minniev Loc: MIssissippi

Introduction

This month we will look at Stone Canyon, an image by Jack Dykinga, a modern master in editorial photojournalism and environmental/landscape genres. Like last month’s Modern Master, Dykinga (born in 1943) is of the same generation as many of us. Like many modern photographers, he began his photographic career with the newspapers: he worked for both the dailies in Chicago, and in 1971 was awarded the Pulitzer for his features on the treatment of mentally ill boys in Illinois institutions (link below). He relocated to Arizona in the 1980s, worked for the Arizona Daily Star, then moved gradually into landscape photography, with work published frequently in National Geographic and shown in galleries around the world.

“Stone Canyon”, above, was chosen as one of the 40 best Nature Photographs of all time. Dykinga made this photograph as part of a campaign to create National Monuments in both the Paria Canyon and Escalante Canyon drainages. He had tried on six separate occasions to make this image following seasonal rains, dissatisfied each time with the quality of the reflections in the standing water. His final effort paid off after driving south from Salt Lake City and arriving near Paria Canyon around midnight. Dykinga camped at the mouth of one of the side canyons and began hiking in around 3:30am in order to arrive on location in time for dawn and calm water. This time he got the image he was looking for.

Questions to Consider:

Please review some of the materials linked below for more information about Dykinga, his history, and the other work in his portfolio. Then share your own thoughts about this image, and answer any of the questions below that you’d like to, and of course feel free to make any other comments on your views.

1. What do you think of the composition? The color? Does it have visual impact? Would you want it on your wall? Why or why not?
2. Dykinga made 6 nighttime trips to camp on-site in order to get the image he visualized. Have you ever made that kind of commitment? If so, was it successful? If you’d like, share an image that you had to make repeated or difficult trips to “get it right”. Our equipment is smaller/lighter than what most photographers used until very recently. Has that made us more or less likely to make these kinds of commitments to getting images in difficult circumstances?
3. Think about a photographer making a move from editorial journalism to landscape photography. How does visual story apply to each? Same or differently? In what ways? Refer to Dykinga's Pulitzer images for reference.
4. Beautiful, colorful landscape images abound on websites like 500px and many others. What makes this image of Stone Canyon stand out?
5. Many landscape photographers worry that sharing the locations of wilderness places like this will lead to over-use and damage. Others are concerned about intellectual piracy of image concepts as copycat photographers seek to capture their own version of the image. Do you share either or both of those concerns. Why or why not?

Links for Further Study
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Dykinga
http://bytesdaily.blogspot.com/2014/05/pulitzer-and-world-press-photos-of-year.html
https://www.dpreview.com/news/4806397382/pulitzer-prize-winning-photographer-jack-dykinga-reflects-on-his-career
https://www.dykinga.com/
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/content/learning-see-conversation-jack-dykinga
https://photographylife.com/landscapes/jack-dykinga-interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHDMKFzMf8Y

fair use:Stone Canyon Petrified Sand Dunes and Reflection, Paria Canyon - Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, Arizona by Jack Dykinga

(Download)

R.G. Loc: Scotland

Thanks for posting another well-prepared thread for our interest and education. I can answer 1) and 4) together. Yes, there are many similar shots out there, but as usual it's the composition that makes ones like this stand out. Choice of subject/location obviously plays its part as does the lighting/weather aspect, but good composition always adds that extra something that can make a shot stand out from the rest. Some of the pluses of this one are foreground interest (but not too much), a typical foreground/mid-ground/background structure giving depth, an eye-catching main subject (which I would say is the reflection rather than the back wall of the canyon), and one of my favourites - an attention-channeler (the lying water).

All of that comes in a balanced and near-symmetrical composition that includes shape, colour and textures. Plus it's an unusual sort of place to be in, and the photo conveys something of that unusualness. The list could probably go on much longer, but to my mind those are the main points.

If I'd taken this myself I don't know if I would have included the stick. I can see why he did - its twisted shape and texture echo the shape and texture of the canyon. But for me it looks just a bit contrived (i.e. deliberately placed). I might have done something to randomise it a bit. In summary, yes I would hang this on my wall.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

Thanks, RG, for a thorough review. I agree the stick looks a bit contrived, but it sure is a satisfyingly balanced contrivance..

fergmark Loc: norwalk connecticut

Having spent as much time as I have, investigating the links for further study, as well as having a very real reaction to the photo, I decided to voice some of my thoughts. I will respond to as many of your points for consideration as I can. Honestly I have a somewhat negative reaction to the photo, even though I have always found this kind of geology to produce some of the most stunning photos I have seen. Even though I myself have collected similar pieces of wood, that somehow have very special meaning to me, I feel that in featuring the piece of wood, He has sacrificed a better composition of the rocks and water. As put by R.G. , it looks contrived, and I really can't get past that. It neither successfully celebrates the stick, or the setting. Each distracts from the other, and diminishes what I think would be a much more enjoyable photo without the stick. I simply do not believe the stick was there, but that he saw it in the area, and chose to include it in his composition. I don't know if I would hang it. I think not.
I have returned to potentially good places a ridiculous number of times just to see how it looks. It it has anything special to offer. In double digit cold and wind, and with some distance to travel, so I have some kind of commitment.
As a photographer, I have no secret places. Im sure others have been there. My efforts in landscape photography has always been to go to great lengths to present a scene of nature, in as pristine a condition as I possibly can. Myself, there is something very sacred about nature free of the influence of people, so I would probably be inclined to protect a location. There are too many in the general public who have little or no sensibilities.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

I kept seeing the view in #1 from the main Keith to Dufftown road and decided that I liked the framing of the larger mountain by the two smaller ones either side. So I decided to make a project of it. The drive out to that part takes some time and I never found the view I was looking for, until one day I decided to try a forestry commission track that looked promising. #2 gave me the view that I was looking for but the view of the mountains wasn't great. #3 ticked all the boxes for me.

For a future project I'm convinced there's a good view of Ben Nevis seen from somewhere above the town of Corpach. Every time I've been there it's been at the end of the day or at the start of a day that I've had planned for other things. I've not forgotten about it, but the west coast is quite a drive from where I live. It'll have to wait till I can spend some time exploring the area looking for the best viewpoint (which would require two overnight stays).

-

Unedited.




Unedited original.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

Thank you Mark, for your thoughtful contribution.

I too have returned to promising locations, many times over, in search of...whatever. Most of these quests have ended in disappointment. Most of my photographic victories have come as serendipity.

I do worry about over-use of beautiful locations by people who have no good intent and no respect for them. Witness the tragic abuses in Joshua Tree during the recent government shutdown.

Had I somehow taken this image, I probably would have presented it upside down.

What I might have done

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

I agree that the third is the winner!

Another thing: when we hunt the elusive treasure, we find other treasures that we did not seek along the way-[/quote]

fergmark Loc: norwalk connecticut

Joshua Tree is the perfect example of folks running amuck. As it so happens, that place is very close to my heart. One of the few place where I have really spent time, and explored extensively. In the past it was closed due to cleaning of graffiti damage.
Good thought on the 180. I took another look at it that way. Still wish it had not been composed for the stick.

fergmark Loc: norwalk connecticut

R.G. I like #3, but I also like the more tactile quality in the trees and foreground in #2.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

Thanks. As a project it was all about capturing the mountains in the background. The snow helps to differentiate the central one from the ones either side.

artBob Loc: Near Chicago

Enlightening, in more ways than one. Art seems to be, after all, all about the light that's outside us and the inner light that focuses something meaningful to ourself to something physical outside us. Then, the viewer completes the Art.

artBob Loc: Near Chicago

Dykinga illustrates for me the difference between Fine Art and other aspects of photography, in this case photo journalism.

To take a good photo journalist piece, the photographer must have the smarts to sense what is most important to the story and what communicates that best. He then uses his skills to create the shape, value, color, and composition required. In a sense, although he certainly expresses himself, he is limited by his goal.

A Fine Art photographer has no limits, but rather goals: to express a unique emotion/idea by finding something unique or a unique view of something ordinary, and expressing it in a most excellent way via his skills.

This Fine Art expression is what I see in the Dykinga. It is unique and unusual in composition, excellent in color, shape, contrast, and composition. An interesting twist that he "uses" the "unrealistic" to further a political cause of saving a wilderness.

His work is, to my mind, "above" that of nature photographers who show usual things (sunsets, birds, canyons.......) with excellent composition and technique. Each type serves wonderful purposes, both for the creative spirit of the photographer and the benefits of viewers.

In my own photographic pursuits, I do not recall going back to the same place to capture something I wanted. Rather, there is so much that is fascinating in nature that expresses my idea/emotions that I photograph what I stumble across. Passing through the wetlands of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore often, it is not surprising that I have many shots of them.

(Download)


(Download)


(Download)


(Download)

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

Thank you for such a thoughtful review, much of which I can agree with. It seems to me that Dykinga has conquered much in both types of photography he has undertaken.

And thank you for sharing your own journey! I really like those last two images, which convey the sometimes bleak but evocative beauty of such landscapes.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

Though I don't hike miles and camp in the wilderness much any more, I related to Dykinga's stubborn efforts to find the kind of scene he imagined and photograph it. We don't know if he added the stick or found it. I probably would not have added it but would have photographed it if I found it, as I like finding anomalies and including them in compositions.

At the first sign of fog, I will head to the nearby swamp to make a try for shots of light beams among the cypress. I've probably found the light beams three times, and have made between 50 and 100 nearly fruitless trips. Fog usually doesn't settle in the swamp for reasons I don't understand. But finding it a time or two fuels my return trips. One day I'll find it again.

I have done the same on trips to beautiful locations. Maroon Bells has long been on my bucket list and I had a chance to go there this fall. Alas, an early snowstorm knocked all the aspen leaves off and froze the lake. The water levels were at record lows, preventing the reflection the Bells is so famous for. There was never a cloud to provide any sky interest. But I went out every morning in 10 degrees F which froze my Mississippi soul, and returned every afternoon looking for my own version of Maroon Bells. This was the closest I got.

(Download)


(Download)

artBob Loc: Near Chicago

The shots take me there. Amazingly different compositions, each accentuating the feel of the particular shot. Beautiful work.