AWAKENING

Words By Blake

Reflecting on Lake Tahoe, a place with endless memories from my childhood, I’ll never forget the day my family took a boat to Emerald Bay with the goal to explore the famous teahouse island. With no place to dock we would have to swim ashore while my mother circled the island. I was a young boy too fearful to jump myself and while crying my father picked me up and tossed me into the freezing waters. He jumped in behind me and with no other choice I swam to the island and pulled myself up onto the rocks. Together we hiked up into the teahouse on top and that day I discovered that magnificent bay for the first time. For my parents, their history here goes back even further. They met in Tahoe, my father as an aspiring pro golfer and mother a beverage cart girl. It’s no wonder the lake is held as such a special place for my family and why I found myself drawn back here visually to create images reminiscent to the childhood places most impactful to me. I tried for nearly a decade as my skills as a photographer grew to make an image at Emerald Bay that I could be proud of. Year after year I gave some attempts, but I always walked away disappointed as I just hadn’t captured it yet. I started to focus on Eagle Falls overlooking the bay with its cascading waters, a beautiful scene well worth exploring but still my shot hadn’t quite fallen into place. Then in 2023 the Sierra had its record snowpack and that spring I had never seen so much water in so many places. I knew this was the time to return to Emerald Bay. I arrived in the dark before sunrise to an epic roaring sound and looked over the edge with my flashlight to a scene of sheer amazement. The cascade was at its grandest. I unpacked my camera and set up alongside the thundering falls and not long after the early morning sun rose over the mountains to light the water with such warm bright rays that it felt like an much needed awakening after such a long winter! I finally had my image.