or color.
Before heading out to the Sierra personally I prefer to have a plan, though when
storms are coming through things change constantly, which may require me to change
my original plans, and adapt to the current situations.
Some pieces lend themselves to be in color, but others min's later may be better suited
to be developed in b&w.
One such piece was made this past year while backpacking in the Taboose Corridor.
The conditions were constantly changing making the lighting tricky, luckily having
digital as opposed to film made my decisions much easier.
Once starting back towards the JMT from Bench Lake there was a garden of flowers
that started sporadically, but then developed into a massive garden streaming up
and down on each side of the trail.
The views being blocked towards Cardinal Mtn., and Upper Basin by trees opened
up once near the trail junction.
Clouds sporadically passed overhead making the lighting tricky, as did the occasional
breeze that made the flowers sway ever so gently.
Finding an optimal spot took a few minutes since my excitement was overwhelming
and made me run up and down the hill looking for a good location.
Then my eyes fixated on a prime spot at the edge of some of the plants that would
ground my art piece.
The clouds where already building, it was only mid morning, and seeing this
massive cloud slowly move south towards Cardinal Mtn. got me thinking of waiting
till it arrived at the top of the peak, which would then cast a dark shadow on its
western face including the valley bellow which could be used as one of the building
blocks in my composition.
As the cloud finally arrived some 40 minutes later it was time to wait till there
was a break in the breeze, but 2 more things were still missing to make this as
perfect as it could be.
This had to be a cloud blocking the sunlight on the plants at the foreground, and
then the flowers further in the scene had to be hit by some sunlight thus creating
two bands of lighting(dark & bright), and this had to happen simultaneously.
About 15 minutes later the cloud above Cardinal Mtn. had not moved much, and
it finally all came together.
A shadow creeped into the foreground on to the plants, the flowers got lit up, and
the trees in the background got darkened enough to get those extra layers.
When at home it was difficult making up my mind whether sticking with b&w was the
my best decision since the beautiful green, and lilac colors where quite strong,but
after several sales it has clear that this had been the right decision.
This is a 30" x 40" piece, and is calibrated to my monitor for optimal color, and
lighting.
Also there are some brightness variances when viewing this once uploaded.
This small jpg unfortunately does not do this beautiful piece any justice, but hopefully
even at this size you will be able to enjoy it!
http://WildernessApertures.com/img/s3/v ... 8585-6.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
