Sometimes I try to make a Chromascape for a person close to me. This can be harder than it sounds as there are A LOT of really beautiful scenes in nature that just don’t blend well with my process. So many vibrant colors blend together to make a very unimpressive grey/brown mush. My youngest’s favorite color is black. As I set out on my two week road trip through the west in the late fall, she requested a “black Chromascape”. Turns out black as a primary subject color and not just the absence of color, is also hard to make an image of. 

While exploring the formations and canyons in St George, Utah, I came across Diamond Valley Cinder Cone Trail which as the name implies is a volcanic cinder cone and covered in black pyroclastic rocks of all sizes. The rocks were a very matte black and the cone and surrounding fields otherworldly in their beauty. The challenge was finding a way to capture the matte blackness of the rocks while making a visually interesting photograph. For this image, I used the yellow leaves and branches from a bush sitting in front of a very large rock and a patch of dry grasses behind the rock to give structure and contrast to the blackness. The jagged edge of the left side of the rock can still be seen in the final image as it contrasts with the grasses. For only this single image, a gust of wind blew through the little canyon and waved the branches. Nature’s little gift. This is Chromascape 103.  ~ Marc