Postcard from the Needles – In a Cave

Continuing on our journey to narrow in tighter on subjects with your camera, this photo was taken inside a rock cave in the Needles portion of Canyonlands National Park in Utah. Two blogs ago, we started with a wide angle shot of the landscape surrounding Bryce Canyon, then moved in tighter to photograph Skyline Arch. Now we are even tighter with the lens, focusing on the inside of a cave.

Now, this is far from my best photo ever, but I still like it as it captures the feeling of being closed in by a cave. The subject is the cave itself, but it still has a foreground, a middle ground and a background. I like the background as you see a trail and the light leading you out of the dark cave. Walk into the light and you are free.

This photo may be as close as you get where a photograph helps you remember what it is was like to be in a place. From where I stood that day, there is nothing but the cave and the trail out. There is nothing to see or feel beyond that. And that is what you experience in the photo. When you leave the cave, you are overwhelmed by a cornucopia of sights and sounds that are impossible to capture with a camera.

So enjoy those small spaces wherever you find them.