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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Thirty Seven: As others see me > Vantage point, by Tim May, Mesa Arch, Canyonlands National Park, Utah, 2006
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22-SEP-2006

Vantage point, by Tim May, Mesa Arch, Canyonlands National Park, Utah, 2006

Tim creates excellent scale incongruity here by stressing the massive arch, and using my distant crouching figure to tell us just how large it is. He also finds me taking a low vantage point for this shot, so that I could include light reflecting on the inside of the top of the arch. I must be using the wideangle focal length on my Leica D-Lux-2 camera here, which does not offer a flip out viewfinder, as does my Panasonic FZ-50. As a result, I must crouch close to the ground, which is not the easiest task for a 72 year old body with a bad knee. (My FZ-50, on the other hand, offers a flip up viewfinder, allowing me to simply lower just the camera toward the ground so I can just bend over, look down into it, and shoot without having to laboriously lower and raise my body to and from the ground.) As it turned out, I preferred a shot I made a bit later from another position. You can see it by clicking on the thumbnail below:

Olympus E-330
1/250s f/5.6 at 20.0mm iso200 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis26-Oct-2007 05:52
I don't mind your language, Marcia. If you see a reversed vagina here, so be it. That's just the way you see it. I respect that. Perhaps I might be looking into "mother nature" herself here?
Marcia Manzello26-Oct-2007 05:17
How wonderful! If you don't mind my language, it looks like you are right on the edge of a reversed vagina...VOTED
Phil Douglis21-Aug-2007 06:35
You say it very well, Patricia. When I work on a photograph, I am conscious of little else. I only think of the image, and try to keep away from the edges. I enjoy your linkage of the light on the rock to the light on my face -- when I shoot I often feel as if I am one and the same with my subject.
Patricia Lay-Dorsey21-Aug-2007 03:33
I find it wonderful that your face and the cleft in the rock are exactly the same hue and value--both shining with light! That is the photographer at work, all else slips away into nothingness, and only the intention & act of creating remain.
Phil Douglis02-Mar-2007 17:22
You are right, Ai Li -- Tim does make it seem as if the natural world is cracking open before me. Well put. Tim and I are just as excited about meeting you in Singapore come August.
AL02-Mar-2007 12:41
It's no doubt another great capture by Tim with scale incongruity of man vs. nature, and body expression of your character, Phil. And it's as if the nature or the earth is opening up, instead of being ready to shallow you, allowing you to take a glimpse of its endless beauty by the one who truly seeks to find it and frame it. Yes, I too can't wait to meet both you in Aug!
Phil Douglis31-Oct-2006 17:36
Your comment means much to me, Jen, and it will to Tim as well. He did capture my devotion and concentration and my relationship to both nature and time. I am sitting on the crest of an ancient geological upheaval -- a mere speck in the time frame here. I was there for just a moment, while the huge rock and cleft below me have been there for millions of years, and will be there for millions more after I am gone. I see what you are saying here, Jen -- time is a mighty presence in this image. And thank you as well for your words on that image I took of Tim as he studied the steaming land before him. It will be joy for both Tim and myself to come to Shanghai and shoot with you next September.
Jennifer Zhou31-Oct-2006 15:39
Phil, you and Tim are perfect pair in photography! I enjoy so much of the photo you took of Tim:http://www.pbase.com/pnd1/image/69230225 , and this photo from Tim is brilliant as well. It is a great picture of a photographer at work, even the details are a bit too small, but the picture is in this gallery, with that context provided, we know that's Phil taking pictures. And the photo really shows human value of devotion and concentration. In addition to that, it shows the realtionship of human, nature and time. Man is so insignificant as you said compare to nature, but time is even more powerful when we see the way it changes everything..
Phil Douglis30-Oct-2006 05:38
The more I look at this, Carol, them more insignificant man becomes in the face of the natural world. That may be the ultimate message here. Thanks for the observation.
Carol E Sandgren30-Oct-2006 04:03
Yes, the size relationship tells it all, doesn't it. Not that you are small, mind you, but that the arch is so large. It takes a tiny subject to refer to see how massive it really is.
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