Eerie Morning on Granby Lake

I always start early, not by discipline, but by a clock inside me that rings at first light or before.  Yesterday’s adventure started early and avoided the National Park with its armed guards.  I drove to Araaho National Forest and the Indian Peaks Wilderness east of Monarch Lake.   

My morning drive was along Road 6.  The wonders that I photographed along that road, as it follows Granby Lake, will consume this blog post.  The wilderness adventure, which was long and interesting, will have to wait. 

First, let me explain that all of these pictures are untouched, except for cropping, and that I took them with a hand-held Sony NEX-5R.  Pictures which oppose each other, left and right, were taken from the same place with different camera settings.  

All of the pictures were taken facing easterly with the sun just peaking over the mountains, which rise behind the lake.  It is hard to make out the mountains, obscured as they are sometimes by mist, rising and swirling from the lake. 

I felt this explanation necessary so you don’t think I am fooling you in some way.

What is the difference between abstract art and art that simulates reality?  We call it abstract if it uses a visual language to create independently from references in the “real” world.  Photography, like other art, can only simulate; it cannot reproduce, reality.  And here I ask you how photography is different from abstract art.  These images could have been created on a computer or with a brush, but they were witnessed by a camera.

So much of common imagery is merely that, I think.  Common because we recognize it and have names for it.  That which forms in an artist’s mind is unnamed, uncommon, and waits for recognition.