"Earth, air, water...The four elements, you say? Where's the fourth one?"
The fourth element is fire, for this is no ordinary fog, but smog from forest fires.
Swimmer's Night
My self-imposed open-water season commenced this week—earlier than usual!
I know what you're thinking: "How badass is she?!" ;)
But, in reality, I'm a wimp: whenever I can't see the bottom in a deep, cold glacial lake, I think of prehistoric monsters. (Unintended bonus: these thoughts make you swim faster!) Of course, those monsters should get the paddle-boarders first. After all, they're further out!
The Frame
Sea and Sky
End of Season (Mobile)
This week in smartphone photography: as the deep glacial lake gets colder and colder by the day, the only North American willing to challenge me at open-water swimming is this mallard (in this part of the continent, at least).
Perhaps, she is Russian, too!
Lakes of the North
These are the cold glacial lakes of the Quintessential North, the kind that, no doubt, conceal prehistoric monsters. At least that's what those of us with a penchant for myths and legends (or today's rough equivalent—cryptozoology) like to think. How else are we supposed to read all those mysterious shapes on the water that the fog descending from the mountain peaks occasionally reveals?
The North
Whenever I want to photograph the Quintessential North, I end up at this place. During my visits, the atmosphere always seems to be brooding, but all the better. Thick clouds feasting on the mountain peaks speak to the possibilities of a clear blue sky, rain, and snow, that is, all four seasons. And the location itself? It's a noplace that could be in Northwestern Europe, Siberia, Pacific Northwest, and even the Japanese north, albeit with smaller dimensions.
Fading Light
What could be a better allegory for a summer that seems to have ended too soon—my shortest one while living in the Rockies for the past few years—than a Sun about to conceal itself behind the distantly blue mountain peaks? At least in my mind, the lake is synonymous with this brief, but warmest time of the year, as well as childhood, doubling the cycle of regimented nostalgia.
Waves
Tonight were my harshest open-water swimming conditions of the season. But I'm not complaining.
Well, maybe that one time I got hit in the face with a mouth-full of water as I came up for air wasn't so pleasant.
It's a small price to pay for feeling totally badass!
Fisherman
I've had an unanticipated opportunity to observe a group of pelicans (alas, from afar) while I was visiting central Canada. They actively fished near a dam-turned-miniature-waterfall that, evidently, provided a decent haul. Below is one of the series which I'm currently processing.