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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Five: Using the frame to define ideas > Yellowstone Lake, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2006
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29-SEP-2006

Yellowstone Lake, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2006

Yellowstone Lake is the largest high altitude lake in North America. It covers 136 square miles, and is more than 400 feet deep. In the summer, its water temperature is a chilly 45 degrees (F) and in the winter it freezes three feet deep. Instead of making a panoramic picture of the lake, which pretty much looks like any other lake, I frame it from the grounds of the old Lake Hotel through the backlit window of a restored vintage bus that has carried Yellowstone visitors on tours for more than 75 years. Using this frame within a frame, I lead the viewer’s eye to the window with the chrome railing on the back of one of its seats. It begins in the lower right hand corner of the image, and runs diagonally towards the lake. I waited for a distant figure to enter my frame in order to give it scale. When a man reached the space between the first two boats along the shore, he completed a series of verticals receding into space – beginning with the left hand edge of the bus window, continuing with the tree, and concluding with the man himself. These verticals, plus the window frame, bus seat, and the distant man as a focal point, energize my frame within a frame to bring the lake to life in this image.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50
1/500s f/7.1 at 16.4mm iso100 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis06-Nov-2006 22:34
Good question, Sam. You pretty much answered the question for yourself. I wanted the central window to have context -- essentially, there is indeed "more to see." I wanted to imply the length of the old bus, and I also wanted to include as much of that bench seat as possible, because it leads the eye to the central window. If I had cropped the window at the right, I would have cropped off the bottom of that bench seat. Thanks for the question.
Sam Bliss06-Nov-2006 21:58
Is there any reason you left the right and left partial windows there, particularly the right side? Of, course it does give me the impression of looking through a roll of film at the individual frames. The windows on the old bus are telling me that there is more to see.
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