I grew up vacationing and spending weekends along Michigan's Muskegon River, where I learned skills of canoeing, fishing, and plant and animal identification. My favorite visual memories of that distance time and place are of shimmering reflections of the late afternoon sunlit ripples on the hemlock needles and trunks that lined the river. At that moment, everything was at peace for a time in a world wracked by wars and unrest of the 1960s.

This photograph gives me something of the same feeling. The autumn orange and leafy green colors reflecting on the river are softened by the very long exposure I used. The riffles and rocks are in the shade, which is why they are blue.

Can't you imagine casting a dry fly upon these waters or sitting on the banks reading a book and looking up occasionally in the warmth and peace of an Indian Summer afternoon?

Lee Rentz

lee@leerentz.com