December, 2020.

I discovered this magical "water horse" tree root system while wandering the shore of my favourite lake. Normally, this feature is buried under several feet of water, but when the lake level becomes abnormally low during a short time in the winter, this feature breaks back into being!

In -2 degrees Celsius, I waded through the freezing water up to my chest to reach this log, climbing up to balance myself on these sharp and extremely slippery algae-covered roots... all while trying to look as graceful as possible without falling backwards into the water! Meanwhile, my beloved pup, Pepper, kept trying to swim out to me, thus messing up the perfect reflection. I had to carefully climb down and wade back and forth to the shore several times to entice Pepper into staying on land.

The whole process ended up taking 2 hours to capture this image. But the freezing and suffering was worth it... This has become an all-time personal favourite piece I've been able to create.