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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Forty-Five: Using clouds to imply meaning > Boardwalk, Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2008
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08-OCT-2008

Boardwalk, Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2008

I compare the scale of these dramatic rain clouds to the tiny figures of the tourists on the boardwalk below them. The tourists are silhouetted, which reveals form instead of detail – there is ample variety in their posture and gait, particularly in the man at far right who incongruously seems to be crouching. (Perhaps he, like me, is making a photograph.) The steam rising from the thermal pool behind the people defines their silhouettes by isolating them from the dark background. The hill at right is lined with dead trees – the residue of the 1988 Yellowstone fires – adding a surrealistic touch to the scene.

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Phil Douglis24-Oct-2008 01:12
Thanks, Kal, for noting your interplay of reaction and thought here. We can respond to images emotionally, and then, if the image is substantive, intellectually as well.
Phil Douglis24-Oct-2008 01:01
Thanks, Jenene, for appreciating the surreal nature of this image and its vertical counterpart athttp://www.pbase.com/pnd1/image/104710884 Walkways are meant to be walked upon, yet the people here seem quite vulnerable because of the scale incongruity, so yes -- the mist does indeed beckon. Meanwhlle, clouds are always moving. These seem to exploding, as these people walk below them. Why should you not feel the pull of motion here as well?
JSWaters23-Oct-2008 02:58
I couldn't articulate how I felt about this and the image in your Grandeur gallery other than to say I'm really drawn to them, until I read your reply to Carol about motion. It's as if I'm watching the earth spin, and the silhouetted figures on the walkway are hunkered down so as not to be thrown into the mist.
Jenene
Phil Douglis20-Oct-2008 18:07
Thanks, Mo -- I almost put this image in my new "Grandeur" gallery, which is all about epic imagery. However I already had another image I made of this scene -- a vertical -- in that gallery.
Phil Douglis20-Oct-2008 18:06
Thanks, Carol - the image is, as I noted, primarily about scale incongruity. The people are dwarfed by the natural world they are exploring. The dead trees are the residue of the 1988 Yellowstone fires. They were natural fires, started by lighting. And yes, there is a randomness about the placement of the people. I simply made sure that nobody was merging into others here. There is separation between each figure, and I think helps put the image into motion.
monique jansen20-Oct-2008 15:08
Epic photo
Carol E Sandgren20-Oct-2008 05:08
I can't help but notice the tiny size of the people against the hugeness of nature. The sticks in the background at right appear to be the aftermath of fire, perhaps man-made. In any case, humans are very small in comparison to Mother Nature. I like how you threw the figures into silhouette with your exposure to make them seem more "random" and impersonal.
Phil Douglis18-Oct-2008 22:40
Your eye seems always finds things that my eye misses. Thanks for calling attention the symbolic value of the shadow that launches the image -- leaving nothing but our shadows in a national park is a wise practice.
Tim May18-Oct-2008 21:38
The angled boardwalk behind the crouching man seems to be like a cast shadow evocative, for me, of the way we tread upon these wonders of nature, trying to leave nothing but our shadows.
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