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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Sixty Three: Dimensions of grandeur – larger than life travel imagery > On the boardwalk, Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2008
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08-OCT-2008

On the boardwalk, Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2008

I used a 28mm wideangle lens turned vertically to make the boardwalk over Yellowstone’s largest hot spring into a symbolic road to the future. The sun is behind the cloud at upper right, backlighting the scene, making silhouettes out of the people and causing the edges of the rain clouds to glow surreally against the lacy clouds behind them. I juxtapose the people with the steam rising from the hot spring, isolating them in space and preventing them from merging into the background. The sheer scale of the scene has impressive grandeur, as it incongruously integrates the worlds of both man and nature.

Sigma DP1
1/1000s f/11.0 at 16.6mm iso100 full exif

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Phil Douglis16-Apr-2012 21:42
Yes, the boardwalk, and also the journey these people seem to making here, do indeed seem to go on forever, into infinity itself. That was my intention. Thanks, Azlin, for this observation.
Azlin Ahmad16-Apr-2012 19:26
Infinity captured in a photo. Or so the perception is.
Phil Douglis01-Dec-2008 18:30
You make a good point about the "usual horizontal" format here. I try to frame my subjects in both orientations, and thereby make different points in the process. In my horizontal view of subject athttp://www.pbase.com/pnd1/image/104715498 , I placed greater emphasis on the contrast between the clouds and the people, and less emphasis on the boardwalk path that dominates this image.
Guest 01-Dec-2008 17:05
The 'larger than life'ness is brought to our attention more by your choice of vertical format as opposed to the usual horizontal - i think this image also makes that point about the impact long images versus broad ones!
Phil Douglis19-Oct-2008 18:37
Thanks for this comment, Alina -- I always think about connections when I made an image -- both the sky and the earth seem to be boiling here.
Alina19-Oct-2008 04:43
It is incredible place to visit and the path invites everyone to go forward. I like how you connected the boiling water on the ground with cold colors of the sky.
Phil Douglis18-Oct-2008 23:38
There is grandeur in nature here, as you note. As I said in my caption, the grandeur in this image is rooted in its scale differences, as it integrates the worlds of both man and nature. Thanks for reinforcing that point, Tim.
Tim May18-Oct-2008 22:28
I also get grandeur from the scale. The people seem so small as they approach Nature.
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