The Mushroom is believed to once have been part of the adjacent mountain but evolved to its current form over millennia of erosion.
By YEHOSHUA HALEVITimna Park(photo credit: YEHOSHUA HALEVI)
This oddly shaped – or one could easily say familiarly shaped – geological structure, aptly dubbed “The Mushroom,” is one of the chief attractions in Timna Park, a wilderness reserve in the Arava Desert 25 kilometers north of Eilat.A photograph like this is easy to take, once the somewhat arduous journey there is complete; but more interesting to me is the question of why we bother at all? Certainly this is a highly uncommon feature of the Israeli landscape. But searching a little deeper, into the depths of geology – the study of the Earth and rocks – reveals the climatic and tectonic history (past weather events and changes and movement of the surface and subsurface formations).The Mushroom is believed to once have been part of the adjacent mountain but evolved to its current form over millennia of erosion caused by wind, humidity and rain. The Timna Valley is also site of the oldest known copper mines in the world, making it a unique area for the study of human history as well.I composed this shot with ample foreground to dramatize the rock’s immediate environment as opposed to its form and size alone. It is important to note that composing the image in this manner minimizes its height (about five meters) in favor of emphasizing a sense of place. I photographed early in the morning, from an angle of about 90° to the sun, which creates the most interesting shadow detail across the entire image, with some beautiful light and shadow sculpting of the rock itself.Join Yehoshua Halevi for a Photography Walking Tour on the following dates: July 28 at 6 p.m. at Cinema City; August 1 at 9 a.m. for Introduction to Natural Light Portraiture. To register and for a complete schedule of upcoming workshops, visit www.yehoshuahalevi.com.
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