Nathan McCreery

Black Cloud over Island in the Sky

January 17th, 2026

A little reminiscing here for me. I was up in Southern Utah a few years ago with a long time friend and we were photographing in some canyons. This image was a little difficult and it has set in my files for maybe ten years unused. The view was directly into the sun, it was very overcast so image contrast was very, very low due to lens flare, so it has taken awhile to figure it out.

A few weeks ago the friend I was with was out making photographs south of Santa Fe, New Mexico and he dropped dead with a heart attack. I went to Santa Fe a few days ago to help his children figure out what to do with his photographic darkroom, film holders, camera and filters etc. Value your life and value your friends lives. They won't be forever, so take care of them and take care of you. I used a Toyo 45A, a 150mm Sinaron lens with a #15 Yellow filter and Kodak T-Max 100 film.

Landscape

Island in the Sky

utah

Canyonlands

Film

black and white

6 Comments

Chris Jablonski January 18, 2026 - 7:07 am

Love this one, Nathan. The atmosphere here is wonderful! And such grandeur - something we don't have so much of here in Oz.

Sorry about your friend. Life is indeed short. We should all count our blessings - including other people in our lives.

Nathan McCreery January 18, 2026 - 4:33 pm

Chris Jablonski

Thank you. Mark was a true friend, and you won't get many of those in this life. The true character of a man may be found in how his children honor him. His honored him greatly. It was a joy to help them.

Frank Ginn January 19, 2026 - 9:51 am

Sorry for the loss of your friend...we all so often take life for granted as well as friends. Your admonitions above should be in bold so no one that sees this post misses them. We do say, "They went out doing what they loved!...Hope I'll be as lucky!" But we still miss them.
I'm glad you were able to share this image and thoughts with us.

Nathan McCreery January 19, 2026 - 6:09 pm

Frank Ginn

at the grave risk of over sentimentality the incident does bring to mind the things that should be most important.

Dg9ncc /portable January 20, 2026 - 8:37 am

An eye catching image with a lot of depth, strong contrast and centered focus.you pushed the viewer to the center with the darkened frame. The "nor so good" weather appears a bit hidden to me, as it is quite bright at the center. The big cloud top right dominated the scenery. It makes the canyon becoming tiny. I had to look twice if it's a canyon or a wave at the coast.

Nathan McCreery January 26, 2026 - 11:00 pm

Dg9ncc /portable

Thank you. I was photographing into a very strong haze. The cloud blocked the sun long enough for me to get the image. I really do enjoy the image. If I had a gallery I would probably put a 40x60 of it in a big window with it spotlit at night.