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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Eighteen: Light and Landscape – combining personal vision with nature’s gifts > On the Plains of Old Bagan, Myanmar, 2005
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On the Plains of Old Bagan, Myanmar, 2005

We climbed to the top of a ruined temple at dusk to look out over what was left of Old Bagan. When the forces of the Mongol Golden Horde, led by Kublai Khan, overwhelmed Bagan in 1287, there were 13,000 temples here. The ruins of 2,000 of them still stand on the plains of Bagan, which today is both a farming community and an archaeological zone. The two come together in this landscape image. Where agriculture ends, archaeology begins. It creates a striking contrast in zones, and that is what makes this a strong landscape. I devote three quarters of my frame to the rows of crops in the field below us. Each row leads to a ruined temple on the horizon. The image is designed to flow both horizontally and vertically. We see a huge farm and enjoy a panoramic view of at least 25 ruined temples in the distance, yet the eye also is drawn vertically to the temples by each row of crops. Evening light also plays an important role here, producing the rich, deep colors and powerful shadows.


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Phil Douglis14-May-2005 23:44
Thanks, Anna, for pointing out the hint of a diagonal in this image. I can see it now -- a line of trees leading in from the upper right and bringing us to the tree at the center of the image, exactly where the historical area ends and the agricultural area begins. This is an important point -- a diagonal line need not always run from corner to corner to be effective. Implied diagonals such as this can lead the eye into an image as well. I am grateful to you, Anna, for pointing this out.
Anna Pagnacco14-May-2005 23:04
The magic light on the stupas and the field in the foreground with a hint of diagonal composition done by the trees make this landscape very unique....Ciao, Anna
Phil Douglis05-May-2005 00:40
Thanks, Anna. I think the biggest difficulty in making landscapes work is to find contrasts and juxtapositions that tell a story and then emphasize them. That's what I tried to do here. If those ancient temples were not in the background of this picture, it would be just a shot of a field, and not an expressive image.
Anna Yu04-May-2005 17:16
Very strong composition, the vertical lines perfect for dominating the foreground, sucking the viewer into the picture. Landscapes are the most difficult thing to master for me.
Phil Douglis07-Apr-2005 20:03
Golden light, indeed. Glad this sucks you in. That was my intention. I love your phrase "geometric agriculture." But it does not really become geometry until we see it from this high a vantage point and juxtapose it with the furrows of religiosity in the background.
alibenn07-Apr-2005 06:31
Dear Phil, this one is straight up my favourite furrow!! An image of two halves, fine geometric agricutlure, juxtaposed with the ancient stonework in the background. fine snapshot of the variety and longevity of humans mark on the landscape, religeous adoration in the past, from a time where faith had more impact on farmers than fertilizer.

A fine, fine image, I could go on for some time with this one, as it sucks me in!! Amongst the many lessons to be learned from this one has to be, The golden light is our friend!!!
Phil Douglis22-Mar-2005 21:39
Thank you, Benchang, for responding to the flow in this image. There is indeed a sense of movement here from the front to deep into the back of this image, as well as the sweep from side to side. I felt almost as if I was looking at a musical score here, with its bars and notes expressing movement, pace, and direction. You are right, as well, about the tranquil and peaceful mood here. This image could have functioned just as well as in my gallery on mood and atmosphere, because the twilight colors do indeed stir us emotionally. As in any effective landscape, layers play an important role in structuring the meaning of this image -- the foreground of plantings, the middle ground of trees, bushes, and earth, and he background of distant and ancient ruins each add a veneer of substance and a stimulus to thought. I am delighted you sense all of this in your brilliant reading of this image. Thank you.
Benchang Tang 22-Mar-2005 12:51
On my first look at this photogragh I sensed something,... what you told me later, "flow", yes, there is no barriars in it. The growth, the small trees, the footpath, the pogadas, they flow among themselves. In the twighlight I feel a tranquility in your picture.
I like the trees and bushes very much and they seem to help to join the others into a whole picture. This give me a sense of peace also because I can see although the country people are are not well-off enough but they apparently treasure their own culture. Where agriculture ends, archaeology begins. Thank you for your great picture.
Phil Douglis04-Mar-2005 18:57
Hi, Dandan, Thanks for this comment. In this shot, I could not use my 24mm wideangle lens because I was too far away from those temples for such a lens to be effective. I would have had a huge field, with tiny temples on the far horizon. I needed less of a field, and larger temples. So a focal length of somewhere between 35mm and 50mm would work perfectly. The zoom lens on my Panansonic FZ-20 is Leica Elmarit 35mm-432mm lens. I barely had to zoom at all to make the temples large enough to read detail in, plus keep a good sweep of that field in the foreground.

Hope this helps.
Guest 04-Mar-2005 12:59
Phil, this image has great depth. the lines of the field at the foreground draws you eyes to the ruin, the diagonal lined temple just keep caring the eyes flow through the entire image.
Phil, I am wondering what kind of lens is on this camera? Why you didn’t use your 24mm wide-angle lens on this one? Would that make any difference?
Phil Douglis28-Feb-2005 02:36
That's the purpose of this picture. Yesterday meets today at the edge of that field, Mo. The hand of man is visible in both the work of nature and the history of Bagan.
monique jansen27-Feb-2005 10:37
This one works very well as a combination of nature, albeit nature altered by mankind and the wats in the background.
Phil Douglis27-Feb-2005 07:11
That was my intention, Rod. If the plants were not there, the shot is purely descriptive. With this emphasis on them, it becomes expressive.
Guest 27-Feb-2005 01:05
VERY nice, Phil. The lines draw me directly to the ancient Wats
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