“There’s a special quality to the loneliness of dusk, a melancholy more brooding even than the night’s.” 
― Ed Gorman

After a day filled with sunshine, family, volleyball, and too much food, a quick dip in the lake after the sun has set is in order. As I considered this photo of my son standing in the shallow beach waters at Sauble beach, surrounded by the incredible reflected dusk, I realized how strange it may appear to someone who did not know that the water is so shallow.

The beach is made up of long underwater dunes which reach far out into the lake. From the shore the water is very shallow and a few meters out, drops to about waist or even chest level, depending on the shape of the dune (and your height). The water then becomes quite shallow, again, as the next dune rises, say, knee deep. In the photo, my son is on the outside of the second dune, where the waters once more drop a bit deeper.

It’s also a bit of an unusual photo for me because my landscape and nature photos tend to deliberately omit people. In this case, I like the inclusion of the silhouetted form of my son, being part of the beautiful scene that spread before me, after the sun had already set. As a side note, I joined him in the water soon after this image was made, enjoying my own cool down and revelling in the beauty of dusk on Lake Huron.

iPhone 7 back camera @ 4.0mm
1/120 sec; f/1.8; ISO 32