TITLE: Stone Sculptures

This series showcases some of Nature's finest sculptures. Wind, water, ice, and heat have been at work on the Earth's bedrocks for millions of years. Sensuous curves, chiseled angels, jagged peaks, and smooth canyon walls come alive as light dances across the surface of these stone monoliths and formations. These images are from the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico in the southwest United States.

AUTHOR: Phillip Noll (United States)

My goals as a nature & landscape photographer are to raise awareness of the natural world and to inspire people to help protect our beautiful wild places that seem to be disappearing at an alarming rate. As Edward Abbey once said, “Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit.” We need to have wild, untamed lands where we can go to decompress, to regain perspective, to reconnect with something larger than ourselves, and to refresh the soul. I want to share these wild places through my photography. I try to make an emotional connection with the viewer; to reach something deep inside. I want them to see how beautiful our planet is and that conservation and protection of the land are worthy and important goals. National Geographic photographer David Alan Harvey said, “Don’t shoot what it looks like. Shoot what it feels like.” Anyone can shoot what something looks like. But how do you shoot what it feels like? It takes dedication, respect, awareness, skill, and patience. You must go back over and over, shoot under many different conditions and different times of the day or year, you have to decide what angle to shoot from, how to compose the scene, what to include, what to exclude. To paraphrase Ansel Adams, don’t just take a photo, make it! I work to bring the viewer into the photo, if only for a moment; to have the landscape touch them emotionally. My ultimate goal is to use photography to spark action to protect our wild places for all generations to come.

I have been photographing nature and the landscape for over 35 years. I began with 35mm film cameras and eventually moved up to medium format cameras and a wooden 4x5 view camera. I now shoot exclusively with digital cameras made by Sony and Canon. Today, using professional digital SLRs and mirrorless cameras, state-of-the-art printers, and sophisticated software, I am finally able to produce photographs I am very proud of.