05-JUL-2007
Quantum Cloud XXXII, Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado, 2007
One of the most striking sculptures in the new wing of the Denver Art Museum is Antony Gormely’s anonymous figure made of stainless steel rods. I found a vantage point that allowed me to relate the posture of the figure to the design of the alcove in which it stands. The rods create a fragmented texture, some of them picking up light that intensifies the sculpture’s sense of explosive fragmentation. The art seems right at home in its abstracted surroundings, and this image defines that relationship.
19-FEB-2007
Contrasting boulders, Artist’s Palette, Death Valley National Park, California, 2007
In this image, I’ve contrasted light to dark, small to large, rough to smooth, and, most likely, new to old. The boulder in the foreground seems to me to be the newcomer – the evening light has defined its texture for us, showing us that it is a boulder made up of many smaller parts. The boulder waiting in the darkness is much larger and smoother, and therefore probably the senior partner here. I am sure that a geologist could tell us much more about the comparative history of these huge rocks. But at very least, this image pulls even an uninformed eye over each of these surfaces, inviting the hand to touch and the mind to wonder about the millions of years it must have taken nature to create such a sight as this.
23-FEB-2007
Last light, Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California, 2007
As daylight fades and night begins to fall, these shadowy boulders seem to carry the soft glow of velvet, a striking counterpoint to the lingering traces of sun on the grass and trees before them. This image is a study in contrasting textures created by nature – and also provides a powerful contrast in scale as well. The massive boulders overwhelm the delicate trees, which, in turn, tower over the line of winter grasses at their base.
29-DEC-2006
Sliver of light, Marrakesh, Morocco, 2006
A photo of someone talking on a cell phone in the street is not expressive photography in itself. However, in this case, the woman on the phone wears textured clothing, and she stands before a wall in Marrakesh’s old walled city that is equally rich in texture. A sliver of morning light slips between two buildings to illuminate just the edge of her garment. I used my spot meter to expose on this highlighted area, allowing everything else in the image to fall into shadow. The rough texture of her clothing echoes the heavily textured wall. These intense textures complement the intensity of the expression on her face, and help this image tell its story.
18-DEC-2006
Sahara sunset, Erg Chebbi, Morocco, 2006
Shooting a sand dune as a sand dune is not expressive. It is descriptive. To express the nature of the dune, we must either emphasize its scale, or else interpret its meaning through light, color, and texture. In this case, I use all of these factors to express the flavor of a Sahara sunset. I do not show the sun itself, but instead use the sun to reveal the textures in the sand created by the wind. Using a 28mm wideangle lens, I force the dunes to stretch to the horizon – a field of textured red sand against a fading blue sky.
14-DEC-2006
Time travel, Rabat, Morocco, 2006
It was just after dawn. I was on the bank of the Bou Regreg River, looking into the far distance at the 12th century crenellated wall surrounding Rabat’s old city. I wanted to erase all traces of our time, and take the viewer back to the medieval world. This wall was built nearly a thousand years ago, at the time of the Crusades, protecting the Almohad dynasty from the attacks of both European armies and pirates. I used a 750mm telephoto lens to reach across the river and stress the pink tinged walls. The image acquired a painterly effect, due in part to the low light, which caused me to use ISO 400. The electronic static or noise at ISO 400 works in my favor here, creating a mottled texture in the walls, grass, and sky that makes the scene less real, and more of an illusion. The pink light and textures recall a time of fire and blood. I felt as if I was looking directly into the past.
24-DEC-2006
Gourds, Marrakesh, Morocco, 2006
The interplay of light and shadow on these gourds in a Marrakesh souk made them look as if they had come from the ancient world. The light reveals both smooth and rough textures, and it is the contrast between those textures that defines the image.
20-DEC-2006
Goat, High Atlas Mountains, Morocco, 2006
This goat was exploring the remnants of an ancient rockslide in the High Atlas. There are two entirely different kinds of texture in this image. The texture of the rocks in shadow is smooth and almost glossy. The textures of the rocks in the sunlight appear more rough and coarse. The goat navigates between the edge between shadow and light, rough texture and smooth.
21-SEP-2006
Façade, Colorado River Valley, Moab, Utah, 2006
The corner of a massive cliff overlooking the Colorado River provides a vivid example of the power of flowing water to alter the face of the earth over hundreds of thousands of years. The façade of this cliff is a study in variegation – the textures of the different colors, patterns, and shapes are defined by warm evening light as well as soft shadows. Note the difference made by the play of light and shadow – the shadowed textures appear strikingly different from the illuminated textures.
19-SEP-2006
Fences, Orderville, Utah, 2006
I found these abandoned fences stacked against a boarded up building – they had outlived their purpose and have been left to the ravages of time. One was once painted a turquoise blue; the other had been left unpainted. The early morning sun warms the color of both, and brings out the texture of flaking and peeling paint on the other. The image is a poignant one – both of these fences were hand made, and one of them painted in the hopes of appearing beautiful. Both now show only the bittersweet textures of nature at work.
28-SEP-2006
Minerva Terrace, Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2006
In the far northern part of Yellowstone, terraces of flowing hot springs replace spouting geysers as natural attractions. Hot spring colors and shapes change more frequently at Mammoth Hot Springs than in most other park thermal basins. Rapid mineral build up clogs the underground “plumbing,” changing water circulation and hot spring activity.
One of the most spectacular sights at Yellowstone is the enormous face of Minerva Terrace. For years it has bubbled and flowed with steaming hot water. In fact, the entire cover of the National Park Service’s current official brochure for Yellowstone National Park features a wrap-around panoramic view of Minerva Terrace in full flow and bathed in rich, golden brown colors. What we saw, however, was an entirely different ‘Hot Spring.” Minerva Terrace had gone bone dry. Its famous golden brown terraces had become white, gray, and black with only a trace of its former brownish luster. I made this image of a very small segment of Minerva Terrace –and found that its textures still told a story of time and change. What we see here is the majesty of time stopped in its tracks. It almost looks like a giant lava flow. Some might wonder, since the color is minimal here, why I did not convert this image to black and white. That would have killed the story for me. There is still a hint of color and life in Minerva Terrace, and I’ve found it in this image. The blacks and grays hold a hint brown, gold, and even bluish white. A residue of gray ash-like material wanders up from the base and then runs across the diagonal plane of the image. The subtle colors burnish the texture and make it live. To mindlessly convert this image to black and white would destroy its meaning for me.
21-SEP-2006
Deadwood, Arches National Park, Utah, 2006
The textures of the curving, bleached dead wood and the richly colored red rock contrast mightily here: sun vs. shade, red vs. gray, rough vs. smooth. The wood, of course, was once living material, and is now as lifeless as the rock behind it. While the rock holds its color, the wood does not. Ultimately, however, it is texture, defined by light that makes the dead wood seem dimensional, and incongruously alive.