"Base of Cirque" by Paul Roark


This image shows the view from the base of Cirque Peak toward what I think of as New Army cirque. This is the cirque that New Army Pass goes over, just to the right of this photo's view.

Like many people, I really enjoy looking at the rays of light one often sees streaming from the sun through the atmosphere. Many classical religious painters portrayed these in their works. I often refer to such rays as "Holy light." In that regard, while I'm not a religious person in the classical sense, I occasionally describe much of my photographic work to those who are religious as a celebration of "His" creations. I don't know how to define spirituality, but that is where classical religion and what I do or how I think overlap.

Some see aspects of this image as allegorical or metaphorical of our human psychology. The "Holy Light" in this image is not an interaction of the sun's very bright light with the atmosphere, as is the light we usually see streaming through broken clouds. Rather, it is the sun's direct light reflecting off internal parts of the lens (in this case a Zeiss T* 35mm f/2.8 Biogon). The light reflections shown in this image are often considered optical artifacts and defects. They are not something that is really in the scene and often interfere with true image information. I leave to others how this relates to human psychology.




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