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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Nine: Composition -- putting it together > Grazing elk, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2006
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28-SEP-2006

Grazing elk, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2006

I built this image around the layers of jagged projections. A pile of dead tree branches anchor the foreground, a softly veiled elk grazes in the middleground with its massive antlers lowered to match the branches, and a dead tree with similar u-shaped projections stands in the deeply fogged background. The whole image, from front to back, becomes a series of repeating rhythms.

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Phil Douglis10-Jan-2007 21:40
Well put, Jenene. I often feel that I am watching nature perform when I am behind my camera.
JSWaters10-Jan-2007 21:36
Thanks Phil, that was my first inclination. I like your phrase, nature's own curtain. It's as if we're in the audience, and the grazing elk is the performance. - J
Phil Douglis10-Jan-2007 20:23
Thanks for coming to this image, Jenene, and thanks, too, for asking the question about the bits of greenery in both upper corners. I could have cloned them out, but chose to leave them in. I feel they add depth to the image. They are nature's own curtain, hanging down a bit into the image to suggest dimensionality. Just a touch, but it's there.
JSWaters10-Jan-2007 19:50
I am very drawn to the connection you make here, both in color and repeating rhythms. The mistiness adds to the often mysterious nature of wild creatures and their habitats. I don't know how I feel about the bits of green branches in both upper corners. Do they serve as some sort of separation between you and this scene, keeping man and animal apart? I'd love to hear your thought process.
Jenene
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