The geology of the Windows Section of Arches National Park is very much the story of the action of wind and water on Navajo Sandstone. This section of the park is home to many well-known features, none more so than Double Arch, which when seen from the appropriate perspective resembles the head of a giant pachyderm with its trunk high in the air. Sometimes, however, it is the rock itself rather than that for which it stands that is the story to be told.
A focal length 330mm from a perspective that emphasized the whorls and folds of the sandstone rather than the open clefts of the famous rock, gave me the angle-of-view and compression that I wanted. An aperture of f/20 provided depth-of-field; and a shutter speed of 1.6 seconds in the late afternoon, overcast light at ISO 100 gave me an overall medium exposure. I decided that conversion to a monochromatic tonality allowed me to emphasize shape and texture in a way that the native colors of the sandstone could not.
The greatest fear of places like Arches is that of degradation from over-visitation. And this becomes our greatest challenge: to commit the resources required to maintain this amazing place before degradationcan take its toll.
So many faces! This was a perfect place to create a black and white image. There is a different story every time I look at this one. The pachyderm is not the only critter here; there are faces everywhere! It looks like you had fun capturing the image. I certainly enjoyed perusing it.
Hi Nancy T. I decided that I would go ahead and answer your comment today rather than wait until tomorrow. I couldn’t resist. First there was the thought of black-and-white conversion. As much as I love the Red Rock country, sometimes there are compositions that just demand to be rendered in monochrome, and this seemed to be one of them. Devoid of color the rocks were free to speak of their shapes and forms, textures and patterns. They could be themselves. And if anyone could readily discern a zoo in these rocks, it would certainly be you. That’s another of my attractions to these old rocks: everywhere you look there is another face smiling or snarling at you. The only hesitation I have in talking about Arches is that, like the Smokies, visitation have grown exponentially over the past several years until there are now times that the crowds become overwhelming. In Arches the space is much more limited so the concentration of souls is barely tolerable. Of course, the land is no less beautiful and amazing for any of this.
Stay safe and be well. Walk in Beauty.
Don, beautiful selection of what to include in the frame. I agree the black and white gives our eyes the chance to really appreciate the forms. I’m interested in your choice of exposure toward the high side. I found myself looking for some areas of deeper black, but would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks.
Hey Ray. It’s really good to have you join us. What an interesting thought to consider. I created this image in color and then used DxO’s Silver Effects to process in post- using the “High Structure Harsh” preset. I liked this particular preset in this instance because I wanted to emphasize all the texture in the sandstone and I concluded that more contrast here would make for too much loss of detail and, thus, loss of texture. I was concerned about the smoother areas of the strata becoming too light, so I did introduce a bit of contrast to pull back some of the brightness/smoothness. The histogram of the B&W was a fairly even mid-toned bell curve. Thanks for a great question! Walk in Beauty.
Thank you both for some excellent observations and questions. It’s always a good day when these inquiries reflect keen thoughts about practice of the photographic process.When I am thinking in this way, my best photographic growth occurs.
Hope you both are safe and well. Take good care.