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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Forty: Expressing the force and beauty of moisture in motion > Castle Geyser, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2006
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27-SEP-2006

Castle Geyser, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2006

Geyser images limited to clouds of steam alone are generally not very expressive. I fell into that trap in Yellowstone – many of my geyser shots, which felt good to make, are actually little more than description. Geyser steam needs color and context to work as expression. In this case, I used a 28mm wideangle lens to create that context and took advantage of the pinkish glow that comes just after sunset to bring a touch of color to the scene. I lead the eye to the geyser by including a good part of the wet terrace that surrounds the geyser. Long fingers of rocky soil on that terrace point to Castle’s distinctive cone in the distance, as a vast column of pink tinged steam explodes into the sky.

Leica D-Lux 2
1/13s f/2.8 at 6.3mm iso80 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis04-Nov-2006 18:10
Your ideas are well taken, Zane -- thanks for taking the time to make an alterative version of my image for us. I love the color you added to the steam -- it does enhance its force. I am not as enthusiastic about the crop you taken off the bottom of my image-- I would still rather bear the minor flaw of the horizon in the middle, rather than lose the major thrust and weight of the markings in the rocks that anchor my image. You are right -- compromises are part of the game of photographic expression. I appreciate what you have done here -- you reinforce a point I often make as a teacher: there are many ways to skin a cat. Both your version and my version have their strengths and weaknesses. In the end, we each practice the art of compromise as much as we practice the art of photography.
Zane Paxton04-Nov-2006 10:32
Perhaps the compromises are as important as any other distinction that we make.

I like all the concepts that you describe and believe that they are very important; important enough to try and find alternatives without compromising the classic discipline of good composition. OK, a few thoughts for you to consider as alternative possibilities, since I rather like the potential you saw in the image.

The sky won't stand any cropping and is the primary subject as well. So the foreground then. The lines in the gravel can perhaps be enhanced to increase their visual imapact so that a wee bit of cropping won't diminish them. Approach: Pull out a smiggin more red in the water and tweak the contrast a bit there.

The geyser is blending a bit with the sky which reduces its imapct, perhaps because our cameras rarely accomplish (without a bit of processing) what we see in our mind's eye or perceptions (credit to Dan Margulis for that insight). Strategy: To express the tremendous forces that produce this wonder of nature, it would be nice to see more of the roiling detail in the steam. Approach: Some minor tweaking to distinguish the steam from the sky and to play up the wonderful sunset colors that give the steam that nice definition.

My appologies in advance for messing with your perfectly fine pixels, but in the spirit of things it is difficult to conduct a "visual conversation" without trying this, see what you think of this alternative possibility:

http://www.pbase.com/devonshire/image/69671431

Cheers!
Phil Douglis03-Nov-2006 19:44
I agree in theory, Zane -- I don't like to split an image in the middle with the horizon either. In this case, however, I wanted to include as much foreground as I could to lead the eye to the geyser. If I had crouched lower, the leading lines moving into the image would not have been as pronounced. I also wanted to include the rounded spout of the eruption. The sky is not featureless here in my view. If it was only blank sky in the upper half of the image, I would have cropped it out. But that sky is filled with erupting pink water, which is the point of the picture. This is one of those cases where context (the lead in lines) and subject ( the erupting geyser) share equal billing.
Zane Paxton03-Nov-2006 19:28
Hmmmmmm...

I would agree that context is of high importance here and you have achieved that well.

However; having the horizon so close to the middle is a compositional distraction (a classic dichotomy, is this really an image about a geyser rising against the sky? or is it an image of the very interesting landscape with a geyser erupting?) OK, so which is the more powerful and compelling compositional choice, the sky or the context that the ground offers? Since the sky is blank and in general featureless, the ground is the more obvious and useful choice. The usual trick to get around the compositional limitations in such a situation is to crouch lower....
Phil Douglis31-Oct-2006 17:31
Yes, it is a giant creature clearing its blowhole here -- there are very few places in the world where we can see sights such is this one, Jenene.
JSWaters31-Oct-2006 15:35
The combination of watery foreground and mistiness surrounding the geyser trick my eye, and now I see a cone of rock transformed to water in a violent upsurge of spray. A giant, mythical creature is there clearing his blowhole.
Jenene
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