I have always loved Lake Ediza, and have thought on it often over my career. There was a Milky Way image from 2014 I had mixed feelings about, and there is another successful 4x5 from 1998, with flowers and the Lake on an August afternoon. I was happy with the latter, but have been wanting to make a different concept of the nighttime 2014 version. I made the trip late one July afternoon with a good friend who started as a workshop student. We arrived at exactly the same location, and in an instant I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted details of the Minarets and a sharp image of the Milky Way, with reflections of the stars on Lake Ediza. There are sometimes images like these when I arrive without a specific plan. Years of practice and understanding photography artistically, along with having a method to the process, gave me the skill and knowledge to capture that moment, regardless of explicit preparation. Without them, this image would not have come together so seamlessly.
