Canyon Light

After a woeful (for me) autumn in the mountains, I returned to my comfort zone to enjoy this remarkable Indian Summer weather we're enjoying.
The overhead sun lit a canyon wall at my back, which reflected warm light back over this scene in the depths of Comb Ridge, Utah. This was my fourth trip in here to try and sync the autumn colors and the half hour or so of reflected light that shone down here. This ancient ruin is one of the more unique dwellings in the Colorado Plateau as it appears to have been built using two different styles.

Amazing! What's really interesting to me is how much depth is added to the image just by having that little patch of diagonal opposition in the upper left corner. the rest of the elements speak for themselves.

Well this certainly should have some healing power for your Autumn blues John. This is stunning!

Beautiful shot, John. The cool gray rock in the lower right provides a nice color counter-point to the overall warmth of the scene, too.

Great image. The colors are outstanding. Really like the way the rock ribbons above the ruin.

Todd is right on, as usual, about that slice adding depth. Not only that but they stop the eye from leaving the frame as the diagonal lines progress from bottom to top. This is a very well crafted composition! Excellent color and the ruins really add scale. All in all this is a fairly outstanding image.

As was said, the diangonal comp makes this a real winner.
Joe Rogers

Wonderful image, John! On my last visit there, I slipped and almost fell from the alcove into the pool below. I hope you looked inside as well. There are a couple of interesting metates near the back of the ruin. What a fascinating place.

Guy

When I first looked at this I got a real sense of "Wow!" when my eyes came across the ruin. It really gave me the sense of scale. Great image of a fascinating place!

Cool image from a neat place!

Wish I was there now....been there some time ago and I sure didn't come away with such a compelling image!

Well this was certainly worth the repeated trips out there for, I'd say. Gorgeous scene. I actually think I like this better with some of the bottom cropped off. The fall colors are a nice accent, but the ruins and that beautiful alcove are the stars of the show and that would make them more prominent.

John, Looks like a real nice place with the stains on the sandstone faces around the ruin and the turning leaves do add more bright color to compliment the scene. You took a good viewpoint to give the angled comp. The bounce/reflected light illuminated the back of the alcove pretty well. As Guy S. mentioned, a bottom crop would make the ruins more predominant (maybe just above the middle rock to give a more pano feel.) The leaves look too flourescent chartreuse to me (if its my monitor, please let me know.)

Great color! Agree about cropping a little off the bottom.

Great timing on your part to catch these colors here John. Usually those trees in Monarch peak around the 24th of Oct every year. I guided 3 groups of folks in there this Oct....with the last trek in on Oct 23rd...and those trees hadn't even really started to change yet.

You did a great job with your photo of this ruin.......you made it look like it is in better shape than some of the apartments I use to rent on the south side of Chicago when I got out of school back in the 60's.

Edit note here ~ Looking back on my calendar... I was in Double Stack Ruin on the 23rd....and was last at Monarch Oct 17th. Well, I pretty much live on "Navajo time" and it all runs together to me.

John ~ what was the date you shot this one on?

Absolutely gorgeous, John. I love reflected light in the canyons and this clearly demonstrates why. Beautiful colors, great composition with the foliage framing the ruin...nothing wrong here.

Interesting shot, John--a bit confusing, but i like it!

Great shot. I like the comp a lot.

interesting shot, I didn't notice the dwellings at first.