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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Eight: Light and shadow shape meaning > Adobe Gate, Camino del Monte Sol, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2002
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13-FEB-2002

Adobe Gate, Camino del Monte Sol, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2002

Light can have a subtle, as well as dramatic, effect. I photographed this old adobe gate just after dawn on a very cold winter morning in Santa Fe. The sun is still low in the sky, and screened by trees. It illuminates the wall with diffused, rather than direct light. It casts soft shadows that brush the surface of the wall in a range of warm, dappled tones, enriching the colors and drawing the eye to the charming weathered carving on the door.

Canon PowerShot G2
1/160s f/4.0 at 21.0mm full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis20-Nov-2007 16:34
Thanks, Marcia -- this image was made five years ago, and is one of the few that I've printed and hung on my wall. Whenever I look at it, its glow makes me glow inside. Mystical forces, indeed.
Marcia Manzello20-Nov-2007 07:29
This capture speaks in the sense of spiritual mystery, and the mystical forces of nature, FABULOUS...V
Phil Douglis24-Oct-2003 21:00
Thanks, Carol, for choosing another of my favorite images to comment on. There are very few travel subjects that I have had a chance to photograph over and over again. But because I have taken three workshops right up that street, and walk down that road every morning I'm there, I've had about 15 chances to photograph it, and in two different seasons as well. The light is different every time, and so are those textures you speak of. This gate, like all photographic subjects, is always changing, just as our own approaches always change. Such changes offer photography many of its variables and challenges. I never know what I'll see as I approach that gate! As for that chill, it's coming from the ice at the base of the wall. What's inside? Come take a Santa Fe Workshop with me someday, and we'll knock on that door together and find out!
Phil
Carol E Sandgren24-Oct-2003 18:00
Another day and another beautiful image I just noticed. I love the texture differences most. Also with the light, you really can tell it's early morning, and feel that chill in the air. Composition leads you to the front of the door, as if to enter inside. (What IS inside anyway?)
Phil Douglis11-Oct-2003 23:51
So was I, Ray. The low angle of the rising sun hitting the massed tangle of brown branches rising just behind that wall, helps make this image very special to me. This image is primarily a study in light and color. It also happens to be a structure that is typical of the Santa Fe style. This gate is just a short climb from Monte del Sol's intersection with the famous Canyon Road -- home to many of Santa Fe's art galleries. Its also not far from the Santa Fe Workshops, where I've attended a series of remarkable training sessions in digital photography. I passed it every day on my morning walks while in Santa Fe, and have photographed it in a number of seasons and in many different kinds of light. This one, however, is my favorite.
Guest 11-Oct-2003 04:51
I'm stunned by the rich, earthly hues in this photograph, especially the golden amber light between the tree branches.
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