This is one of those rare images that simply jumped out at me. My wife Joyce and I were driving along a narrow country road on a quiet Sunday morning when we came across this lake with water lilies on it. I parked the car, carried the camera thirty feet to the edge of the water, and got the picture. Believe me: it doesn't always happen this way! I can think of a number of times when I've carried 40 pounds of gear in the mountains all day and not had anything to show for it.

You might ask: Is the water really that blue? Well, yes. Check it out sometime: clear sky, low sun, clear water, no wind, surface of the water in shadow. I'm often amazed by the range of hues in nature. No, this image hasn't been manipulated to distort what the film actually recorded. The lilies really did look like they were floating in air!