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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Forty-Nine: Creating an echo with rhythm and pattern > Desert wind, Saguaro National Park, Arizona, 2009
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08-APR-2009

Desert wind, Saguaro National Park, Arizona, 2009

As I made this image at sunset, a strong desert wind was blowing, causing the slender plants in front of me to lean forward, just as the oncoming cloud in the sky seems to be doing. I made many images of the fragile and transitory relationship between this cloud and those desert plants, and this one had just the right rhythmic flow to it. The main cloud does not overlap any of the plants, keeping just the right spacing above the tiny buds that blow in the wind. The warm bands of color that illuminate the background and paint the clouds pink is essential to meaning as well. The color gives life and vitality to the wind and helps the image speak its piece.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1
1/200s f/4.0 at 45.0mm iso100 hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time08-Apr-2009 19:01:34
MakePanasonic
ModelDMC-G1
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length45 mm
Exposure Time1/200 sec
Aperturef/4
ISO Equivalent100
Exposure Bias-0.66
White Balance
Metering Modemulti spot (3)
JPEG Quality
Exposure Programprogram (2)
Focus Distance

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Phil Douglis05-Jan-2011 17:56
Thanks, Ashley, as always.
Ashley Hockenberry03-Jan-2011 14:56
A+
Phil Douglis23-Apr-2009 17:52
The power of suggestion is amazing, Vera. I never thought of it either until Tim mentioned it. And now, just like you, I find myself thinking of it every time I look at this image. Tim has changed the context in which both of us see the photo, in this case for the better. There are many examples where this kind of thing happens. A recent Associated Press news photograph showed the wife of the president of the United States meeting the Queen of England. When I first looked at the picture, I thought first of the enormous height difference between the two people. Yet in the days that followed, this picture became controversial because the picture also showed the two women with their arms around each others backs. (Should one touch the Queen of England?) Everytime I look at the picture now, that's all I see -- the arms, not the incongruous height difference.
Guest 22-Apr-2009 23:35
Dido Tim's comments. I never thought of it until I read it and now it is all I see when I look at this image.
Carol E Sandgren22-Apr-2009 19:20
Fragile and beautiful!
Phil Douglis22-Apr-2009 19:17
Thanks for noting the role of composition in this image, Alina. As I said, I made many images in trying to compose it, because the wind was doing its own compositions as I shot. I had to get the rhythms of the moving blossoms to work together. And that is what composition comes down to -- all the elements working together to express an idea.
Phil Douglis22-Apr-2009 19:14
Thanks, Tim, for noting the linkage between the main cloud and the blossoms. There is a similarity in shape, to be sure -- and the size difference creates a scale incongruity. I love the idea of the blossom becoming the cloud -- it is an example of how we can exercise our imaginations to enhance the experience of reading a picture.
Alina22-Apr-2009 01:01
The colors of the sky are pink and yellow and the silhouette is very delicate and beautifully composed. I like the saguaro cactuses in the distance.
Tim May21-Apr-2009 20:53
The main cloud also echos the shape of the blossoms - thus, to me, creating the feeling that one of the blossoms broke free and sailed off to the heavens.
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