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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Eighteen: Light and Landscape – combining personal vision with nature’s gifts > A landscape revisited, Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California, 2007
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24-FEB-2007

A landscape revisited, Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California, 2007

Returning to the Alabama Hills, just outside Lone Pine, California, for the second time in for months, I had a chance to work on a different version of a landscape I had photographed on my earlier visit. Click on the link at the bottom to see it. In that vertical version, I drew on the contrasts of color ranging from the brown rocks of the Alabama Hills to the golden pink dawn on the peaks of the Sierras. In my new version, I use a horizontal format to frame just the lower reaches of the mountains, the valley at their base, and the boulders of the Alabama Hills in the foreground. The first light of dawn is now seen in the valley, rather than on the mountain peaks. I place more stress on the field of boulders, which fill the foreground, awaiting the light. This version is no better or worse than the first – it is simply a different way of expressing the same idea on the same subject.


Leica V-Lux 1
1/160s f/4.0 at 31.0mm iso100 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis23-Feb-2010 18:39
I love your use of the world "blistering" here -- the massive textures and shapes you speak of here do, in fact, resemble blisters of stone, left by nature as a reminder of its overwhelming force.
Marcia Rules22-Feb-2010 23:49
blistering with textures and shapes---powerful & graceful at once !
Phil Douglis18-Aug-2007 17:51
Thanks, Ceci, for these thoughts. The Alabama Hills are are surreal place to begin with. To watch the rising sun selectively illuminate its slopes and valleys is a great gift. This was my second visit to this strange and beautiful spot. As you can see from a comparison of this image and the image I made earlier (click thumbnail), it never seems to look the same. That's because there are so many potential variations. This time I concentrated on the valley, while on the previous visit, I was drawn to the peaks. So much depends on how I choose to use my spotmeter, which allows me, in effect, to paint with light. And that's why you call this a "painting of a photograph."
Guest 18-Aug-2007 05:50
What an astonishing "painting" of a photograph, with its moon landscape and its petrified seals basking in the desert landscape. The firstlight colors almost theatrically tint the slopes, and there's something about the rounded hill to the left which gives this image a surreal, unreal quality, as though it was assembled out of disparate bits and pieces. I love the "ribs" of snow or sand running down/up the mountain in the background, and all those softly rounded, unmoving creatures in the foreground. A strange and marvelous picture, Phil!
Shirley Wang12-Aug-2007 02:16
Looks to me another planet waiting for exploration.
Phil Douglis21-Apr-2007 01:59
Beautifully put, Don -- first light is fleeting. Fortunately, we can, as you say, "hold it" with our cameras. In this case, there are three layers of light -- shade on rock, sun on the valley, and shade on the snow covered mountain. The contrasting layers draw the eye and kindle the imagination. Thanks, Don, for this comment.
Donald Verger21-Apr-2007 01:41
a wonderful image holding the first moments of light!

vote!
Phil Douglis04-Apr-2007 20:20
You are so right, Iris. It is not WHAT we shoot that makes the difference. Instead, we must concentrate on WHY we shoot something, and then HOW we shoot it will make all the difference.
Iris Maybloom (irislm)04-Apr-2007 19:19
This is why I wonder about those people who say "seen that, been there, photographed it." This image shows how we can return to a place over and over again and experience it differently....different light, different colors, different perspective, and a different eye.
Phil Douglis26-Mar-2007 02:25
I agree, Carol. Without the pink light suggesting the coming of a new day, this would just be picture of rocks and snow.
Carol E Sandgren25-Mar-2007 19:27
I agree that the boulders are reminiscent of walruses or seals of hte SF pier. My own version of this shot is similar but I didn't place much emphasis on the boulders as much as the mountains behind them which really drew my eye. Anyway, my version which is actually quite similar did not work nearly as well and so decided not to include it. The pink light against the snowy peaks behind it is really what I love best of this image.
Phil Douglis18-Mar-2007 23:52
I love your metaphor here, Jenene -- walruses, indeed. I did photograph a herd of distant walruses when I was in Siberia a number of years ago. It is in my digital travel archive athttp://www.worldisround.com/articles/12056/photo19.html Our trip leader, the late Galen Rowell, led us to within 100 yards of them. Still too far for the primitive lens of my Canon G3, but I was able to give that herd a sense of place, at least, with the swirling gulls overhead. And yes, I see the similarity here -- only the walruses are now the stuff of the imagination.
JSWaters18-Mar-2007 18:48
The rounded, huddled boulders remind me of walruses waiting for the sun to warm them.
Jenene
Phil Douglis05-Mar-2007 19:00
You are right, Mo -- the boulders that give the Alabama Hills its character and identity are otherworldly.
monique jansen05-Mar-2007 14:42
like something out of a science fiction movie
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