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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Eighteen: Light and Landscape – combining personal vision with nature’s gifts > The tree in the chasm, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, 2007
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08-AUG-2007

The tree in the chasm, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, 2007

Ten minutes after making the preceding image ( http://www.pbase.com/pnd1/image/83716757 ), I made this one from almost the same spot. The rising sun now illuminates almost the entire rock formation that I had featured in that image. I used a 40mm focal length on that image. For this photograph, I am using a 28mm wideangle lens turned vertically, in order to embrace the ancient, well-worn rocks on the edge of the rim itself to add perspective to the landscape. I stress the dark chasm in the center of the image, in order to feature a small but glowing tree that seems to be hanging within it. The tree just catches the early morning sun, a spot of orange adrift in a sea of black. All of the massive formations in this image now become our context. That little tree, alive, and vulnerable, becomes the subject of this image.

Leica D-Lux 3
1/320s f/5.6 at 6.3mm iso100 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis19-Aug-2007 18:31
I agree, Jenene -- the lone tree hanging out there over the chasm is our surrogate. The image comprises a series of layers - the rocky ledge under our feet provides a foreground layer that leads us directly to it. The tree and the chasm beyond it is the subject layer, providing a sense of tension and scale incongruity. The beauty unfolding beyond that chasm is the background layer, which adds critical context for meaning. Each layer, in its own way, is defined or abstracted by light, which is the most expressive factor in landscape photography.
JSWaters19-Aug-2007 03:59
You've created a tremendous feeling of depth here, Phil. The sunlit portion of the higher elevations drops off dramatically in dark shadow, plunging us into the deepest part of the canyon. The little tree, bathed in partial light, becomes us, the viewer, seeing with awestruck eyes, the beauty unfolding below us.
Jenene
Phil Douglis15-Aug-2007 23:07
Glad you like this one, Rose Marie. It is one my favorite landscapes, because of its scale and intimations of scale.
You are right -- light moves slowly within the canyon. The Colorado River often must live in the shadows.
sunlightpix15-Aug-2007 22:37
Of your Grand Canyon pix, I like this one best. For me, this evokes the vastness. It will be well into the day before the black sea chasm recedes and the first rays of the sun reach the river.
Phil Douglis12-Aug-2007 01:51
I have to admit that I was thinking of you when I made this image, Tim. In our travels together, you have taught me to respond to the play of light on isolated bits of foliage that can bring a whole image to life. Very much as you do yourself athttp://www.pbase.com/mityam/image/75709930 And now I find myself pursuing the "burning bush" just as you do.
Tim May11-Aug-2007 23:50
Another miracle of light.
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