Bottle Bay and Gamlin Lake. (Digital)

The other day I was out with my dad for a drive and as usual every trip is a scouting opportunity. The lake here, Lake Pend Oreille, is massive but has very few public access areas. Part of it is geography due to steep mountains but most of it is the sheer amount of lake front private property. So I was pleased to note a section of Bottle Bay road that had a clear view from the roadside across the lake. This made it on my mental list. 

Well this morning dawned cool and rainy with soft low lying clouds, fog and mist. This gives the lake a blue mood with a palette to match. I took this as an opportunity to try out my new location and also a few others I saw on the drive. One advantage of winter on the lake is that they lower the water level about 10 feet. State law says that any river or lake shore between high and low water levels is public access. If you can make your way there then in theory the entire lake shore is open. One can walk right under the numerous docks and landings without concern for trespass. Furthermore you may venture onto private land to continue this access if the shoreline is blocked by any obstruction. 

I shot these all on my Fuji GFX 50s ii digital camera with either the GFX 35-70mm f4.5-5.6 zoom or an adapted 150mm f3.5 Mamiya 645 lens. I was left favoring an Xpan (65:24) aspect ratio or 16:9 cinema aspect ratio. These scenes capture an immense amount of sky and or water that lends little to the image so in my mind is best cropped away. 

From Bottle Bay Road #1 GFX 35-70mm f4.5-5.6

The above image benefits I think from the foreground branches in the upper left corner. It provides some sharpness and contrast to offset the softer parts of the image. The image has a left right balance of light and dark as well.

From Bottle Bay Road #2 GFX 35-70mm f4.5-5.6

The above image is almost a continuation of the prior image. here the ice and forested point lead the eye andbalnce the light patch of sky in the middle. 

The next beach looks out across the lake to Hope and Warren, Cottage, and Pearl islands.

From Emerald Beach Mamiya 150mm f3.5

Nearby is Gamlin lake with a nice set of trails with public access. The lake is frozen over this time of year and I had a brief chat with a couple of ice fishermen I met this morning. The walk on the trail around the lake was enjoyable but I had to be careful as there was plenty of snow and ice to make it treacherous to any carelessness.

Gamlin Lake #1 GFX 35-70mm f4.5-5.6

Gamlin Lake #2 Mamiya 150mm f3.5

Gamlin Lake #3 Mamiya 150mm f3.5