Full Wasatch Lake gallery now up

It's taken me more than a month, but I've finally uploaded and done an initial winnowing of the mostly full volume of images taken in mid-April at Wasatch Lake. I had seven posts in April from that visit, but I've needed all this time -- in between other shoots and business -- to at least try to trim down the more than 1,300 shots I collected. It was an arduous task, and I still couldn't get the number below 875. At least for now, anyway.

If you really want to see a more complete gallery of images from my three days at Wasatch Lake in Owen County, Ind., and have some time to sift through all of them, visit the Wasatch Lake Spring 2012 gallery.

Sunrise, a burning glow perspective

It occurred to me yesterday, while reviewing my sunrise pictures from Wasatch Lake in April, that I didn't really try -- in any of the images in which the rising sphere is actually in full or almost-full view -- to play up the brilliance of the spectacle, its hues or its reflection on the water.

So I went back to my editing software and pulled up an image from the shoot of the second morning sunrise, April 18, and did just that, removing almost all of the highlights and doing very minimal tinkering with midtones and shadows, giving it a look that I've seen commonly in other sunrise and sunset pictures. I also added it to my Part I post on the recent Wasatch Lake visit.

I present the result above, with the original standard exposure below. To see all my images from my three-day visit to Wasatch Lake, see my Wasatch Lake Spring 2012 gallery.

Wasatch Lake: You've already seen the pictures, now here's the video

Just when I thought I'd wrapped up my recent trip to Wasatch Lake, I remembered that I shot some full HD video on my Canon 7D while there, which will add a soundtrack dimension to the images you've already seen.

I've uploaded the two clips to my video gallery at SmugMug. Both are panoramic shots of the lake, taken in the pre-sunrise moments of Tuesday and Wednesday, April 17 and 18.

The clip from April 17 goes about 300 degrees. Although I shot this on a tripod, the pan is not the steadiest. The clip begins at the owner's Lake House cabin, west of and adjacent to the one I stayed in, then sweeps across the central and east portions of the lake, giving you a look at the lake's undeveloped northside, an extension of the Owen-Putnam State Forest. You'll be able to see the spot where the sun was to come up about 5 minutes after the video was taken. You'll also get to experience the mist over the lake and the sounds of the early morning -- the birds tweeting and, at the 1 minute, 25-second point, the geese honking. At the very end, as the focus turns to the south side of the lake, you'll also see the pier in front of the cabin I stayed in. I shot this video from a spot just left of the pier.

The clip from April 18, taken from the end of my cabin's pier, is a full 360-degree pan, starting from the same spot, but going full circle. You'll get to see my cabin near the end.

Because of the high-quality video, it would be wise ... after clicking the start button for either video ... to immediately pause it and wait for the buffer to build far enough (I'd suggest waiting at least a minute and a half) so the viewing can be smooth once it does start rolling. If you don't, the clip will be jarring from start to finish.

To see all my still images from my three-day visit to Wasatch Lake, see my Wasatch Lake Spring 2012 gallery.

Return to Wasatch Lake, Part VI

So here we are, the promised wrap-up post on the trip to Wasatch Lake. In the previous five posts, we covered Sonny and Cher (the swans); sunrises; morning mists over the lake; other creatures, fowl and fish; and reflections on the water. This post is a sortakinda "everything else" entry.

Leading off the post is one of my favorite views of the lake. It's at the southwest end looking northeast. On the far left (just below center) you see the pier extending near the dam locks; directly opposite, on the far right with the bright red roof, is Cabin 7 (aka Sunshine), the western most cabin on the lake and, in my opinion, the cabin with the second best location. A frontal view of that cabin appears immediately below.

To see all my images from my three-day visit to Wasatch Lake, see my Wasatch Lake Spring 2012 gallery.

Above: Hickory Hill, Cabin 3, looks more like a fortress. It's the cabin with the most bedrooms (3); consequently, it can accommodate the most people (8). 

 

Above: White blossoms on a spring-bloom tree. One of the Ducksateers waddles nearby.

Above: The road leading to the lodge, a community building where guests can drop in to play pool or billiards, sit and relax or shop at the merchandise store. The grounds owners rent out the building for big gatherings as well -- reunions, receptions, conferences, etc. 

Above: In my first visit in October 2010, I easily ran and walked the trail that circled the lake. This time, however, winter snow and spring rain runoff -- and insufficient sunlight -- presented puddles like this on the north side of the lake, making running the trail prohibitive. I did walk it a few times, skipping through the bogs on the driest portions I could find.

Above: The pedestrian bridge at the lake's east end; it separates the lake, on the left side, from the beaver pond. I took many of my shots of Sonny, the swan, from here as he swam in the lake very near this bridge. Below: A closeup of a scene in the beaver pond.

  

Above and below: Two shots of the mini-rapids where overflow spills through the splash dam locks. Getting to the position to take this shot was a challenge; it's off the beaten path and required weaving through some heavy foliage. The picture above was shot using a shutter speed of 1/320; the one below, 1/5. I didn't have my tripod, so to make the slow shutter speed work in the shot below, I sat on the ground and rested the camera on bended knees.

Above: A sun dial, which you'll find on the pedestrian bridge separating the lake from the beaver pond. 

Above and below: Two of several bird houses I came across on the grounds.

Above: Along the long, half-moon loop trail, which scales the steep hill on the north side of the lake, you get an appreciation for the tall-tree forested area of the Owen-Putnam State Forest that bleeds over into Wasatch Lake property.

Above and below: I shot very few flowers on my visit. These are two examples.

Above and below: Lake views -- the one above, using a circular polarizing filter, which accounts for the rich blue in the water color near the shore.

Above: Just some floating horticulture on the lake water near shore.

Above: Another spring blossom tree.

Above: Vehicles parked near the caretaker/maintenance building at the entrance.

Above: A shot that could have been included with the "Misty Mornings" post. This is furniture on the pier in front of the owner's lake house, backgrounded with lingering, post-sunrise morning mist rendered smooth by wide f/stop bokeh.

Above: An antique rope-operated bell on the grounds.

Above: A decoration on my cabin, Peach Blossom (1).

 

Above: A juxtaposition composition -- tree vs. chair.

Above: Another swamp point on the lake trail at a point that leads over the earthen dam on the west end of the lake. By the second day I was there, because this spot gets more sunlight, I was able to pass without stepping in any water.

Above: The gravel road, caught in a morning moment of spot sunlight, leading to the lodge and Cabins 8 and 9 at the far east end of the lake.

Above: I turn to the Three Ducksateers to help me bid farewell to these posts about Wasatch Lake.

'Discovering' pareidolia: a (subtle) image within an image

I was going to devote today's post to a final, "all other pictures that didn't fit into subjects of previous posts" nod to Wasatch Lake, but something unexpected happened in the 24 hours or so since yesterday's post. Specifically, it pertains to the lead photo in that post (repeated above for your convenience).

While processing my images from the Wasatch Lake visit, I first noticed in this image what appeared to me to be a one-eyed face folded into the rippling water in the middle of the image, which was composed to focus on the duck cruising in the water. At my Joe Konz Photography page on Facebook, whose main attraction is a frequent "Photo of the Day" feature that usually carries a story that goes with the photo, the above image was my featured photo on Thursday. In the text accompanying the post, I happened to ask -- quite innocently, actually -- whether anyone else noticed "the face" that I had seen. Actually, the "one-eye" is because the face, as I see it, is turned to the right in an almost mid-profile, not because it's a deformity or cyclops. So, in the view I see, you see the person's left eye, an eyebrow, a forehead, a hairline and even the beginnings of a nose. (A quick aside: Since then, I've actually been able to see a second "eye" ... tilted down and to the right of the one I originally noticed, but I don't think it has nearly the impact or realistic impression as the one-eyed impression.)

I received two acknowledgments in comments on Facebook, and two emails about it later on, including one from one of the people commenting on FB, who also happened to send me images of a print she owns in which this phenomenon exists. The image is titled "Sacred Ground" by Bev Doolittle, but because I don't have permission to reproduce this image here, I provided a link to it so you can check it out yourself. If you google the title, you probably can find larger versions as well. The writer tells me that Doolittle is known for works involving "hidden images."

In "Sacred Ground," the "hidden images" are three beaked heads (no torsos), probably eagles, tucked into a dot pattern among a series of dense, leafless trees in a snow-filled forest. The creatures would seem to be protecting hallowed property by hovering large over two smaller, but very discernible -- and apparently spooked -- horses, one of which carries a human rider. Frankly, I'm not sure I would have noticed the creatures in the dots if the sender hadn't connected them (literally) for me; they were far more subtle than I feel the one-eyed face is in my photo.

I'd heard of this phenomenon before, though never really invested much time exploring or understanding it. I figured it had to have a scientific name, and after some quick research on the Internet, I came upon the term pareidolia, a form of apophenia.

This post isn't intended to go deep into the subject ... or say that my eyes (excuse pun) are suddenly open to pareidolia, or even that I'll be studying it intently in the near future. It's just to make you aware that if you ever noticed something of this sort before, or do so on a regular basis, you apparently are not alone.

The next post will be the one I had planned for today -- a final word (and pictures) on my trip to the lake.

To see all my images from my three-day visit to Wasatch Lake, see my Wasatch Lake Spring 2012 gallery.

Reflections on Wasatch Lake, Part V

For the first 24 hours of my recent return to Wasatch Lake in Owen County, Ind., I had the whole grounds to myself; I was the only guest.

It was a pretty overwhelming sensation to be the only human amid that ecosystem, including that first-morning sunrise. Because I had maximum access -- including perspectives from the fronts of all the other lakeside cabins, I used that first 24 hours to take the majority of my photographs.

As a bonus, none of the few other guests who came that week went out onto the water in the boats that are provided, so because there were only the fish and water fowl to disturb the lake water, I had many opportunities to compose reflection shots, which is what today's post is about. You've seen a few already in the previous posts directed at other subject matter, if you follow the blog regularly. So today's post will be on some of the others, leading off (above and first two below) with versions that struck me for their oil painting impressionism look. I'm sure it had to do mostly with the minimum stir in the water by the smooth swimming strokes of the water fowl, but partly, too, by the way and angle sunlight was striking the water at that point of day. The rest are largely traditional "mirror" reflections.

To see all my images from my three-day visit to Wasatch Lake, see my Wasatch Lake Spring 2012 gallery.

Wasatch Lake, Part IV: Misty Mornings

Another "first" for me during my recent trip to Wasatch Lake was having my camera gear at the ready to photograph a heavy mist over the water in the predawn and sunrise hours of two mornings.

Actually, most of the mist shots were taken the first morning, Tuesday, April 17.  That's when I made the effort to get photos from several angles while zeroing in on the mist, but I couldn't stray too far from my pier or I'd miss the prime spot for the sunrise when it peeked over the trees at the east end of the lake. My best mist shots came from the south side of the lake, which gave me enough light to pick up detail and separation. It also offered me some cool highlights of the mist in its final moments after the warmth of sunrise did away with the vapors

Today's post is dedicated to the mist shots, some of which overlap with the sunrise shots several days ago. One of my favorites is the one above, leading off the post. It integrates the clear tall grass of the foreground with the mostly clear pier and solitary chair just beyond shore with the mist that muddles mostly everything else beyond the pier, including -- if you look closely enough -- resident swan Sonny. If you have trouble spotting him, click on the picture and look at the larger photo; he's pretty much smack dab in the middle, just above the center point of the rope along the pier.

To see a gallery of my full shoot of Wasatch Lake from 2012, visit my site at SmugMug.com.

Above: Shoreline along the south rim of the lake, looking toward Cabin 8, one of two cabins on the far east end.

Above: Furniture on the expansive pier in front of the lakehouse, which is used only by the property owner and special guests. My cabin was just east of this; you can see its pier in the background.

 

Above and below: The two geese seen in the lead-off photo Wednesday in pictures taken only moments apart. Above, both are clearly separated from the mist; below, just a few seconds later, the lead goose is obscured by the mist.

 Above: The north shoreline, as seen from the opposite side.

Above: A view of the lakehouse pier, as seen from the pier at my cabin.

Above: A shot that includes an array of color and components in the minute or two before the sun peeked over the trees.

Above: The sun begins to show. 

 

 Above: Another shoreline shot just as the sun emerged.

Above: the single-chair pier in a post-sunrise shot, with Sonny and a couple of geese in the lake water.

Above: The sunrise splashing some highlighting along the shoreline.

Above, a long-range view of my cabin and pier, looking northwest from the south shoreline; below, the same angle, only a tighter shot of just the pier. 

Above and next three below: The sunrise and its highlight and coloring as depicted in pictures taken only 3 minutes apart from roughly the same point -- in front of my cabin -- but looking in different directions. Above, the sunrise at 7:33 a.m. looking straight out from just behind my pier. 

Above: At 7:35 a.m., standing on the steps in front of my cabin door and looking north and west of the photo above.

Above: Still on the steps, looking back straight out over the pier at 7:36 a.m. and seeing the last of the mist before it would evaporate soon after.