The plunge pool formed by the falling waters of Lower Calf Creek Falls in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument collects seepage from points along the canyon wall. Over time these small interfaces have formed diminutive mudflat deltas where seepage meets pool. The falling water creates a constant breeze which ripples the lagoon’s waters, distorting the reflection of the canyon’s walls. A blue sky reflects strongly in the nearly still water of one of the seepages, where an errant cottonwood leaf and several twigs have come to rest.
A focal length of 123mm, still somewhat short telephoto-land, gave me the angle-of-view and isolation I wanted. An aperture of f/11 with an ISO of 100 allowed for a shutter speed of 1/8th second, slowing but not freezing the movement of the pool’s water and giving me an overall medium exposure.
If I never find the wherewithal to again make the six-mile-journey into Lower Calf Creek Canyon and back, I will never forget the thrill of entering this oasis in the desert and being in the midst of the beauty present there – a lesson in being present that lives within me.
Water is the great medium that brings much richness and details to the photo.your ability to be constantly aware of small niches in the natural environment and your photography skills brings a whole new dimension to the observer.
I swear that you are becoming more Bonnie Esque in your composition! What I like most about this image is the flow. My eyes follow a reverse “S” when viewing this picture. They start in the lower right and flow left with the blue. Next they reverse course when they hit the brown and proceed right on a diagonal. Finally, they travel left at the lighter brown and exit the frame.
This image is a surprise to me. Last year when I submitted a graphic image, you just sighed. Maybe even groaned;) There is joy in creating this kind of image. This week I am in the Texas Hill Country during an outstanding wildflower season, I am WALKING IN BEAUTY, and more aware of it than ever!
An amazing surprise, aided unintentionally by the vertical format and the limitations of my browser window. When the page first opened, only the top third of your image was visible at the bottom of my screen. And I had to wonder, what am I looking at? Rock? Fur? An abstract? Or (I guessed) a surprise waiting further down the page? I scrolled, intentionally slowly, to let the hoped-for surprise open up gradually, and I was not disappointed. The pool is so delightful! I’m not sure, had I been there, that I’d have had the visual patience or courage to let it occupy just the bottom quarter of the image. But I’m glad you did.
Good morning Everyone. Thank you all for joining me for this conversation. As always, it’s a delight to hear from all of you and to discover what’s on your mind as you respond to my offerings. Your musings are always instructive for me, providing insight into the wonderful world of photographic seeing.
Hey Chuck, thanks for joining us. I often wonder why I am so drawn to the medium of water – all water in all of its forms and contexts. I could be trite and say it’s because astrologically I am a “water sign,” but that seems overly simplistic. Yet somehow I do feel that it explains something; I just don’t know what. But I very much appreciate your kind words and am grateful for your saying them. I hope very much that what I see can be shared with others so that their creative journeys are enhanced. Be well.
Hey Kev. Bonnie-esque is it? But it’s true in a good way: Bonnie has a wonderful eye, and we enjoy playing off each other’s vision. I appreciate your description of how you see this image. As you listen to how people describe their “seeing,” just as you have done, you begin to encounter the patterns of vision they describe, and you realize that these patterns repeat and become recognizable in yourself and in others. Then you are in a position to say something meaningful about particular patterns: yours, Bonnie’s, mine, or anyone’s. Hope all is well in St. Louis; how’s Boot Camp?
Hi Barbara. It’s great to hear from you. I’ll go along with “sigh” for any number of reasons; but I try to steer clear of groans for reasons that are opposite. You may recall me saying that it is incumbent on each of us to discover and nurture how we “see” the world as a unique individual, for that is the first step on our creative path It will never be my purpose to judge anyone’s path. I hope you thoroughly enjoyed the Hill Country. It is truly a wonderful area, and I’m sure that your walking in its beauty is a glorious experience. From what I’ve seen of the Smokies wildflower season thus far, I believe it’s going to replicate the scope of the Hill Country. We live in a beautiful world.
Hi Donald. What a delightful description of an exciting visual experience you have shared with us. Isn’t it always fun to unpack something slowly and deliberately and let the surprise roll over us like a slow-moving wave. Let me direct your eyes in a slightly different direction: the “pool” is all of the brown tonality, which is the upper 4/5ths of the image. The blue is actually the small seepage and mudflat off the canyon wall at the pool’s edge. Actually, the space behind the seepage is an open sand flat that extends around the edge of the box canyon that informs the nearly circular canyon wall. Somewhere in my work here there is a wide-angle landscape that I took to show all of this, but the edge of the pool and its seepage counter-posed with the reflection of the canyon wall in the pool’s water was what really intrigued me. I’m waiting the arrival of the final metallic print. Are you back in Chicago? Walk in Beauty.
This morning I had the happy chance to have a wonderful conversation with someone with whom I have not spoken for over half a century. He called with a photography question, and I look forward to the opportunity for a lengthy response. The language of beauty as seen through a camera is so universal; and it opens wonderful doors of discovery. Walk in Beauty.