Grand Canyon - Part Four

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Pink Clouds
© Larry Torno, 2005

The light in the Canyon is constantly changing. The sun rolls across the landscape and frequent, rumbling storms come and go; leaving mist and rainbows.

On this particular evening, the setting sun caught the tips of two peaks, casting a pink glow on them and the clouds above. Within minutes, it was gone and another part of the Canyon was shifting colors.

Grand Canyon - Part Three

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Tree at Desert View Drive
© Larry Torno, 2005

When you're in a place like the Grand Canyon, the best way to experience it is with your eyes wide open to see everything. You don't have to look down into the cavern to find something beautiful . . . it can be as simple as a roadside composition of tree limbs and an eroding stack of rocks.

Grand Canyon - Part Two

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Cloud Over Lipan Point
© Larry Torno, 2005

Lipan Point is a stop on the 26-mile Desert View Drive that loops the South Rim of the Canyon. After hiking and muling for 4 days, we chose to ride in an air-conditioned vehicle for a change.

While at first glance this appears to be just a cloud-over-the-Canyon image, if you look towards the bottom right-hand corner of the photograph, you can see the Colorado River winding through the landscape. This reference point will give you an idea as to the massive scale of the cloud overhead and the completely unobstructed, panoramic view of the Canyon.

Grand Canyon - Part One

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45 Minutes from the Rim
© Larry Torno, 2005

In the fall of 2005, my wife and I treated ourselves to a quiet, off-season, week in the Grand Canyon. It was in early October and the summer crowds were long gone. Our time was divided into 2 days of getting to know the area, a 2-day mule ride to the bottom of the Canyon (with an overnight stay at the Phantom Ranch), and 2 days of recovery and decadence in our luxury suite at the El Tovar Hotel.

I took the usual sunset photos and vacation memory images but walked away with a collection of personal observations that I will share in the next 4 weeks.

45 Minutes from the Rim was taken on Day Two of the mule ride, when we arrived at our last rest stop of the 5-hour journey up from the Canyon floor. The absolute stillness and isolation of the area and the last chance at scenery not visible from above, prompted this image.

You don’t think of the Grand Canyon as a place of trees, but there were many that I stopped to photograph. This one, with the bare branches reaching back into the Canyon, reminded me of a sculpture with twisted, outstretched arms straining to their maximum length.

Paved Paradise - Part Four

Light Field
© Larry Torno, 2007

Sometimes the shot is not OF the parking lot but what's IN the parking lot.

This scene appeared on one of my Sunday Art Adventures. I was so taken by the location that I cut across several lanes of oncoming traffic and shot the image without getting out of my car. I couldn't wait to capture what I was seeing.

A fine art photographer friend of mine commented on the photo with the following accolades:

You are right!! It is just wonderfully seen. Edward Weston, my hero, once wrote, that the difference between the good and the great photograph is what he called "seeing plus." Only a handful of photographers can even define "seeing plus" and that is why 99.9% of all pictures are what Ansel Adams called "a nice record of something that exists.!!!!!!! "Seeing plus" is the hidden treasure that you must find to elevate above the masses - You have arrived!!

Care to take a guess as to what the hidden treasure was that Bob saw in this image?

Here's the missing sentence from his comment . . . The wire coming back in at the bottom is just the kicker!!

Paved Paradise - Part Three

Parking Lot Study
© Larry Torno, 2007

I found this church parking lot in St. Charles, Missouri. I'm not sure when the accidental stain happened but it attracted me immediately. It made me think about artists like Morris Louis and Jackson Pollock who purposely spilled paint on their canvases.

Someone once commented that the white lines in this photo looked like a Christmas tree. I'm always fascinated by the visions people find in art.

Paved Paradise - Part Two

In, Out, K
© Larry Torno, 2007

A newly paved and painted parking lot was the inspiration for this photograph. The afternoon sun provided the intense contrast and the simple line structure formed a great composition.

I worked for several years at The Saint Louis Art Museum and I'm always recalling the master painters as inspiration in my work. In this case, the bold, gestural strokes of Franz Kline were in the back of my mind when I created this image.

Paved Paradise - Part One

Comb
© Larry Torno, 2007

I like big, empty parking lots. They remind me of huge, blank canvases just waiting for an artist to come along. I can't imagine creating art on this scale, but think it would probably be an incredible experience.

This lot is actually a small piece of a larger shipping/receiving area. I think the seven open parking spaces look like part of an abstract expressionist painting. The floating, white "comb" and the striped Mark Rothko-like background are simply a beautiful composition that I couldn't improve upon. All I had to do was recognize the potential, seize the opportunity, and claim it for my own.

Portrait of a Moment - Part Four

© Larry Torno, 2009

This is the final image in the Portrait of a Moment series and it's my favorite.

A portrait doesn't always have to be a person sitting in a studio in front of a painted background. For me, it's more important to get to the root of the individual personality.

Each of the images from the Portrait of a Moment series was shot on location; some with existing light and some with the aid of photographic lamps.

Portrait of a Moment - Part Three

© Larry Torno, 2009

As Time Goes By, a song originally written by Herman Hupfeld in 1931 and re-introduced in the 1942 film Casablanca, has the lyrical caption for this tender moment;

The world will always welcome lovers . . . as time goes by.