14-JUL-2014
Fireworks, Coors Field, Denver, Colorado, 2014
A thundering fireworks display offers a colossal finish to a Fourth of July weekend game at Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies baseball team. This image of a massive explosion just above the stadium’s scoreboard and grandstand projects its grandeur through its various layers. Three explosions combine in fire and smoke to create one coherent blast that shook the stadium and its 50,000 spectators in an ear-bursting combustion of light and sound. The foreground layer at top left offers the brightest part of the burst, a circular spray of brilliantly illuminated tentacles. Just behind it, in the middle layer of the image, is a remnant of an explosion that was even larger but now seems to be gradually diminishing in force and vanishing into the night. The last layer is a veil of smoke from the initial explosion, embracing not only the scoreboard in blue, but also the grandstand in red. The total effect jars the senses – we see the effect with our eyes, but we can also hear it and smell it in our imaginations.
09-FEB-2013
Waldorf Chandelier, The House of John, Estate of John and Mabel Ringling, Sarasota, Florida, 2013
The House of John (Ca’ d’Zan) was built in 1925 as the Florida home of John Ringling, founder of the Ringling Brothers Circus, and his wife, Mabel Ringling. Among the most impressive features in this Venetian Gothic mansion is the massive chandelier that formerly hung in New York City’s original Waldorf Astoria Hotel. After that hotel was demolished to make room for the Empire State Building, the Ringlings acquired this chandelier and installed it high over the mansions Central Court. In this image, I photograph not only the intricacy and beauty of the historic Waldorf Chandelier, but also one of the priceless massive tapestries that hangs behind it upon the wall in the background. The lavish coffered ceiling and the Venetian imagery painted above it add additional context to the chandelier. Taken together, they express the wealth, power, and grandeur of the Ringling story. Ringling left this 36,000 square foot mansion, along with the Ringling Art and Circus Museums, to the state of Florida, which in turn has transferred stewardship to the Florida State University.
13-NOV-2011
Camels at dusk, Wadi Rum, Jordan, 2011
A distant line of camels bearing tourists plods through the Wadi Rum desert at dusk. The last light of day warms the rocky face of mountain that fills the background, while horizontal rows of scrub provide a desert context. The richly colored desert light provides a mood that is both mysterious and nostalgic. I made this image from a great distance, using a 300mm telephoto focal length, creating an incongruous scale relationship between the diminutive line of camels and the vast backdrop. It is this relationship that gives this image its sense of grandeur
10-NOV-2011
At the Pyramids, Cairo, Egypt, 2011
Thousands of Egyptians pay a holiday visit to the Pyramids and Sphinx just outside Cairo. I made this image in the late afternoon, yet throngs of still-arriving visitors still jam them narrow road that runs between the Pyramids and the Sphinx. These iconic landmarks, which were already 2,000 years old when Cleopatra toured them with Julius Caesar in 47 BC, are still relevant to Egyptians. They confer identity, pride, and heritage on an impoverished nation. In this image, I take advantage of the late light to abstract much of the scene through the interplay of light and shadow. Diagonal bands of overhead clouds bond the two pyramids in this image. This wideangle view is expansive, making the masses of visitors appear incongruously small in comparison. The golden light, the scale of the vista, and the antiquity of the scene combine to create an image that is rich in grandeur.
27-NOV-2011
Marathon, Barcelona, Spain, 2011
Thousands of marathoners surge up Barcelona’s Passeig de Colom, running towards the city’s monument to Christopher Columbus. I waited until there was a break in what was a nearly continuous flow of runners – and when it came, it left the foreground empty, allowing me to emphasize the body language of those upfront. Although there are hundreds of people in this picture, the eye naturally moves to the man who salutes the crowd as he makes the turn at the monument. The Avenue, lined with palms and lights, frames the runners as their faces diminish into the background. The huge mass of people flowing through this setting expresses the grandeur of the event itself.
22-DEC-2010
Theatro Santa Isabel, Recife, Brazil, 2010
Prior to a performance of Brazilian carnival music and dance, I photographed part of the audience assembled in the balconies of this 135 year old opera house. Using a 24mm wideangle focal length, I was able to stretch the scene from the oval ceiling down to the main floor. A man stands, hands on hips, to survey the scene from the center of the second balcony, offering a focal point to the image, and providing a scale contrast expressing the grandeur of the scene.
07-SEP-2010
Golden God’s Rays, Mission Beach, San Diego, California, 2010
The clouds are stacked in layers here, and the sun is trying to break through them all at once. The imager reveals a sky filled with banks of clouds, their edges touched with gold. A pyramid of rays filter through them, known as "God’s Rays." The sea becomes a textured gilded carpet, a scene of grandeur that offers a home to a sole surfer who waits to ride a wave of liquid gold.
14-NOV-2009
Clearing storm, Monument Valley, Arizona, 2009
Parts of this image lie in shadow, while others gleam in the sun. A sky laden with threats is breaking up, scattering the low hanging clouds that float above the scene. I layer the scene with first a green and then a brown desert foreground. A tiny, twisting road lies within that desert, carrying an even smaller white truck that tells us just how vast this scene really is. Three layers of rock formations comprise the middleground here, while a dark blue/gray sky provides the backdrop. Grandeur depends largely on scale relationships, and this image offers an array of them.
14-NOV-2009
Snowy buttes, Moab, Utah, 2009
An evening snowfall still clings to the sides of the massive buttes that fill much of my frame here. The foreground, however, is richly colored in reds, greens, and browns. The most important element of this image, however, is the road to the left of center that carries our eye deep into the frame. When it hits the foothills at the base of the buttes, it mysteriously vanishes, urging us to take this journey of grandeur in our own imaginations.
14-OCT-2009
Suleymaniye Mosque from the Golden Horn, Istanbul, Turkey, 2009
To express the grandeur of Istanbul, for sixteen centuries the Imperial capital of the Byzantine empire and the Ottoman sultans, one needs to stand in the middle of the Golden Horn -- a flooded river valley spanned by the Galata Bridge. I made this image of Istanbul’s most significant mosque from that bridge at sunset. Four factors converge to express grandeur here – the swirling pattern of the clouds, the soaring gull lifting its wings precisely over the minarets of the mosque, the golden colors of the setting sun, and the exotic symbol of mosque architecture. I made dozens of images in order to get this one – the light and color was changing as I shot, as was the pattern of the clouds. And most importantly, the sea gulls that fly over this natural harbor were continually entering and leaving my frame. I had to get one in precisely the right spot and in the most effective expression of flight. Some photographers would simply clone a seagull from another shot into the image, but such electronic manipulation would cheapen the photographic experience and dilute the validity of the image. We stood on that bridge for fifteen or twenty minutes and made many images, but in the end, I was able to find the combination of factors I was looking for to express the grandeur of Istanbul.
28-SEP-2009
Glacial path, Jasper National Park, Canada, 2009
This image comprises three separate subjects – a snow capped glacier, a well-worn mountain, with a twisting road at its base. Together they express a monumental sense of grandeur, a view of nature in its most impressive scale. The road is a path in itself, while the mountain has provided a path for glacial flow for millions of years.
28-SEP-2009
Columbia Ice Field, Jasper National Park, Canada, 2009
While in Jasper, I traveled in a “snow coach” into this vast glacial ice field. In this image, I express the sheer grandeur of scale by comparing the huge glacier to two tiny snow coaches at lower left, and a group of other coaches parked at lower center. Passengers get a chance to walk on the ice field for a half hour or so – if you study this image closely, you can make out a row of tiny figures just to the right of the coaches. I made this image from the base of the mountain using a 400mm telephoto lens. When we compare the size of those miniscule figures to the enormous amount of snow and ice above and below them, we can better appreciate the role of scale here in creating a sense of grandeur.
27-SEP-2009
Infinity, Ontario, Canada, 2009
I made this image with a 24mm wideangle lens from a window at the back of a moving train. The tracks converge in the far distance – at a place far beyond our ability to see. With the huge cloud filled sky overhead, and massive forests lining the tracks as they flow without limit, we get a sense of utter infinity – a point in space that seems infinitely distant. It is that sense of endlessness that creates grandeur here. It is an image without bounds.
19-JUN-2009
Mt. Thielson, Diamond Lake, Oregon, 2009
Mount Thielson is a starkly beautiful mountain, rising higher than 9,000 feet. It is also known as the Big Cowhorn, because of its distinctive peak, so extended that it attracts lighting strikes. It is an extinct volcano that stopped erupting 250,000 years ago. Located in the Oregon High Cascades, not far from Crater Lake National Park, Mount Thielson dominates the landscape like few other mountains do. Its huge scale and distinctive shape offer a sense of grandeur that borders on the surreal. I made this image through the windshield of our moving car. I processed it so that the road ahead seems to vanish into darkness, giving even greater prominence to the grandeur of the mountain itself.
11-APR-2009
Rainbow, near Arivaca Junction, Arizona, 2009
A rainbow is a beautiful thing to see anywhere. But when you see one coming out of a storm cloud over a curving road with a magnificent range of sun-splashed hills in the background, it can define grandeur. Such is the case here. Fortunately, the sun was not shining where I was standing, which allows me to shoot from the shadows into the sunny background. Another piece of good fortune was the effect of the rain clouds themselves – hints of color are scattered above and below the rainbow, part of the same optical phenomenon. To increase the panoramic sweep of the setting, I used a 24mm wideangle lens, and found a vantage point that drew the curving lines on the highway directly into the curve of the rainbow itself. And finally, I waited for a car to round the corner, adding a touch of scale incongruity to scene and telling us just how big a landscape we are looking at here.
20-MAR-2009
New York Harbor, New York City, New York, 2009
The Statue of Liberty is among the most iconic of all American subjects. On another kind of day, this wideangle image would be a picture postcard cliché. But on this day, the nasty weather makes the image rich in symbolic power. The billowing dark clouds embrace the statue, harbor, and distant city in the background. The weather symbolizes difficult times, while the statue symbolically opposes the difficulties with the concept of a free society. The rich green patina on the copper clad statue provides a vivid focal point that heightens the sense of majestic grandeur conveyed by this image.
07-OCT-2008
"Between Heaven and Earth." Old Faithful Geyser, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2008
Old Faithful is an American icon, the single most famous (and most photographed) feature in Yellowstone. It was the first geyser in the park to receive a name. It erupts every 90 minutes, and sends thousands of gallons of boiling water 150 feet into the sky for several minutes. Erupting geysers are exciting to watch, but difficult to photograph for expressive purposes. This image works as expression because it successfully conveys the grandeur of Old Faithful in terms of its scale, energy, light and color. As I waited for the eruption, I studied the cloud formation overhead, and hoped that the geyser’s column of steam would reach high enough to blend with the clouds. And that is just what is happening here. The thrust of moisture seems to reach the heavens. The play of light on the eruption is critical as well – although Old Faithful erupts every 90 minutes, only the eruptions in the early morning or late afternoon will produce images such as this. The low angle of the late afternoon light, along with my selective spot-metering method, creates different shades and textures of white and gray within the spout, dramatically illuminating its strength and thrust, and truly making Old Faithful seem as impressive in the image as it looks in person.
07-OCT-2008
Dawn on Mount Owen, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, 2008
Grandeur can often be implied, rather than shown. In this case, the image shows less and says more. We shot the Tetons at dawn, under heavy cloud cover. We watched the clouds gradually lift, revealing the peaks beneath them. Grand Teton, at far left of the frame, is still obscured, but the sun is already striking the top of one of Mount Owen’s twin peaks. The word “grandeur” means “impressive splendor.” This 13,000 foot high mountain peak is impressive in scale to begin with. Nature simultaneously abstracts it with gilded clouds, while it gradually reveals its glacier-covered face in golden light. I zoomed my telephoto lens only half way out, making this image at about 200mm. By not filling the entire frame with the peak, I am able to include sun-splashed slope as context and neighboring clouds to help make this a larger than life image.
10-OCT-2008
Bull Elk, Gardner River Canyon, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2008
Subjects need not always be huge in scale to appear larger than life. In this case, an image of a solitary Bull Elk bugling a mating call in a snowy field can evoke as much grandeur as an image of a huge mountain. We are looking at a dramatic example of nature at work in the animal world – an elk in the process of gathering a harem. It can be heard a mile away. The most frequent and loudest callers attract the most females. I place the elk in the lower right hand part of the frame so that his call will seem to flow diagonally towards the upper left hand corner.
09-OCT-2008
Elk in flight, Norris Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2008
I walked across a vast field towards a bull elk and his harem of ten females. As I drew closer, they spotted me and fled toward the steaming geysers in the distance. There is a sense of grandeur in the sweep of this image. The male elk is on the far right – he directs the flight of his harem by veering towards it. The columns of rising steam tell us we are in Yellowstone and offer a dramatic context. We have two natural processes – the elk mating season and the eruptive geysers – going on simultaneously in this image.
07-OCT-2008
Mount Moran, from Oxbow Bend, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, 2008
By framing Mount Moran horizontally, I stress the flow of the mountain range, and the flaming red trees at its base, as well as the reflection of its glacier in the Snake River below. It is scene of fall splendor. A moment later, I photographed the same scene in a vertical frame (
http://www.pbase.com/image/104715497 ), gathering many more clouds into the frame and making the mountain smaller in the process. These images express their ideas in differing ways – the vertical shot draws the eye from river to sky, while this horizontal shot sweeps across the mountain range, with the trees and reflection at its base. Both images express grandeur, and present a natural scene in a larger than life context
08-OCT-2008
On the boardwalk, Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2008
I used a 28mm wideangle lens turned vertically to make the boardwalk over Yellowstone’s largest hot spring into a symbolic road to the future. The sun is behind the cloud at upper right, backlighting the scene, making silhouettes out of the people and causing the edges of the rain clouds to glow surreally against the lacy clouds behind them. I juxtapose the people with the steam rising from the hot spring, isolating them in space and preventing them from merging into the background. The sheer scale of the scene has impressive grandeur, as it incongruously integrates the worlds of both man and nature.
09-OCT-2008
The summons, Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2008
As we were leaving Mammoth Hot Springs, we noticed a solitary bull elk standing on a ridge on the edge of town. It was sounding its mating call again and again, trying to summon a mate as snow flurries changed the green forest in the background to an overlay of soft gray swirls. The elk looks backwards, ready to run, yet is watching and waiting for an answer to its call. Its isolated lofty perch on the hillside implies a sense of haughty grandeur. It must stand alone to win a mate or fight a foe, seemingly unmindful of the coming of night, the cutting wind, or the freezing snow.
12-OCT-2008
Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2008
Temple Square is the epicenter of the Mormon church. Religious subjects are, by their very nature, potentially larger than life. To make them work as expressive photographs, we must be able to convey some kind of spiritual presence. In this case, the massive backlighted clouds looming behind the Mormon spires do just that. The backlighting also abstracts the structures, removing detail, and leaving more to the imagination in the process. By including the foreground layer of spikes (the fence at lower left), I add a sense of depth. A cloud of steam coming from one of the buildings rises between that fence and the Mormon temple, providing additional atmospheric content. All of these elements, when taken together, make this image seem larger than life.
08-OCT-2008
The Old Faithful Herd, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2008
Bison are the largest mammals at Yellowstone, some weighing almost 2,000 pounds. There are more than 4,000 of them in the park. The largest herd we saw was grazing near Old Faithful, where I made this iconic image. The massed bulk of these huge animals, aligned here shoulder to shoulder, is impressive enough. But to see them juxtaposed front and back against the steaming early winter landscape along the Firehole River, is to look back into American history itself. Bison have roamed the Yellowstone since prehistoric times, almost as long as the steam has poured from the land. To see these mighty forces of nature sharing the same frame is to see grandeur defined anew.
09-OCT-2008
The Absaroka Range, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2008
The Absaroka Mountains slice through Yellowstone’s northeastern corner.
I photograph them here from the hills of the Lamar Valley. A sweeping vista such as this one can express the very essence of grandeur – a splendidly impressive scene that shows the land in a form that is larger than life itself. I use a 200mm focal length here to reach into space and compress a series of hills that begin in gold and gradually change to olive green. The snow capped Absarokas loom in the distance under a heavily layered gray sky. There hand of man is nowhere upon the land. We see the grandeur of pristine nature all the way to the horizon, just as we expect to see it in one of America’s oldest national parks.
11-OCT-2008
Winter Storm, Jackson, Wyoming, 2008
We don’t expect to find a sense of grandeur in a street scene. Yet it is here, in this image of a single man struggling against the forces of nature. An impressive image is one that instills a lingering memory. When I look at this image, I feel the bitter winds of a winter storm sweeping through the tunnels of the covered boardwalks that line the streets of Jackson, Wyoming. I found this man trying to keep his balance. He has just staggered out of the snow and on to the sheltered, leaf-littered boardwalk. He can barely keep his footing – his head bends against the force of the wind tunnel he has entered, his hands are buried in his pockets. There is a sense of grandeur in his valiant personal struggle against the elements here. It is not only impressive. It is universal.
07-OCT-2008
Fiery Dawn, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, 2008
When shooting mountain landscapes, hope for broken clouds at dawn. In this case, fragmented clouds both reveal and obscure the peaks of the Grand Tetons, leaving space for the rising sun to bathe both the flanks of the mountains and the underside of the overhead clouds in fiery pink light. The result is an image of grandeur. The mountains, which are already huge, become even larger and more impressive in the imagination, once we have seen them in such amazing light. Ironically, this play of dawn light on both mountains and clouds puts the role of a famous Mormon barn and the sagebrush in the foreground into a subordinate roll. Photographers come from all over the world to shoot this barn with the mountains behind it. But by the time the pink light reaches the barn, the mountains will be in full light and the clouds drained of coloration. As it stands, the barn is very much in the picture here, but in this case, the work of man takes a back seat for the work of nature.