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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Thirty Two: On Safari -- expressing the essence of nature > Puku at dawn, Puku Ridge Tented Camp, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006
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08-JAN-2006

Puku at dawn, Puku Ridge Tented Camp, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, 2006

The Puku, along with the impala, is ubiquitous in Zambia's Luangwa Valley. It is sturdier than the impala, and lacks its markings. Pukus emit a shrill whistle, almost like birds. This female puku came to drink from a pond behind our tented camp every morning. The rising sun glows in a marshy pond, edged in darkness broken only by the silhouette of the puku. There is a sense of peace, loneliness, and perhaps even vulnerability here. To stand in a tented camp and see a sight like this is an important part of the Safari experience. This image is based on abstraction and mood. I am asking my viewers to bring themselves to this place and see it, and perhaps even listen to it, along with me.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30
1/160s f/5.6 at 88.8mm iso80 full exif

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Phil Douglis18-Oct-2007 20:20
Thanks, Alina, for coming to this image. One of your own images (http://www.pbase.com/image/87114721 ) uses a similar concept and does it very well.
Alina18-Oct-2007 04:09
Beautiful morning, just perfect to secure it on the picture for us all to admire.
Phil Douglis02-Mar-2006 20:27
Wonderful to see you in my galleries, again, Marisa. I agree with all you say -- I am expressing my own feelings about what I see in this image, but each viewer will experience this image in terms of the context they will bring to it. As you so eloquently put it, this image greets you with the sound of silence, a memory you carry with you from your exeriences in your own national parks.
Guest 02-Mar-2006 19:39
You talk about "peace, loneliness, and perhaps even vulnerability" but what I feel and remember while looking at this image are all the sensations and emotions that I have had in all my trips alongside my country and its national parks: the beauty of an untouched natural paradise, the sounds that we can only listen when silence is around us and a strength that seems to be invisible to our human eyes.
I guess that I am more than lucky for living here!
Phil Douglis05-Feb-2006 04:27
You say it as beautifully as I've tried to photograph it, Celia. Mystery is at the heart of abstraction, and there is much of both in this image.
Cecilia Lim04-Feb-2006 23:45
What a beautiful image! You pull out all the stops here, Phil, affecting us with the visual, the emotion and imagination. The subtle warm colours are delightful, the mood here serene & the loneliness almost romantic. And there is enough mystery and ambiguity here to launch our imagination,... so now we ponder the future of this lone puku about to face another day in this big vast world around her.
Phil Douglis25-Jan-2006 18:59
A slice of gold. Moody. Simple. A river of time. Loneliness. This image can be all of things and more, Jen, because of the degree of abstraction I've used to structure it. Now take another look at it. A subtle green velvet carpet will appear as well, wearing ridges and grooves that define its texture. Look at the whole picture again and you are in Africa with me. In fact, if you listen carefully as you look at this image, you may even hear its sounds.
Jennifer Zhou25-Jan-2006 13:05
Phil, you know I love this kind of photo, moody and simple. The morning sunlight glows on the water makes it looks like a slice of gold. And since the sun is rising and the golden color will soon disappear, so I like to think the marshy pond as a time river.. we walk along it, time passes by slowly...

By the way, I would love to enjoy a moment walking by the pond as a lonely deer..
Phil Douglis25-Jan-2006 05:41
Eloquently put, Alister.
alibenn25-Jan-2006 01:52
love the light opens up the dark....
Phil Douglis24-Jan-2006 20:38
This is one of my most abstract safari images. There is not much yet to the day itself -- the sun has just scraped the horizon. And so there is not much to this image either -- only an appeal to the imagination. Thank you, Alister for pointing this out. And thank you, Kal, for noticing the scale of the animal and relating it to survival -- the most important factor in its brief life. And thank you, Dandan and Mo, for appreciating the minimal content and mood and meaning of the color and light. It does evoke both time and place, as well as the primitive nature of this ecosystem.
monique jansen24-Jan-2006 14:17
very atmospheric lighting here, it evokes a time and place for me
Guest 24-Jan-2006 12:22
Absolutely beautiful! Less is more, as you always say….
Kal Khogali24-Jan-2006 11:26
I second Alister, you pait with light again...the animal is diminished, yet survives here...
alibenn24-Jan-2006 06:21
simple, effective and evocative...what more needs said?
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