Frozen Lake Reflections
Colorado

20×24″ prints are $1,500
30×40″ prints are $3,000

In 2011 Ruth and I planned to go on a month long photo trip. We started in Colorado at the beginning of October but a big winter storm came in unexpectedly. We hunkered down in the Grand Junction area in our camper van for two days until the storm blew over.

The storm was over but the weather was below freezing. It was mostly sunny with some clouds and fortunately there was no wind. So we drove up to the 11,000 foot elevation of Grand Mesa to see what photographic opportunities we could find.

This was the first scene that I photographed. It’s a frozen lake with fine crystalline patterns on its surface, reflecting fir trees partially covered with snow. The crystalline patterns run horizontally, the reflections run vertically. The ice is in focus but the trees are not, and there are a few small scattered wind blown pieces of snow on the ice. The deep blue sky is reflected at the bottom of the image.

I used my 800mm Apo-Tele-Xenar lens with front and back tilts on the camera to bring the ice into sharp focus and made this photograph at f/22-5/6 at 1/8 second on Velvia 50 film.

To me there’s a mysterious, almost dreamlike quality to the tree reflections which contrasts with the sharp details of the crystalline ice surface.