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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Eighteen: Light and Landscape – combining personal vision with nature’s gifts > Riverside Walk, Zion National Park, Utah, 2006
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08-FEB-2006

Riverside Walk, Zion National Park, Utah, 2006

A lone figure passes under the deeply etched, richly colored sandstone walls that rise on both sides of the Virgin River. The figure gives this landscape its focal point and a sense of scale. I conceived the idea first, and structured my image within the frame long before this man appeared. I used a new camera, a Leica D-Lux 2, to make this photo. It offers a 28mm focal length in a 16:9 aspect ratio, similar in frame shape to the screen of a high definition TV set. This proportion was ideally suited to my idea. I wanted an image based on two triangles, meeting along a diagonal line through the middle of the frame. I stood behind the slope of a hill, which I used to fill half the frame. It begins at the upper left hand corner of the fame, and leads down to a paved trail that comes into the image from behind the hill, and leaves the frame at the lower right hand corner. The hill and trail gave me one of my triangles. The other triangle fills the upper right side of the image. It is dominated by the vast, richly colored, deeply carved sandstone cliffs, and fronted by backlit cottonwood trees along the Virgin River. All I needed was a human figure to enter my frame, and when this man did, I caught him just as he was turning to admire the view.

Leica D-Lux 2
1/125s f/4.0 at 6.3mm iso80 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis25-Apr-2009 19:06
Thanks, Alina -- it is always a joy to share a picture with someone who had experienced the very same place, and can appreciate what went into the making of the image from a personal perspective. I tried to express here what was for me the very essence of Zion, a sense of place, light, color, texture, and personality. You are right -- it is very tricky to photograph. So much depends on the position of the light, although the high walls of Zion Canyon block so much of it. However, every now and then those cliffs allow a shaft of light to penetrate to the floor of the canyon, and that's when we must try to make the most of it.
Alina25-Apr-2009 14:15
This is the trail to the Narrows. I was there in the evening and I had quite different light but the hill on the left was in the shade too. My children spotted deer in there. I like Zion a lot but because of the very tall mountain walls and low light it is very hard to photograph. Phil, your picture is brilliant. It is showing exact light and colors of Zion.
Phil Douglis18-Jul-2006 19:15
Thanks, Ceci, for the praise. But lets also give praise to the nature of light and shadow itself. If I had made this image at another time of day, or on another kind of day, it would not speak as it speaks here. The light here is literally carving the canyon for us, silhouetting the man, and illuminating the explosive Cottonwood trees, while the shadow allows me to paint the background with details that would not be seen in direct sunlight. That's what this gallery is all about.
Guest 18-Jul-2006 18:25
Patience, indeed! To set up for such a scene, building it, seeing all its components, and then waiting -- wow! The person silhouetted by the sun on the brush is just wonderful, the steep hill seemingly about to pour onto the road, the richness of the colors, the majestic scale of the scenery, and above this little human figure, a giant hand, etched into the face of the rock. What a gift to view such a perfectly composed, charged, and imagined photograph. Bravo, Phil!
Phil Douglis19-Feb-2006 22:02
I was hoping you would see this particular image, Christine, because I know you are learning how to use the Panasonic LX-1, which is the identical twin of my Leica D-Lux 2. You can see here how the 28mm wideangle lens and the camera's 16:9 "wide screen" aspect ratio can lend itself particularly well to comparing elements that involve scale. The wideangle view intensifies the scale incongruity of this lone figure in this vast canyon. Note how I anchor the image with the hill at left, which fills almost half the frame -- anchors are essential when working in this wideangle format. The 28mm worked perfectly here. A 35mm wideangle would not have included as much context, while a 24mm lens would have reduced the man in size and included too either too much foreground or too much sky. I am glad you also picked up on the contrasting light and the subtlety of the color. It is the painterly quality of the red rock walls that gives Zion National Park its unique character.
Guest 19-Feb-2006 17:33
We feel that this section of the park must be impressive - you achieved your goal. There is a nice contrast between the light and dark sections of the photograph. Nice subtle colours and painterly quality of the rock wall in the background.
Christine
Phil Douglis18-Feb-2006 03:58
It is hard, Tim, to capture the grandeur that is Zion. It is simply too vast and spectacular to fit within the frame of a photographic image. So we must find a shortcut that signals grandeur and scale without actually describing it. That is what I tried to do here. That small figure, seemingly absorbed and awestruck by what he sees all around him, is really all of us. We walk in his footsteps, and we too, shall feel the majesty of Zion all around us as well.
Tim May17-Feb-2006 23:41
As we discussed while on our journey, part of the challenge of photographing Zion National Park is to show is grand vastness. This image does that so well. The figure in the image provides the piece that allow the viewer to know how wonderful this place is.
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