P#12: Rock Climbing in the Twilight: A Stunning Photograph

Less is More

This image of a woman rock climbing was taken southern California. This is one of those "make an adventure" trips that I talked about. I went on a trip with two people and did everything from running to mountain biking to rock climbing.

We took off and camped for a week. I photographed them everyday, doing everything under the sun. In this case, they were actually bouldering on the outside of each rock with the sunlight hitting them and I was shooting away.

This crack, even though it looks massive, is really quite small. We never even considered a photograph in there until we kind of tweaked in between the rock and looked and thought, "Hmm, there's something here. There's no sunlight in there at all -- there's just the blue sky in the background." (click the image for a larger version)

I had the lady put on her climbing gear and start bouldering up the rock. Here again, she's working for me so I can say, "Go higher, go lower," and she just struck the perfect bouldering/climbing mode within this slot between these two rocks.

I based my exposure on the sky so that there would be no detail inside; she would just come out as a silhouette. It really was a striking and powerful photograph.

Audri Lanford: I love that one. The twilight of the sky is a really wonderful contrast.

Charlie Borland: Yeah, it's great. I think that's the key to the success here is that I didn't go with what my camera meter said (which would have made the sky too bright and given some weak detail on the inside). Instead, it's much stronger with the silhouetted object and the little person in the middle -- much more graphic and powerful this way.

In Summary

Sometimes your camera doesn't know best, and too much lighting can lead to weak detail. Charlie Borland knows this and used his expertise to create this amazing shot of a woman rock climbing.