photo sharing and upload picture albums photo forums search pictures popular photos photography help login
Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Forty-Five: Using clouds to imply meaning > Dreamscape, Tecopa Hot Springs, California, 2007
previous | next
18-FEB-2007

Dreamscape, Tecopa Hot Springs, California, 2007

Just six minutes after making the previous image of lenticular clouds with a zoom lens set at 76mm, I made this image of the same clouds with a camera using a 28mm wideangle lens. Within these six minutes, they have changed their form and shape, becoming more diffused and less defined, yet they still hover in the same spot as in the previous image. The previous photograph told its story through the clouds alone. Because of this wideangle perspective, this image can expand on that story, relating the clouds above to a surreal figure etched within the Tecopa wetlands below. The body of that figure echoes the thrust of the huge white cloud overhead, linking sky to ground. The colors of the sky and distant mountains are picked up in the ground “figure” as well. This image is a haunting dreamscape – we become involved in the tensions between the expansive cloud in the sky and an invasive figure on the ground. It is a juxtaposition best left to our imaginations to resolve.

Leica D-Lux 3
1/200s f/4.9 at 6.3mm iso100 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
share
Phil Douglis21-Nov-2007 22:31
Thanks, Rusty, for letting me know how much this image has meant to you. It is not easy for me to make impressionistic painterly images on demand -- the light and subject must lend itself to it. But I am always looking for opportunities such as cloud formations and reflections at sunset that can lead to the making of such images as this one.
russellt21-Nov-2007 21:52
a hauntingly beautiful image, which has stayed in my memory. I like it when you do your impressionistic painterly thing...
Phil Douglis04-Mar-2007 20:25
I worked very hard on those highlights, Kal-- they bring the figure in the water to life. And those echoes were also a reason for making this image. This was not an easy image for me -- it was almost dark, and I had to expose for the sky to get the clouds, so the marsh was very dark. With the help of photoshop's shadow highlight tool, I was able to rescue detail in the darkness and save those highlights. Thanks for coming to this one, Kal.
Kal Khogali04-Mar-2007 11:34
I like how the hilight has caught the water in the foreground. The image is also full of echoes of the clouds in the shape of the waterway. K
Type your message and click Add Comment
It is best to login or register first but you may post as a guest.
Enter an optional name and contact email address. Name
Name Email
help private comment