Water Pastels is part of the “Soft Sunrise” series featuring photographs that I took on Stoney Lake during or just after a sunrise when it was covered in fog. In order to photograph these landscapes, all dreamy and otherworldly, I went out many times in the early morning dark, on foggy mornings in a 9.9 hp, 14 foot tin boat. I drove to a place in the middle of the water where I would see the sun come up over the trees on the horizon, and I stood up high on the built in benches so that I could get a better view without seeing any of the edge of the little boat. As I took photographs, the fog would shift and I would chase it to continue finding ways to see the sunrise through the fog. This image was photographed at the end of one of those outings once the sun had become bright enough to allow reflections to appear on the water. This image is unusual because the horizon is very near the top of the photo and the majority of the photograph shows the reflection of clouds in the water in front of and below me. The reflections are tinged with pink and soft blues and greens and the horizon line is blurred by fog. On foggy mornings there is never any wind and so the water is as flat as glass and reflects beautifully. The water closest to my feet is very dark, almost black because the sun is still too low to see down into the water at all. The contrast between the black water close to me and the pastel shading of the water in front and leading away from me makes this image particularly unusual and appealing. This is the only photo I am showing that focusses on the reflection of the sunrise instead of the sunrise itself. It is very unusual to see colourful clouds reflected in the water like this and even more difficult to capture it successfully so that it can be printed at high resolution at a large size. For those who know Stoney Lake, I am situated with the Church on the Rock behind me and the Juniper Pavilion ahead of me in the distance.

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