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Thread: canyon de chelly

  1. #41
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: canyon de chelly

    Well, I never know when I'm stepping on toes by pointing it out. I don't think there ever was a picture I gave my parents where my dad din't see some king of animal face somewhere in it. But when one spends numerous moments daily looking for cows trying to sneak through some breach in the barbed wire fences trying to get into the gardens, not to mention all the deer and possums and so forth, I guess it comes instinctively.

  2. #42

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    Re: canyon de chelly

    Quote Originally Posted by Drew Wiley View Post
    Yes, very good timing for the shadow outlining the structure, plus the general shadow vs open are contrast. But it's also a face with two eyes!
    There's actually a kind of funny story behind that! I'm a pretty big fan of Jay Dusard's landscapes (I love his book Open Country). I also have copies of View Camera and Arizona Highways with features about him, with photos. Before I left on our trip, I looked at Ansel's photo of the White House ruin, and O'Sullivan's version, but nothing else. When I made the posted photo, I wasn't even sure what ruin it was. When I came home I was paging through the Arizona Highways, and Jay had a photo of those ruins from the canyon floor, in even lighting. He mentioned that he saw the two caves as eyes. When I looked at my version, the eyes jumped out, but the shadow also made a nose! I hadn't noticed that at all when photographing - I was simply waiting for the shadow to move far enough that the central tower was fully lit. I really need to work on seeing shadows as a graphic part of an image. I DID see the shadow for the one below, envisioning it as kind of a black hole like this image of Merg's, but with detail in it: http://www.mergross.com/pictures/broken_window2.html I managed to get the shadow area darker in the print, so that it has a bit more graphic impact. An interesting feature of this photo is that the buttress is called Face Rock, and we see its frontal portrait, but we can also see its profile in the shadow. It is not at all obvious (at least to me) from the front that there is a small spire at the top of the buttress.


  3. #43
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: canyon de chelly

    Well, the rim drive can certainly be fun and rewarding to take pics from. But the last time I was there, there were maybe only one or two houses in the vicinity up there anywhere, and no trinket stands yet. I remember a "new model hogan" sign, with plastic streamer flags just like some new stucco box in subdivision, but actually octagonal log construction with a hole in the roof. Somewhere else, near Tuba City, stopping to buy a trinket (actually, a cheap turquoise necklace made in Taiwan!) from an old Navajo woman got me and my new bride invited by her grandson for a free hike way out on their ranch to see tyrannosaur tracks all along a lengthy sandstone ledge, plus some huge sauropod tracks, perhaps the prey. Memorable.

    The picture just previously posted impresses me even more than the one with the ruin and the "eyes". You've managed to capture two "angel wings" - light on one side of the statuesque column, dark the other side. I'm not necessary implying anything Freudian, but not not necessarily implying it either. Ambiguous pictures are often the best. A fine landscape shot regardless. If it were me I'd probably accentuate the difference even further with glycin development and split toning on MGWT to make the angelic side have a softly warm glow, and the dark devilish side somewhat cold blue-blackish. But to each his own. Lots of print possibilities in that image.
    Last edited by Drew Wiley; 20-Dec-2021 at 17:46.

  4. #44
    Alan Klein's Avatar
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    Re: canyon de chelly

    Quote Originally Posted by Drew Wiley View Post
    Yes, very good timing for the shadow outlining the structure, plus the general shadow vs open are contrast. But it's also a face with two eyes!
    That's the first thing I saw too. Nice shot.

  5. #45
    Alan Klein's Avatar
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    Re: canyon de chelly

    Speaking of seeing things, when my wife and I drove across Kauai, this gorilla and crocodile was pointed out to us. I think I also see a turtle on the left or a hippo somewhere? (Sorry for the digital photo).Click image for larger version. 

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  6. #46
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: canyon de chelly

    Alan - in the right light you can kinda see a gorilla face on that hill, at least if one is inebriated enough, I guess. We were staying in an adjacent town when a huge rainstorm hit and caused a lot of damage further north, and someone got swept to their death over a waterfall trying to cross a flash-flooded creek along the trail at the end of the road. Interesting how easily a sudden downpour can get you in a lot of trouble whether in the arid Southwest or the lush side of a Hawaiian island.

  7. #47
    Alan Klein's Avatar
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    Re: canyon de chelly

    Quote Originally Posted by Drew Wiley View Post
    Alan - in the right light you can kinda see a gorilla face on that hill, at least if one is inebriated enough, I guess. We were staying in an adjacent town when a huge rainstorm hit and caused a lot of damage further north, and someone got swept to their death over a waterfall trying to cross a flash-flooded creek along the trail at the end of the road. Interesting how easily a sudden downpour can get you in a lot of trouble whether in the arid Southwest or the lush side of a Hawaiian island.
    I swear. I wasn't drinking. It was a big ape. I swear.

  8. #48
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: canyon de chelly

    Maybe Kauai was the actual island King Kong originally came from. Who knows? Did you bring some helpers and a lot of rope, just in case?

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