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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Eighteen: Light and Landscape – combining personal vision with nature’s gifts > Giant Sequoias, Mariposa Grove, Yosemite National Park, California, 2004
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16-OCT-2004

Giant Sequoias, Mariposa Grove, Yosemite National Park, California, 2004

About 35 miles south of Yosemite Village stands Yosemite’s largest grove of Redwoods. They are the largest of all living things, and many have endured for thousands of years. As I passed through this deeply shaded forest of giant trees, l looked for shafts of light filtering down into the forest that would help me to both abstract them and define their character within a landscape photograph. I found this pair of stately redwoods standing side by side, each with strong light grazing the bases of their huge trunks. Moving in to stress the way this light brought out the textures of their distinctive richly colored bark, I noticed that next to each of them was a small set of green branches, symbolizing a pair of relatively youthful neighbors. I used a vertical frame to imply height, and kept moving my position until each of the smaller trees displayed only the ends of their brightly illuminated branches against a deeply shadowed background. I wanted to express a sense of community with this image, and by using the abstracting power of light and shadow and drawing on the beauty and meaning of color, I was able to so.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20
1/500s f/4.0 at 9.6mm iso80 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis27-Feb-2006 22:19
Pat and Matt, thanks for enjoying this picture. It is refreshing to see the vitality in those trees, still growing after centuries of life and welcoming the young tree growing between them.
qbcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 27-Feb-2006 18:22
personally, this picture touches my heart. It makes me happy.
skjalf 27-Feb-2006 18:20
this is super cute
Phil Douglis13-May-2005 22:14
Good luck, Philip -- take the Redwoods on a piece at a time. They are to large to photograph in their entirety.
Guest 13-May-2005 05:52
great image. I'm going to be in California this summer. I've been visualizing the redwoods ll winter. I can'y wait!
Phil Douglis05-Nov-2004 21:34
Thanks, Vicky, for your comment. Light not only defines the subject, it defines meaning. I feel we don't need to see how big these trees to know how old they are. Just look at that bark as defined by light -- there's the story!
Guest 05-Nov-2004 16:05
Impressive!
The light made the detail of trees apparent.
Phil Douglis02-Nov-2004 17:56
Thanks, Peter, for your perceptive comment. I like your view that these redwoods seem to have lived in harmony for centuries, something that people can only envy. I do express scale here Peter. The scale here comes through in terms of how much of the frame is filled with the massive trunks of those trees, compared to size taken up by the fragile green branches that peek out from between them. I am glad that my images, and the idea stimulating discussions that are always going on here, have been helpful to you, Peter. By leaving comments such this, you are contributing to a body of knowledge that is gradually being accumulated here with the help of photographers from all over the world. Thanks for your observations, and keep them coming.
Phil
Guest 02-Nov-2004 16:27
I also enjoy the composition and warm colours giving the image a homy atmosphere, I also see a long lasting relationship that survived for many years..... a thing that seems to be missing from our today's society.

Many photographers try to convey a sense of scale when photographing large trees, yet you seem to have ignored it completely here?

Also wanted to say that thanks to Phil's galleries and the informative discussions going on here I am able to view exposure differently, hopefully the results will be visible in my present and future images.
Thanks

Peter
Phil Douglis29-Oct-2004 05:40
And that is exactly what I was looking for, Carol. A sense of mystery, created by the interplay of light and shadow. As you imply, light is the key to everything in photography. When you have good light to work with, you look for that light first and then make your ideas out of it. And when you have bad light what do just as you did only a day after I made this picture of these Yosemite Redwoods. You took this image:http://www.pbase.com/sveetzel/image/35372381. No sun in sight, but spectacular saturated colors and overwhelming powerful mood. Truly a "twilight of the Gods shot" that reminds me of one of Ansel's great black and white images! Just as you were probably making that shot of El Capitan, I was elswhere in the same park making this shot off of Stoneman Bridge:http://www.pbase.com/pnd1/image/35601783. Same crummy light that you had, but we both made the best of a miserable situation by working with color and mood to tell our stories of Yosemite. I tell my students, where there's a will, there's always a way.
Carol E Sandgren29-Oct-2004 05:19
I find the dark areas between these giants to be effective in creating the aura of mystery. These trees are a sight to behold and photographing the bases of them is a good way to suggest their sheer size and girth. I love this image, Phil. Good for you getting there before the rain, as I didn't!! A little light does wonders for a photograph!
Phil Douglis29-Oct-2004 03:31
Glad you are finding the spot meter so valuable, Bruce. It is permanently set to "on" in everyone of my cameras. As for what you note in terms of consistently exposed digital imaging, I think what you are seeing is the result of Photoshop, which allows photographers to easily even out their exposures. Exposure equalization tools are there -- levels, curves, and the new shadow/highlight control, are all there, and many photographers feel guilty if they don't use them. To me, that is absurd thinking. Exposure should always be a matter of content, not form. We expose to express ideas by revealing some information and obscuring other material. Opposites do reveal each other, as you say. Abstraction and implication is critical, and selective, rather than equal, exposure can be a vital medium of abstraction.

As for using that spot meter, it is like painting with light. And that is exactly what these landscape photos are.
Guest 29-Oct-2004 02:11
You show us only a portion of the massive trees, yet you still convey a sense of majesty. And you are so right about the spot meter. After my last visit to your galleries I started experimenting and learning to use mine. What fun! As you said to me then, it IS like painting with light!

Ironically, there appears to be a fashion now in digital photo editing to make every portion of a photo equally exposed - from highlight to shadow. While this shows more information and detail, it loses drama and expressiveness. Your work stands as a reminder that opposites reveal each other.
Phil Douglis28-Oct-2004 19:07
Thanks, Wendy. I am convinced that the spotmeters in my cameras are the keys to perfect exposure. I can expose the shot on the brightest spot in the picture and that spot will show full detail, and everything less bright will get darker and more abstract as a result. As for as composition goes, I am using repeating verticals to move the eye through the image horizontally --redwood, then branches, then redwood again, branches again, and finally a dimly perceived vertical trunk on the right hand edge to carry the eye through the image.
Wendy O28-Oct-2004 14:36
Perfect exposure in difficult lighting. I like your composition.
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