By the time I made this photograph, the dramatic very early morning light had dissipated, and it was all about blue sky, distant mountains, and fascinating morning clouds. The idea in this image was to move as close to the water as possible to create a photograph that was almost entirely sky and its reflected image. The wedge of mountains serves as visual distance to break up the sky features.
It was not necessary to wade into the water to make this photograph. It was enough to position my tripod at the water’s edge and use an appropriate focal length. That brings up a bit of a issue I have with some folks who photograph here. While I, along with probably dozens of other photographers, were working this scene one photographer waded way out into the shallow lake and stayed there for a long time. If that had produced some photographic opportunity that was unavailable from the shoreline I might have been a bit sympathetic — but it didn’t, and it only interfered with the efforts of all the other photographers. Don’t be that photographer!
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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email
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