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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Thirty Three: Using light and color to define and contrast textures > Fading Contrail, Zion National Park, Utah, 2006
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06-FEB-2006

Fading Contrail, Zion National Park, Utah, 2006

The marks of man and the forces of nature exist side by side in the skies over Zion National Park. I shot this scene at two different moments. Earlier, there were two clearly defined contrails, one vertical and the other diagonal. It made a very effective image – you can see it in my travel article on this journey at http://www.worldisround.com/articles/278784/photo15.html
Compare it to this image. The rear contrail has faded considerably, leaving behind a larger field of texture. The primary contrail has widened some as well, and now has a textured spine running down its side. By turning the image horizontally, I crop into both contrails and zoom the lens much closer to stress the contrast in textures between the two contrails. Both of these images tell the same story, but in different ways – largely due to the nature of texture and how I chose to stress it.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30
1/1300s f/11.0 at 43.4mm iso100 hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time06-Feb-2006 16:33:00
MakePanasonic
ModelDMC-FZ30
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length43.4 mm
Exposure Time1/1300 sec
Aperturef/11
ISO Equivalent100
Exposure Bias-0.66
White Balance (10)
Metering Modematrix (5)
JPEG Quality (6)
Exposure Programprogram (2)
Focus Distance1.870 m

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Phil Douglis21-Feb-2006 06:19
Thanks, Jen, for those nice words. That's what I often try to do in these comments -- provide a concise summary of how I feel about an image and draw on the ideas of others as well. Thank you for helping me to write this summary. It is really based on your ideas as much as my own.
Phil Douglis21-Feb-2006 06:17
Yes, Antonio -- in English, we call these "contrails" - which is a trail of condensed water vapers from an aircraft or rocket flying at a high altitude, which we see as a white streak against the sky. They are not dangerous, nor are they hard to understand. They vaporize and change into as long clouds after a few minutes.
Guest 21-Feb-2006 06:01
yesterday I read something on these things in the sky; they called in english Chemtrails and they supposed to be difficult to understand why this water vapours (?) do not disappear soon; the fact they last in the sky for a lot of time seems to be a bit dangerous or difficult to understand
Jennifer Zhou20-Feb-2006 06:12
:) Now in beautiful words, you sum up the ideas of yours and mine...
Phil Douglis19-Feb-2006 20:57
You grasp the feelings and thoughts I had as I made this image, Jen. The sight of that contrail rising above the wall of Zion Canyon was indeed breathtaking, sending an emotional charge through me. And you are right -- this mark that man leaves upon the sky is epic in scale, a heroic metaphor for our power to ride the skies and leave its signature upon them. Yet we realize that no matter how great our accomplishments may be, they are only temporary. They all fade with time -- this contrail, its textured cloud already dissipating, will vanish within just a few minutes. Yet this canyon, a mark of nature's power to shape the earth, will remain long after the last of us are gone.
Jennifer Zhou19-Feb-2006 13:22
This is a breathtaking image! I feel the energy of the contrail as it flying out into the sky. The marks of man here is heroic and heart stirring while the nature remains in dark and silence. When we think it in term of time, the contrail will soon disappear, but the nature will stay there forever...
Phil Douglis18-Feb-2006 04:28
A scar across the sky! What a forceful metaphor, Kal. Some see these contrails as a distraction, and will do anything to avoid them. I see them as pointers and symbols, and make effective use of them as metaphor as in this particular image. And also in this one as well:http://www.pbase.com/pnd1/image/56188271
Kal Khogali18-Feb-2006 01:27
Like a scar accross the sky..healing...but maybe irreperable...wonderful colour, silhouette and perspective. K
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