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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Twenty Six : Using reflections to transform reality > Vanishing sunset, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 2008
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09-JAN-2008

Vanishing sunset, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 2008

On my trip to Vietnam and Cambodia, sunsets (and sun itself, for that matter) were hard to come by. December in this part of the world often brings overcast weather. However we had nothing but sun during the day and a half we spent in Cambodia at the end of the trip. We wanted to make our last sunset a special shot. To do so, we asked our guide and driver to travel west into the sunset, while we looked for places that might add a worthwhile context. It was race against both time and weather. We could see the sun sinking in front of us, and we could also see a massive cloudbank reaching up from the horizon, ready to swallow it. With only seconds to spare we spotted a large field of morning glories off to the left. We found a platform that overlooked those fields and saw to our delight that the fields were flooded with water that reflected the setting sun back up at us. I had time to make about three pictures before the sun vanished into the cloudbank. I liked this one the best because it shows the least sun. Only a crescent remains, which to me, at least, is more abstract and less literal than a whole sun would be. What is most important here is the context offered to the setting sun by the reflection in the morning glory fields. We do not see the sun itself in the reflection, but instead the effect of the sun. There is still room here for the imagination of the viewer to work.

Leica V-Lux 1
1/400s f/5.6 at 24.7mm iso100 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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