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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Twenty Three: Stirring emotions through atmosphere and mood. > Battery Point Lighthouse, Crescent City, California, 2009
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18-JUN-2009

Battery Point Lighthouse, Crescent City, California, 2009

Fog is mood, as well as weather. It is mysterious, lonely, melancholy. And depending on its severity, it can be a medium of abstraction in itself. This historic lighthouse, built in Cape Cod style in 1856, is now a museum and listed as private aid to navigation. I was fortunate to be able to see it and its lone cypress tree on a foggy morning. I caught the blink of its light through the morning fog, as well as a tiny figure that lends scale to the image.

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Phil Douglis04-Jul-2009 23:18
You idea of flow sums up this image for me, Tim. You are right about the nature of a lighthouse as a beacon. Even the tree seems to move away from that house as the light blinks from its tower.
Tim May04-Jul-2009 19:24
I like the flow of this image - the light in the lighthouse is the point from which the flow originates - the man is walking away from the lighthouse and the light and the wire seems to flow away - a metaphor for the role of the light in a lighthouse going out into the world.
Phil Douglis04-Jul-2009 04:35
I know you are an old salt yourself, Rose, and are well versed in the lore of the sea. To receive such a comment from someone who has probably seen her share of fog at sea is quite a compliment. I, too, was struck by the mood here. It seemed a lousy day for pictures, but when we saw that light blink and that man appear on the jetty, my opinion quickly changed.
sunlightpix04-Jul-2009 02:44
Amazingly evocative mood. The smallness of the person and the lighthouse conveys the immensity of the ocean. If you've ever been on a ship in heavy fog approaching the coast and trying to navigate to a safe harbor, the tiny blink from the lighthouse can avert disaster. As the navy hymn says, "for those in peril on the sea!"
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