Photographic Tale of the Week - SUPping into the unknown

"SUPping into the unknown" by TdW (RSA)

My family, for the past several weeks, has been fighting off a cough / flu visitor that seems to be tackling us one at a time. It was my turn starting last night. The closed in feeling of an pounding head, aching joints, and tight chest was not necessarily inspiration for this week's selection - I had selected it before feeling crappy - but it is even more appreciated now that I am putting it up. TdW's "SUPping into the unknown" a beautifully colourful, simple composition is acting for me like visual Vaporub - the cooling blue, the openness of water and possibility, the blending of surface and sky is a breath of fresh air. 

Here is TdW's writing on the picture: 

 

A lone SUPper (Stand Up Paddler) on lake Slocan near New Denver.
It's not exactly what the camera saw and what my eyes (and brain) saw, but watching this man, who I didn't know at all, glide over the water, nor knew his purpose of paddling or destination, I overlayed the state of my mind on the picture, so that where he came from or went to are invisible. But I would have been left with blue only had I made the fact visible that he is unknown to me.
So I salute this unknown man who so peacefully and one with his environment did this solo performance.

It's quite unlikely for us far away here in South Africa to visit BC in Canada. But in Aug we traveled for nearly a month with our (grand)children in the beautiful Kootenays and Rockies. What a great area to visit (apart from the many forest fires causing so much smoke). When I saw this man paddling quietly away, while we had picknick on the pebbles, I liked the scene, so serene. The original shot had a slope at the other end of the lake filled with trees, the way every slope in BC seems to be filled with trees. I blurred the trees away with Lightzone, using Gaussian blurr, in order to create the mood described.  

 

Maybe some day I will travel, from Canada, to South Africa. Find his photostream here. 

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