08-13-2026, 05:03 AM
Early last month something caused a memory from my college days to pop into my mind.
A friend was going to spend the weekend at his family's lakeside home in Wisconsin and graciously invited me along.
The small town was holding a regatta and my friend entered us in it. Even though I had never been on any boat with a sail, it sounded fun to me.The lake was small – maybe 2 miles by 1 mile (3.2 km by 1 km) and the course started near the shore, went out to the middle of the lake, then returned to the starting point. Most of the boats tightly rounded the far buoy and quickly headed towards the finish line, but my friend kept us heading far out onto the middle of the lake. Smart move: he knew we'd catch enough wind in the middle of the lake to double or triple our speed. So despite my inexperience, we quickly blew past the other 9 or so boats and won easily. Pretty neat.
One night we slept on a pontoon boat near the far shore. It was nice to watch the lake and sky darken as the lake and wildlife settled down for the night. We were awakened in the predawn by the haunting cry of a loon from somewhere across the still and dark water. A memorable experience.
Last week I tried to convert a bright and colorful photo of water reflections into a night scene. Here's the daylight version taken around 20 years ago at the nearby Bolsa Chica Wetlands Ecological Preserve:
I learned that this sort conversion wasn't as easy as I expected, and the results were pretty lame:
Later, inspired by this memory and by Japanese haiku poetry, I tried writing a short poem about that night on the lake.
A friend was going to spend the weekend at his family's lakeside home in Wisconsin and graciously invited me along.
The small town was holding a regatta and my friend entered us in it. Even though I had never been on any boat with a sail, it sounded fun to me.The lake was small – maybe 2 miles by 1 mile (3.2 km by 1 km) and the course started near the shore, went out to the middle of the lake, then returned to the starting point. Most of the boats tightly rounded the far buoy and quickly headed towards the finish line, but my friend kept us heading far out onto the middle of the lake. Smart move: he knew we'd catch enough wind in the middle of the lake to double or triple our speed. So despite my inexperience, we quickly blew past the other 9 or so boats and won easily. Pretty neat.
One night we slept on a pontoon boat near the far shore. It was nice to watch the lake and sky darken as the lake and wildlife settled down for the night. We were awakened in the predawn by the haunting cry of a loon from somewhere across the still and dark water. A memorable experience.
Last week I tried to convert a bright and colorful photo of water reflections into a night scene. Here's the daylight version taken around 20 years ago at the nearby Bolsa Chica Wetlands Ecological Preserve:
I learned that this sort conversion wasn't as easy as I expected, and the results were pretty lame:
Later, inspired by this memory and by Japanese haiku poetry, I tried writing a short poem about that night on the lake.
Don't blame me - I didn't vote for him!
Nikon D7500 with Nikkor 18-300 mm; PSE2021, PSCS5
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