A Remark You Made #09082

The Story

This very relaxing picture of calm and peace is very plain, yet it is very Zen, very relaxing. Moving outward, perfect circles of radiating ripples spread across the very still surface as the water reeds poke through. Taken along the edge of a small mountain lake, this is minimalist serenity captured in a natural setting,

Water attracts us all for many reasons, every human, and for very human needs. One of those needs is for the peace it can bring us, be it sitting on a dock, in a kayak going downstream, or just walking in a Spring rain. The ways we interact with water and nature are many.

We do things with water while water clearly does things to us. As written above, one of its gifts can be peace and a little Zen. Something good for the soul, straight from nature.

Creating Peace And Calm

The ripples were made not by tossed pebbles but naturally by little one-inch minnows rising up from underneath. They live near the bank in the shallows to keep away from larger fish that will eat them. Those little guys usually begin to rise to the surface in the late afternoon.

The sun was dropping in the late afternoon when this image was made. Lowering the tripod, the camera was positioned to let the light skip and glint across the surface. In that way, there’s no distraction from seeing completely through to the bottom.

Everything was set up for what I had in mind to create. All that was left to do was wait for the right rise from those little fish, and like the act of fishing itself, it can certainly take a while. A situation the same, yet different: this was fishing of a different nature!

It took well over an hour of calm waiting and many tries to create this picture, shutter release in hand. I sat quietly on the bank of the small mountain lake keeping my eye on the scene and never looked away. What I wanted would be gone in an instant if it came at all. By nature’s design, those little fish are quick and very elusive!

Another pond picture for beauty and stillness in nature is Depth Perception #9230.  For a clear lake in stillness shown in simple black and white, see Deep Fade #14931.

For fun, try this picture of nature as a digital jigsaw puzzle and make it as hard as you like!

Location: Pine Grove Mills, Centre County, Pennsylvania. Picture and story © Andrew Dierks