August First Lake Pend Oreille (Digital)

It’s August first and I’m on the road to Hope from Sandpoint on the banks of Lake Pend d’Oreille this evening. It’s been over a week of extremely hot weather up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. This evening the weather seemed to break; a wind kicked up driving dust down the street as I sat on my front porch. Taking photos was unheard of for the last week due to the heat and relentless blue sky. Indeed the heat suppressed most outdoor activities.  This dry wind and thickening cloud seemed a portent for more exciting weather, perhaps a thunderstorm. 

I am trying to make myself more aware of the conditions in Sandpoint that might be advantageous for photography. This sudden shift in the weather seemed like something might result from it. So I load the camera (Fuji GFX 50s II) and tripod into the truck and head out to highway 200, the road to Hope rather appropriately. I was at this location back in June. I found it a few years ago as the probable site of a photo taken of the Lake in the ‘Glory of Our West’ series of blog posts I made.

I arrive and walk perhaps a hundred yards away from the road over some moss covered granite made smooth by the passage of glaciers. I am about 200 feet over the lake and the railway is just below me along the water’s edge. I have a good view into the mountains behind Sandpoint with the bulk on Hawkins point in front and Anderson point to the left and the vast body of the lake between. The sun sets roughly over Sandpoint and over my left shoulder are the Monarch Mountains the northern terminus of the Sawtooth Range in Idaho. 

I was hoping for violent weather but by the time I set up it was clear that wasn’t going to happen. Still it was a pleasant evening at about 85 degrees. 

I am starting with my Mamiya 645 zoom lens, a heavy beast it is 55-110mm f4.5 so not as long as my 135mm Olympus or 150mm Mamiya but the range of the zoom is useful for compositions such as these. I have a shift function on the lens adapter which I am really happy to have. I have used it to good effect to get over vegetation in the field and it helps with the composition here. (In fact when I switch to my Fuji lens later I lament not having the shift any longer and have to do a lot of tilt of the camera on the tripod to get the same basic framing right.)

I intend to be here until after sunset so I brought out a folding chair and settled in to take some photos and enjoy the view as the evening unfolded over the lake. I suffer again from ‘digitalitis’ where I took far too many photos by the end of the evening, maybe 50 or more. They are faster to take than to delete later. I spent much to long winnowing the list to the essence of the evening. I came to organize around distinct light and cloud patterns where there were perhaps 5 or 6 phases and so selected the best amongst those. 

The sun starts out solidly behind a thick bank of cloud but has some great projections onto the mountains around Sandpoint across the the lake. The dust that was stirred up earlier by the wind is backlit to great effect and seems to warm the light even more. 

Dramatic light starts the first phase at the 55mm end of the lens.
Cropped to 16:9
 (Mamiya 645 55-110mm f4.5)

The light shifts in this at the 110mm end of the lens.
Cropped to 16:9
(Mamiya 645 55-110mm f4.5)

Soon the clouds move and the sun has set lower and is now blinding me with its direct rays. They strike the Monarchs behind me and impart a warm glow. The sun is too intense and the result is I wait for another cloud to eclipse the sun. Even this low the sun is heating me up to the point of almost being uncomfortable.

Phase 2 as the sun moves behind more cloud.
(Mamiya 645 55-110mm f4.5)

It is worth reflecting at this point that despite many visits to the area I find capturing this lake well is frustrating. It is very pretty but also mostly monotonous. The color pallet tends towards a narrow range of blues what with the sky and the lake, the air has a blue cast and the dark pines reflect this as well. Furthermore the lake sits in a basin with mountains of all sides. The consequence of this is that golden hour is not very golden. For in the morning the sun is well up before it clears the mountains and is very high in the evenings before it sinks below the mountain tops. Golden tends to be yellow at lake level. I have found that the best of hope of great light on the water is if there are high clouds to the east while the sun is setting which sets up a nice reflection on the water and the rest of the landscape. This is exceedingly rare in my experience but the colors were sublime when this happened. I got some of that later in the evening. There is a another time around blue hour or later. The lake can get very cyan with a deep blue sky. The lights on shore are more apparent and one must take that as positive if the photographs are to be enjoyed. 

Another approach is to accept the palette as it is and see how to work with a vision of this. Still I struggle as all too often it is just a picture of a lake surrounded my forest. 

Now the sun is in another bank of clouds and the entirely different look is no longer spotlighting anything so obviously blocking much the direct sunlight. Allows me to scrutinize a spectacular cloud block masking the Sun behind it.  I don’t know if it’ll photograph well but it is something to look at

Monochrome version 
(Mamiya 645 55-110mm f4.5)

The sun is well covered and I am being sprinkled with a few scarce raindrops. A fisherman drifts by below me casting  and reeling in. What a calm pleasant evening. Little traffic on the road and no train passes for my entire stay. 

Phase 3 as the color shifts again. 
16:9 crop
(Mamiya 645 55-110mm f4.5)

The sun has sunk lower and colors begin to intensify now. The passing rain drapes backlit by the sun in a range of oranges and pinks. As the veils of rain drift eastward the appear over the Monarchs in the East bringing some pinks to a distinctly cool blue-gray palette. 

Veils of rain pass overhead and barely reach the ground. 
Looking towards the southwest now.
(Fuji GFX 35-70mm f4.5-5.6)

Back to the west the fuller palette from yellow-orange through blue to deep magenta. At one point the water takes on a strong cyan color. 

The veil now moves further east and the colors
shift deeper blue with remnants of the warm orange glow.
Looking south now.
(Fuji GFX 35-70mm f4.5-5.6) 

Back to the west a wonderfully peaceful range of soft color.
(Fuji GFX 35-70mm f4.5-5.6)

Some context of the bluff I am upon and the railway line below. 
(Fuji GFX 35-70mm f4.5-5.6)

Looking to the east over the Monarchs the rain veil as brought pink the blue eastern sky.
(Fuji GFX 35-70mm f4.5-5.6)

A rain veil falls over the final image.
65:24 crop (Xpan)
(Fuji GFX 35-70mm f4.5-5.6

I find I find myself partial in the lake images to the panoramic crops like 16:9 or 65:24 (Xpan) as there is so much sky and foreground to drown the image in. 

I pack up as the sky darkens and feel relaxed and satisfied as I make way back to the truck and head home.