photo sharing and upload picture albums photo forums search pictures popular photos photography help login
Type your message and click Add Comment
It is best to login or register first but you may post as a guest.
Enter an optional name and contact email address. Name
Name Email
help private comment
Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Eighteen: Light and Landscape – combining personal vision with nature’s gifts > Golden rain, Arches National Park, Utah, 2006
previous | next
21-SEP-2006

Golden rain, Arches National Park, Utah, 2006

The circumstances surrounding this image were bizarre, to say the least. We were photographing in Arches just as the sun was going below the horizon. The entire ground turned purplish gold, and at that moment a rain shower erupted in front of us. The falling rain reflects the light of the setting sun, creating what seemed like a mirage, or a scene out of a biblical movie. Using the red butte at right as a counterpoint to the burst of golden rain, this is as close as I’ve ever come to photographing a supernatural event. It is a graphic example of the power of light to utterly transform a landscape.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50
1/40s f/3.2 at 21.3mm iso100 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
share
Phil Douglis24-May-2007 21:00
I can assure you that both Tim and I were thinking the same thing, Alina. As Christine notes, the magical quality of the light on the rain is almost biblical. Of all the images in this cyberbook, this one remains the most inexplicable to me. I know I made it, but I could not believe what I was seeing. And neither could my pbase friend Tim May who was shooting with me. You can see his version of this scene athttp://www.pbase.com/mityam/image/69371619
You can read my comment on his image.
Alina24-May-2007 20:53
Wow Phil, I keep looking for God in that golden rain. I never saw such striking picture.
Phil Douglis24-Jan-2007 05:35
Thanks, Iris -- the golden rain moved both Tim and myself. We were amazed at what we saw and what were able to photograph. To see the effect of the setting sun on rain is one thing, but to see in the context of this gloriously magical place, is quite another.
Iris Maybloom (irislm)24-Jan-2007 01:47
This image touches my soul! This is nature at its spiritual best!!
Phil Douglis01-Jan-2007 20:12
It is a magical place, Xin -- and I use that word in its most evocative sense. Am I photographing reality or illusion here? Probably a combination of both.
Sheena Xin Liu06-Dec-2006 06:21
This picture holds me breathless. Fantastic strength of the light amplifies the magnificence aof Arches, the most magic land I have ever seen.
Phil Douglis19-Nov-2006 01:47
Thanks for bringing the concept of hope to bear on this image, Ai Li. And yes, it was a magical, almost supernatural moment. I am glad you are as moved by what you see here as I was moved by what I saw before me as I made this photograph.
AL18-Nov-2006 16:06
Truly phenomenal. Looked like gold dust showering down from the crack in the sky, performing a magic touch of warmth and hope on our earth.
Phil Douglis27-Oct-2006 06:49
I never saw anything like this before, Christine. It was a gift from beyond.
Christine P. Newman27-Oct-2006 00:25
There is a sense of magic in this picture, almost biblic, as you write.
Type your message and click Add Comment
It is best to login or register first but you may post as a guest.
Enter an optional name and contact email address. Name
Name Email
help private comment