Phantom Ship Overlook

Author's Comments

The name does most of the work, and then the lake does the rest. Phantom Ship is small - smaller than you expect from the photographs, which tend to compress it against the cliffs of Chaski Bay and lend it a scale it does not actually have. It is sixteen stories of andesite rising out of water so blue it reads as wrong on the back of the camera. You will adjust the white balance and adjust it again and eventually accept that the lake is simply that color. I have come to the overlook three times and only once gotten the photograph I wanted. That was a morning in late September, just before the rim road closed for the season, when a low fog was sitting on the surface of the lake and the ship appeared and disappeared as the air moved. Long exposures during blue hour are the obvious play here - the water smooths, the rock holds, and the fog if you are lucky becomes something that looks painted rather than photographed. A longer lens helps. The overlook puts you well above the water and the ship is farther away than it feels. The other two visits the lake was clear and bright and the photograph was fine and forgettable. This is a place that asks for weather. Fall mornings, when the nights have cooled and the lake has not, are when the fog is most likely. Get there before the light comes up. Wait. If the air stays clear, the photograph is still there, just quieter. If the fog moves in, you will understand immediately why the rock has the name it does.

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