Seen from close at hand, like those overhead, these clouds are in the constant motion of formation, while seen from a distance (as are those further up the valley), they seem stationary since they constantly dissolve rather than float eastward.Īs light from the rising sun enters the valley, the tops of foreground firs are the first signs of illumination. Above, and also extending to the end of the valley, is a standing wind-wave where clouds are forming and dissolving, tinted by the morning sun. Nonetheless, the lake reflects the blue of the clear overhead sky. Looking north in the early morning, Peyto Lake and the entire valley that stretches over 20 miles north are in deep shadow. The audio of this sequence contains the 'music' of Basin Pond's early morning: silence, a bit of wind and the occasional Blue Jay. Low clouds, mist and fog continually form in the distance and, moved by gentle winds, hide and reveal a multi-layered landscape and sky that give rise to unimaginable combinations of the earth, water, air and light that bridge "the space between earth and heaven". With a storm front entering the area, the night had turned colder than in the past and, before daybreak, included rain. The sequence begins looking southwest on an early October morning. Yet, just as Thoreau's words give clarity and direction to our most refined and sublime experience, so a bit of background may prove helpful in creating context for these stunning visuals. Thoreau's transcendental description of his experience of Walden Pond, and the significance of its presence for his daily life (and for the greater life of us all) is not only a refined, even literal, description of the Basin Pond sequences but also a profound statement of the character and significance of biophilic engagement itself - the very purpose of all eScape sequences.įor us, so many years later, with a technology that can capture and display the visual experience of these moments at Basin Pond, it is tempting to describe this sequence as being indescribable, beautiful beyond words - and leave it at that. The most fluid in which man can float.Īcross the surface of every lake there sweeps a hushed music." Water seems a middle element between earth and air. There it lies all the year reflecting the sky - and from its surface there seems to go up a pillar of ether, which bridges over the space between earth and heaven. The thought of Walden in the woods yonder makes me supple-jointed and limber for the duties of the day. I am conscious that my body derives its genesis from their waters, as much as the muskrat or the herbage on their brink. "I should wither and dry up if it were not for lakes and rivers. In 1840, Henry David Thoreau wrote in his journal: Find a fall, or cascade, or rushing rapid, anywhere upon a clear stream, and there you will surely find its complementary Ouzel, flitting about in the spray, diving in foaming eddies, whirling like a leaf among beaten foam-bells ever vigorous and enthusiastic, yet self-contained, and neither seeking nor shunning your company."įrom: The Mountains of California by John Muir, 1894. No cañon is too cold for this little bird, none too lonely, provided it be rich in falling water. "Among all the countless waterfalls I have met in the course of ten years' exploration in the Sierra, whether among the icy peaks, or warm foot-hills, or in the profound yosemitic cañons of the middle region, not one was found without its Ouzel. Tucked behind the larger of these waterfalls and completely invisible to any outside view is the nest of a pair of Water Ouzels.Įxcellent swimmers, these small birds are seen throughout the sequence both hunting for aquatic insects and flying behind the falls to deliver this food to their young.Ĭharacteristically, they often bounce on a rock before making their move. Steady snowfall contrasts with occasional swirls driven by windy gusts and eddies that suggest a more violent storm.īecause of uniform light, the falling snow is primarily visible against the dark background of water, where it dissolves and disappears, but not against the snow-covered land and rocks where it continues to accumulate.īeneath the clear dark water are patches of snow-ice that change due to almost imperceptible melting during the course of the sequence.Ī thin, almost invisible skin of ice left from lower nighttime temperatures resists the wind-blown ripples in the foreground pool at the beginning but continues to dissolve with the passage of time. The composition itself opposes different scales – large and small masses of white snow against dark backgrounds with varying shades of white produced by shadowed and submerged snow-ice and dark water modulated by reflection and wind and the sometimes visible bottom. This sequence is a study in contrasts and dissolving boundaries.
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