LOL Love the story. Talk about serendipitous to have that old fake wood sided station wagon in the shot!! Congrats.
Didn't get to voting on this, but I would have died. I almost entered an extremely similar shot, but chose the up close one instead. You were FAR more fortunate with the sky than I was, and the result speaks for itself. I had a typical blue sky sunset, which proved to be disappointingly ordinary and blah, so the wide angle did not work. Congrats on the fabulous capture. It is worth the drive. Incidentally, there was a very similar car there which appeared in my six word memoir entry :-)
Cool! Just saw your entry in the Six Word Memoir. I guess they use these old classic cars in their photo-shoots. I saw a bunch of them behind the green building. I was praying for interesting skies as I was driving over there. When I left home, there weren't many clouds in the sky, but as I got closer and closer to the diner, they started to build up.
Incredible that people think you are not allowed to make a picture. This isn`t a military restricted area I think. So I wonder if he would guard his "movie" Place 24 hours a day. Times are getting more and more crazy.
Congratulations one of my favourites!
Yes, I agree. It is becoming harder and harder to take pictures in public, especially in the United States. Virtually everywhere you go now they are asking for a permit especially if you are doing a photo-shoot for a person. It's becoming increasingly more and more frustrating for the photographers out there.
Didn't get to voting on this, but I would have died. I almost entered an extremely similar shot, but chose the up close one instead. You were FAR more fortunate with the sky than I was, and the result speaks for itself. I had a typical blue sky sunset, which proved to be disappointingly ordinary and blah, so the wide angle did not work. Congrats on the fabulous capture. It is worth the drive. Incidentally, there was a very similar car there which appeared in my six word memoir entry :-)
Incredible that people think you are not allowed to make a picture. This isn`t a military restricted area I think. So I wonder if he would guard his "movie" Place 24 hours a day. Times are getting more and more crazy.
Congratulations one of my favourites!
I love this image- looks like a motion picture still. Maintains a dingy feel while the brightness of the sun set and green of the building hold my interest. I also like the choice of crop- leaving so much concrete- gives the viewer a very specific perspective.
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