Road Trip #3: Demons In The Sky
Kory Lidstrom
Registered Users Posts: 251 Major grins
This is the third post in my series from my 32 day road trip through the western US.
"Demons In The Sky" (Larger version and EXIF can be found here.)
This is a dry lakebed, also called a "playa", in the Alvord Desert in southeastern Oregon. A thunderstorm was fast approaching, and with it came some wonderfully ominous clouds.
I call this photo "Demons in the Sky" because of the ghost-like shapes in the clouds. Can you see them? I'm trying to convey a spooky feeling with this photo, as if something is supernatural is happening in the sky and a portal to another dimension has been opened and spirits are pouring out of it and heading straight for you. And, on the wide open space of the lakebed, there is nowhere to run or hide! That's why I didn't include any foreground elements other than the ground itself -- I wanted to create a feeling of helplessness in the open, much like what Hitchcock did in the famous cropduster scene in "North By Northwest". Did I succeed? I hope so, but that's for you to judge. Perhaps it's a bit of a stretch trying to get the viewer to see and feel all these things, but it sure is fun to try.
I was really lucky that I got to see this place when I did. The next day, due the to the previous night's rain, the entire playa was covered in about six inches of water for as far as the eye could see. This made it completely impassable, and it remained that way the rest of the days I was in Oregon.
I used a two-stop soft GND filter to hold back the sky.
"Demons In The Sky" (Larger version and EXIF can be found here.)
This is a dry lakebed, also called a "playa", in the Alvord Desert in southeastern Oregon. A thunderstorm was fast approaching, and with it came some wonderfully ominous clouds.
I call this photo "Demons in the Sky" because of the ghost-like shapes in the clouds. Can you see them? I'm trying to convey a spooky feeling with this photo, as if something is supernatural is happening in the sky and a portal to another dimension has been opened and spirits are pouring out of it and heading straight for you. And, on the wide open space of the lakebed, there is nowhere to run or hide! That's why I didn't include any foreground elements other than the ground itself -- I wanted to create a feeling of helplessness in the open, much like what Hitchcock did in the famous cropduster scene in "North By Northwest". Did I succeed? I hope so, but that's for you to judge. Perhaps it's a bit of a stretch trying to get the viewer to see and feel all these things, but it sure is fun to try.
I was really lucky that I got to see this place when I did. The next day, due the to the previous night's rain, the entire playa was covered in about six inches of water for as far as the eye could see. This made it completely impassable, and it remained that way the rest of the days I was in Oregon.
I used a two-stop soft GND filter to hold back the sky.
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As for the devils, I do see them if I look hard enough, but at times they look more like teddy bears to me.
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