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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Seven: Making time count > Top of the Hill, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, 2005
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03-NOV-2005

Top of the Hill, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, 2005

Sometimes a moment in time presents itself by accident. My intention was to make a picture of the incredible tangle of utility wires at the crest of a street that ran almost straight uphill. I was using my longest telephoto focal length – 420mm -- to outline that tangle against the sky, and contrast it to the abstract simplicity of the sharply sloping street in deep shadow below it. Suddenly people started coming into my viewfinder. A young man came running down the hill into the shadows. Another man came up the hill and turned toward his house. And most important, a woman surmounted the crest of the hill, pulling a toddler along with her. He was dragging a bag along the ground, and her hair was flying in the air. I made this image at 1/800th of second, fast enough to freeze all of this action at once. And I still was able to use those wonderful wires, the parked cars, and the heavily shadowed cobblestone street, as context.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30
1/800s f/8.0 at 88.8mm iso80 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis27-Dec-2005 02:06
Great point, Lara. You are right -- she is indeed in eternal motion here. There, for at least 1/800th of a second, go all of us. To freeze, and to move, suddenly becomes one and the same.
Lara S27-Dec-2005 00:17
Even though you froze her "motion", you've made her eternally on the move, with her hair in the wind, dragging the toddler along, amidst all the chaos? around her.
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