August
4, 2006
Day 3 – Deep Lake
Distance:
0 miles
Elevation Change:
0 ft
Images:
5
Day 3 – 5:15 am
My alarm went off at
5:15 after a decent night’s sleep. I laid around for 15 minutes or so,
listening to the stillness and faint sounds of water leaving Deep Lake for
its sliding, pooling, cascading journey down the granite slide to Clear
Lake.
I got dressed, climbed
out of the tent and took in the pre-dawn scene while collecting my camera
gear. Scott was stirring, and Jack had already departed for his sunrise
location up near Temple Lake. After a few minutes, Scott and I were set
up in the same location where we shot sunset. It was that good of
a spot!
The sky was clear, but
there was still nice light on the peaks across the lake and also on the
peaks in the Cirque of the Towers. We each aimed our
4x5s in both
directions, and I took some digital shots as the morning progressed.
When it was clear that
the lack of clouds was going to make for a fairly static scene,
I took the camera down
below the lake’s outlet and found a large pocket of wildflowers
positioned just below a
granite ridge with East Temple Peak in the background.
Even with 5-stops of graduated filters, I
couldn’t pull the contrast within range of the Provia film I was
shooting. After some practice shots with the digital, I opted for
multiple exposures to capture the scene accurately.
I returned to camp
where Scott was making breakfast, and Jack returned shortly afterwards.
As we ate breakfast we discussed plans for the day. I was interested in
sticking around to explore the area more, and wanted to return to Temple
Lake with my 4x5. And…I was still worn out from the hike the day before
and a day of leisurely day-hiking in this incredible cirque seemed like a
great idea. Scott seemed a little torn, but decided he wanted another
shot at sunset at the lake and opted for sticking around another day.
Jack, happy with the scenes he captured during sunset and sunrise was
looking forward to getting into The Cirque of the Towers. We made plans
to split up and then rendezvous again the next day in the Cirque.
Day 3 – 10:30 am
Scott and I headed off
along the east side of Deep Lake this time, working our way towards an
unnamed lake at the base of East Temple Peak. It was a relatively short
hike of a less than a mile, and after a little boulder-hopping, we arrived
at the unnamed lake. Clumps of aster dotted the shoreline, and a large
boulder field provided an interesting foreground looking back across Deep
Lake and into The Cirque of the Towers. We both setup and shot with our
4x5s. I was feeling worse than I had the day before and decided to head
back to camp for a while.
Day 3 – 2:00 pm
Scott continued with
his exploration of the area around Temple and East Temple Peak, and I took
a nice nap back at camp. Clouds were quickly building now around 2:00 pm,
and I could see that it was raining in the Cirque. I was hoping that Jack
had made it there, or found a good spot to get out of the weather until it
let up. It started to rain off and on around 3:00, and I shuttled back
and forth from the tent to the lake outlet to get pictures of the moody
weather.
Day 3 – 4:30 pm
As the rain was at its
heaviest, I heard voices outside the tent. I poked my head out to see a
group of about 10 backpackers cresting the ridge at the lake’s outlet,
several carrying bed pillows in their hands! I guess it’s no crazier than
carrying 25 lbs of camera gear…. As they came closer and hunkered down
near some large boulders to shield themselves from the rain, I could see
that they were all in their early or mid teens. When the rain yielded,
they made camp about 50-60 yards away from us up on a hill and were making
no small amount of noise. Uh-oh, there’s goes the peace and quiet…. As
it turned out, once the sun went down they became pretty quiet.
Scott returned to camp
around 5:30 or so. We cooked dinner and talked about the days events.
Scott clearly had more exciting things to talk about than I did, so I
listened with a little envy as he described his adventures up to Temple
Lake.
Day 3 – 7:00 pm
As we finished up our
dinner and gathered our camera
gear, the sky was
showing a lot of
potential for a dramatic sunset. The storm clouds had broken up,
revealing a patchwork of
puffy
clouds, storm clouds and sky. Things could get
interesting! We set up at the outlet of the lake again
– were weren’t even close to running out of options for shooting in this
locations and since it offered incredible views in all directions, there
were no reservations
about setting up here yet again.
Although
clouds off to the west prevented alpenglow from developing on the peaks,
the clouds themselves put on quite a show and reflected moody, peculiar
light across the landscape. The most dramatic light and clouds were
off to our west, but that’s pretty much the only direction where there
isn’t a particularly strong composition to be found. Since the light
on the peaks was less than compelling, I worked some compositions that
took advantage of that strange light reflecting off rocks dotting the
outlet of Deep Lake. I looked back into the Cirque of the Towers
occasionally wondering if Jack was having any better luck than we were.
As we waited for opportunities to expose a sheet or two of film, we took
in to the lightshow off to the west. By 8:45 or so, the show was
over and we lumbered back over to camp to turn in for the night.
