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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Eighteen: Light and Landscape – combining personal vision with nature’s gifts > Tad Fane Falls, Pakxong, Laos, 2005
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26-JAN-2005

Tad Fane Falls, Pakxong, Laos, 2005

In the far south of Laos, we visited spectacular Tad Fane Falls, a pair of waterfalls plunging 800 feet into a forest gorge. The sheer drop of water is so breathtaking that Tad Fane would be among the most popular waterfalls in the world if not hidden in a remote section of Laos. The light and color in the surrounding foliage brings the image to life. I also found two thin tall trees that seemed to mimic the narrow twin cascades of water, and moved my vantage point so that the two trees separate the two falls. This greatly improves the structure of my wideangle composition. When I first photographed these twin falls without the trees between them, I produced a visually beautiful yet static picture post card image, crippled by the abundant amount of negative space nature had placed between the cascades. Inserting the twin trees between the cascades, I not only create rhythmic repetition, but I also tripled yet narrowed the overall amount of negative space, energizing the picture. Each of the three narrow strips of negative space adds vertical tension to the image. I also framed the falls both top and bottom in foliage to shift perspective and give an illusion of depth. (The mid-flow crater in the right hand cascade was particularly impressive. I made a close-up image of that crater with my long lens, in back and white. You can see it in my black and white gallery by clicking on the thumbnail below:

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20
1/125s f/4.0 at 8.7mm iso80 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis12-May-2021 04:58
Thank you, Francesco, for leaving monthly poems below this image. I am delighted that it has inspired your imagination and creativity, and honored that you choose this particular image, which I made in Laos fifteen years ago as the source for your poetic thoughts.
Francesco Sinibaldi 29-Apr-2021 15:46
In a clear sun.

Like the breath
of the morning
stillness, like
a delicate
sadness in the
youth of your
smile...

Francesco Sinibaldi
Francesco Sinibaldi 05-Apr-2021 12:58
That memory.
( other version )

In the light
of an apparent
peace there's
a writing, a feeble
illusion and an
intimate feeling
that covers the
darkness and the
breath of a pain...

Francesco Sinibaldi
Francesco Sinibaldi 31-Jan-2021 13:29
Taciturn quietness.

In the breath,
in the sunshine,
in a luminous
singing walking
alone near a
delicate dream,
in the tears
of your care...

Francesco Sinibaldi
Francesco Sinibaldi 13-Dec-2020 16:48
Fine week.

The sunshine
appears near
a prudent leaf,
in the heart
of a country,
where a tender
profile is a
persuasive care...

Francesco Sinibaldi
Phil Douglis19-Oct-2005 21:31
Zidane, if you read my caption, and my responses to other comments, you will perhaps better understand why I wanted those two trees there. This image is much about the trees as the waterfall. I am expressing an idea here about nature in its various forms, not just making a postcard view of a waterfall.
zidane 19-Oct-2005 14:32
Sorry, Idon't like the trees in foreground, it's really bother me, why you take the tress in foreground, in terms of composition.
Phil Douglis07-May-2005 21:33
Thanks, Bruce -- sometimes it is the composition itself that is key to a landscape. Such is the case here.
Guest 07-May-2005 12:40
A very engaging composition, Phil!
Terri 06-May-2005 19:24
WOW...just spectacular.
Phil Douglis07-Apr-2005 19:56
The key here is isolation, Alister. Yes, it was cluttered and chaotic. It's the nature of nature. I saw the twin falls and instinctively looked for something that I could isolate through my lens choice and vantage point to juxtapose against them. It took a while to find these trees. As for the fern, it came along in the deal. And as for luck, Jack is right. As someone else once said, "luck is the residue of design." It is not surprising to me that experienced photographers tend to be "luckier" than inexperienced photographers because they notice things, and look for things, that others might not.
alibenn07-Apr-2005 06:21
Let me first say that I really like this. So often in your galleries, I have searched in an image to find the lesson you intend, and only through that understanding, start to enjoy the image. There are some shots on your galleries that I initially didn't like, yet grew to love!! So, loving this straight off the bat, is nice!!

Okay; Tropical rainforests can be mightily frustrating places to shoot, they tend to be cluttered. This image is a very strong composition, essentially 4 verticals, with the framing greenery adding a canvas and texture. Ha, it's funny, the more I look at your images, I feel nature is in league with you, who else can stumble across a pair of spectacular falls, with mirrored vertical trees AND that lovely little fern planted in the bottom left to anchor and balance the composition!! Wasn't it Jack Niclaus who said, "The more I practice, the luckier I get!!"
Phil Douglis22-Mar-2005 14:26
Thanks, Benchang, for this lovely interpretation. Your comments illuminate the power of vantage point to tell a story. By shooting the falls from this spot, dividing the delicate trails of silken water in the distance by two slender trees, I am able to make those falls seem even longer as they plunge down the face of that cliff. Yet when I used the long telephoto vantage point to isolate the single spot of greatest energy (http://www.pbase.com/pnd1/image/40169872 ) I tell an entirely different story -- defining nature's massive, even brutal, force, where falling water can rip the stone face of a cliff wide open!
Benchang Tang 22-Mar-2005 12:07
What a picture! The pair of waterfalls in the distance look like unravelled and unfolded white silk just from Chinese hand looms (less wide than from the modern looms and in Chinese ancient poetry waterfalls are compared to white silk cloth), and waterfalls photograghed close-by are usually dominating and will apply pressure on the viewers but these ones are so attrative and intimate to me. Theyare more a part of the Nature. The second feeling is that the two slim trees in the foreground have elongated the falls alot. Thank you very much for your kind mail.
Phil Douglis04-Mar-2005 21:47
Now I am confused. Was it you who coined the word "Douglistic,' or was it Tim May? Or did you both come up with it independently? In any event, I accept your kind word on the Douglistic composition. Nice metaphor, Marek -- I was not thinking about vertical highways here when I made this image, but I can see what you are driving at. (Pun intended.)
Guest 04-Mar-2005 17:28
A very satisfying Douglistic composition; containing geometry, depth and the trademark framing. It's a highway -- with lanes going down and lanes growing up.
Phil Douglis03-Mar-2005 04:27
And also adds depth, tension, and beauty, Lara. As for hugeness -- if it's a word, you just coined it.

Phil
Lara S03-Mar-2005 01:36
yes I do see that 1) the presence of the trees, 2) the play of light, and maybe 3) kinda centering the waterfalls gives the image a sense of 3 dimensions and a sense of hugeness, if that's a word.
Phil Douglis01-Mar-2005 05:06
Thanks, Anna. This experience in the jungles of Laos made me think for a moment that I was back in Yosemite again! (See:http://www.pbase.com/pnd1/image/35601774 )

You are right about expressing the grandeur of waterfalls. In Yosemite I zoomed in on just a small section of Bridalveil Fall to capture its essence. My black and white close-up of the crater of the waterfall at right worked beautifully to establish the tremendous force of flow of the water itself.

To make a worthy landscape including both of these distant waterfalls meant using them as context instead of subject. I was very fortunate to find those two skinny trees to use in the foreground as my subject matter. You are right, Anna, the interplay of light and shadow gives texture, pattern, color and form to those trees, giving them vitality and dimension and bringing them to life. Add the tension created by the negative space crackling between them, and its no wonder they catch your eye first. And they should. The waterfalls behind them and the colors in the foliage around them make an ideal context. I have admired a number of your spectacular Swedish landscapes, Anna. Here is a successful Laotian Landscape as a thank you!
Anna Yu28-Feb-2005 19:56
The light truly brings this landscape to life. I saw it illuminating the patterns on the tree trunks first. The grandeur of huge waterfalls is ever so hard to capture (sorry) on a camera I think. Having the tropical tree in the foreground parallel to the water is magnificent. But the angle of light on the trunk is what catches my eye first, and last.
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