52 Frames: Water

If you’ve followed my blog for more than two minutes, you’ve probably guessed that water is one of my favorite things, whether is ocean or lake, waterfall or meandering stream. So when last week’s challenge email announced that the theme was water, I was all over it. I was camping by two lakes and would see a third one on the weekend the photo was due. An embarrassment of riches after some challenges where I struggled with the theme.

I went kayaking one morning, taking my iPhone with me in its waterproof case. I’d hoped for some white puffy clouds, but the sky was mostly just clear blue so I took some reflection shots. This was the best of that round.

I also shot some with my kayak in the picture because that’s always fun to do. And while it tells a story, it just didn’t speak to me as a challenge shot. I knew I could do better.

One of my walks around the small lake by the campground got me playing with my 55mm lens and capuring reflections. Out of maybe 50 images, I whittled it down to this one.

Saturday, I moved to a campground in North Carolina with a lake and a very lovely waterfall over the dam. I really, really loved this shot but it was just enough out of focus that I didn’t submit it. I’ve been back twice already this week trying to recapture how that dam divides the lake and the waterfall.

In the end, I submitted the shot of the trees reflected in the water. One of my personal challenges with this week’s submission is that the campground is too far from any cell tower. It’s rare that I’m shut out completely in a campground, but this place is pretty close to zero signal. To submit the photo, I had to drive three miles out to a good signal, park in a discount shoe store parking lot, fire up the hotspot and the laptop, and then do the deed. If I’d had an easier signal, I might have submitted the waterfall shot after more work, but I didn’t have it in me to drive out a second time on Sunday night.

If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.

Loren Eiseley