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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Forty-Two: Adding meaning to scenic vistas > Lamar Valley, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2006
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29-SEP-2006

Lamar Valley, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2006

We were in the Lamar Valley to look for the wolf packs that often prey on the bisons that dot the landscape. While we did see some wolves, at great distance, the bison were predominant. Although I had hundreds of bison available to photograph, five of them give me enough scale here to express just how vast the Lamar Valley is. I work this image into five separate layers to make sense of a vast scenic vista, using my long telephoto lens at 415mm to collapse the great distance between the five layers. The five bison provide that important scale context – they are incongruously small compared to the land they graze upon. I make the bison my base layer, and build the image up to a vast plateau or hillside layer that connects the bison to the aspens that crown the plateau. The next layer features that stand of aspens with long white trunks and clusters of glowing yellow leaves. The final layer is a vast hill that carries the eye up and beyond the image. It was on this hill that we saw the telltale moving spots: a roving wolf pack. They were so far away that the only way to see them was through a high-powered spotting scope. There was no way for me to photograph them, yet I was glad that their presence led us to the spectacular Lamar Valley.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50
1/200s f/5.6 at 87.7mm iso100 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis03-Apr-2020 05:21
The grandeur that is Yellowstone was the subject of this image, Guest. I am delighted that you see the beauty of the scale contrast here.
Guest 01-Apr-2020 07:56
Beautiful
Phil Douglis12-Nov-2006 19:20
Thanks, Xin -- you are in synch with my intentions here. I based my composition on the sense of natural order here -- the row of incongruously tiny bison grazing undisturbed below a grove of glowing orange aspen, all upon a field and hillside of burnished gold. If that makes you feel warm and peaceful, it means the image is stimulating both your emotions and your imagination as I had hoped.
Sheena Xin Liu12-Nov-2006 07:41
This image combines the perfection of composition and charms of coloring. It brings me warmth, harmony and peace if those are the emotions evoke in me.
Phil Douglis08-Nov-2006 20:14
Thanks for being the first to note the essence of this image, Ai Li. That was exactly what I wanted to do -- express the vast nature of this valley by using scale incongruity. You don't always need to get close to an animal to tell its story. This long view gives us a look at the bison in their environment, rather than a look at bison as bison.
AL08-Nov-2006 09:17
Your brilliant use of scale and layer certainly gives us a great feel of vastness and the depth of the valley. Everything seems so distant and it's as if we're taking a binocular view now.
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