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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Eighteen: Light and Landscape – combining personal vision with nature’s gifts > Reflected light, Bryce Canyon, Utah, 2006
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19-SEP-2006

Reflected light, Bryce Canyon, Utah, 2006


Bryce Canyon is filled with thousands of colorful hoodoos, creating a fantastical assembly of shapes and colors. The canyon holds a series of walls that can act as reflectors for light. This image is the product of such a wall, which catches the late afternoon sun and throws its glow back on the hoodoos before it. It is as if we are looking into a giant basket of glowing hot coals. I backed up from the edge of the canyon to fill the foreground with a ridge of bushes and trees to add a sense of spatial dimension to the landscape.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50
1/250s f/4.5 at 10.6mm iso100 hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time19-Sep-2006 16:22:22
MakePanasonic
ModelDMC-FZ50
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length10.6 mm
Exposure Time1/250 sec
Aperturef/4.5
ISO Equivalent100
Exposure Bias-0.66
White Balance
Metering Modemulti spot (3)
JPEG Quality
Exposure Programprogram (2)
Focus Distance

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Phil Douglis18-Aug-2007 21:33
You always manage to make my images taste better, Ceci. Glowing apricot rocks! And yes, the hoodoos in the canyon below do resemble the terra cotta army of Emperor Chin. (See my shot of them athttp://www.pbase.com/image/31314618 .) That see-through root is very important. It is an incongruity that energizes that entire foreground layer.
Guest 18-Aug-2007 20:50
What an immensely pleasing arrangement of trees, bushes and rock formations -- those orange sentinels in the background remind me of the Chinese soldiers that were unearthed years ago in excavations. I love the lone little pine, and its see-through question-mark of a root, anchored into the slope so precariously. Looks like a strong wind could easily tear it up and send it sailing. The light gold-green of the trees is so perfect with the glowing apricot of the rocks! A truly delicious picture, Phil, one that made me smile!
Phil Douglis21-Apr-2007 02:05
Thanks for noting the effect of light and color here, Don. The illuminated areas of green actually begin along the ground with the bushes, and then explode into the trees along the rim of the canyon. Once again, I am working with a layered composition, juxtaposing first the earth, and then the vegetation against the glowing rocks, creating a sense of perspective that gives the ranks of glowing spires in Bryce Canyon their identity.
Donald Verger21-Apr-2007 01:42
the green of the trees and their holding the light make the image very special!

vote!
Phil Douglis19-Nov-2006 00:58
Glad you are enjoying the differences between how Tim and I choose to interpret the same subjects, Ai Li. You will be shooting with us both in Singapore next August, and we will have a third interpretation to learn from.
AL18-Nov-2006 15:08
Another great set of images from you and Tim for study and comparison. Made me wonder how I'd choose to capture if I were at the same spot. I'd probably be tempted to show more of the richly colored hoodoos and add a complete tree as a color contrast. I didn't think of the echoing shape and hence it's great that Tim pointed it out.
Phil Douglis30-Oct-2006 20:03
Yes, this image is quite different from the one you posted athttp://www.pbase.com/mityam/image/69250535 .
My tree and bushes do echo the shape and form of the hoodoos, but do so as a series of horizontally repeating echos. Note how the clusters of leaves on the trees and the clusters of plants on the ground seem to echo the clusters of glowing hoodoos behind them. Your hoodoos, on the other hand, seem to rise up and echo the reaching branches of a single tree, like a giant game of "Simon Says." Same subjects once again, yet we treat them in entirely different ways.
Tim May30-Oct-2006 18:07
I ended up editing my image like this because I knew that you had one here - but now I see that they, too, would have been different - I love the interaction between the tree and the hoodoos - for me they are reminiscent of each other. The hoodoos have been shaped by wind and geology while the trees are shaped by their dna growth, yet they echo each other in shape and form.
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