Sitting by this creek for a time on a hot day, I watched the water's gurgling descent through spots of reflected sunshine. The creek was very cold, melted only hours ago from mountain snow, a small chubby child at the beginning of a lifetime's journey to the ocean. I liked the quickness of it, the way the bubbles formed and popped in a moment, and the colour of the sun on the round sunken rocks.
Balancing out over the creek, I used a wide aperture and a very fast shutter speed to blur the rocky bottom and freeze the rapidly flowing water. It was difficult to judge how the bubbles and ripples would compose themselves in the frame, so I was forced to make many exposures and choose the best one later. This was my favorite – the texture on the water hints at the whole; the surface and sub-surface blend intimately like skin and flesh. It reminds me of youth.
Colourful Sparkling Water: Kananaskis Country, AB, 2007
I have created two interpretations of this scene. The Colour Photograph is a match to the original slide, while the Black and White Photograph is a second interpretation in monochrome.