Turf Shore Lake Ediza, Mount Ritter & Banner Peak

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Ansel Adams Wilderness, Inyo National Forest, Madera County
early morning Friday July 5, 2002, slide 02P1-16
Pentax 67 AEII, 55-100mm zoom, Benbo Trekker
Drum scanned Fuji Provia 100F 220 film to 200mb RGB file
Adobe Photoshop 6.0 processed for accurate image fidelity
Lightjet5000 printed inches @304.8ppi on Fuji Crystal Archive paper
signature above bottom left

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I took this image shortly after shooting another exceptional image, "Clouds Over Mount Ritter from Lake Ediza Outlet". The lake became calmer with just a slight breeze while a few remaining clouds added interest in the fine blue sky. There was still enough waviness to add a nice watery painterly effect at the snow reflections. The bottom along this part of the shore is sandy white, which usually occurs at High Sierra lakes where the prevailing winds lap shores with waves. The wave action also tends to keep the usual greenish brown organic sediments away from such areas of lake bottoms. Thus here one can clearly make out some dark rocks embedded in that bright sand. I positioned my tripod and camera so one dark rock that had a similar shape to Ritter's peak top was about where its reflection was. Also I wanted to include a section of the beautiful natural turf. Just like what one would find on golf greens but entirely the work of nature. And that includes a weekly browse by deer instead of a lawn mower.

Mount Ritter at right rising to13,142 feet, is the highest peak this far north in the Sierra. At left is Banner Peak at 12,936 feet. Ritter is spectacular from all directions but particularly from Lake Ediza. Small glaciers fill shadowy exposures on its flanks, while on this early July date, the previous winter's snowfields still had much melting to do. The rock here is Jurassic Period metavolcanic which is metamorphosized volcanic sediments that have over long geologic time been compressed and heated by miles of overlying sediments. This changes the original volcanic mineral composition to a harder, denser, finer grained rock which here is multi-hued greens and grays. During the several ice ages, the last just 10,000 years ago, the area was deep beneath an enormous ice field that has smoothed the outcrops of monolithic rock across the lake.

Lake Ediza is a modest sized lake at 9,265 feet, which also has near views of the magnificent Minarets. At a modest 5.5 miles from the Agnew Meadows trailhead, both backpackers and hikers heavily visit it. The lake is at the headwaters of Shadow Creek that is tributary to the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River. A small heavily fished population of eastern brook trout inhabit its waters. Across the lake is a forest of mainly mountain hemlock, tsuga mertensiana. Also a member of that forest are some whitebark pine, pinus albicaulis, which are certain to be the few stunted trees seen as small green patches on Ritter's upper slopes. On the far forested shore edge, the brushy plants are willow. At the right foreground frame edge along the turfy shore is a rusty rock. On its left side is one red Peirson's paintbrush, aka Indian paintbrush flower, castilleja peirsonii, the lone wildflower in this image. Later in this month of July, a sprinkling of those and other wildflowers can be found on this turfy shore. At left in the foreground is a small log that has become well embedded as a piece of the shore. Up against it is a small willow branch with twigs sticking up that has broken off from a willow somewhere along the lake shore, floated across the lake, and come to rest.

At frame left across the lake above the shore is an area of monolithic rock. To the right of a row of trees on the rock one can just make out a dog and two people. The person standing next to the black dog is wearing a white shirt and dark pants and the other person possibly with foot leaning forward on a rock is also wearing a white shirt. Since the dog doesn't have a tail it might be a Rottweiller. A good distance to the right where the edge of forest begins, are two turquoise spots that could be their tents.

Crop at 100% print size:

   David Senesac
   email: sales@davidsenesac.com

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