I count myself blessed to live in a beautiful part of the world. My hometown of Olympia, WA, is not only near beautiful places such as Puget Sound, Mt. Rainier, and the Olympic Peninsula, but it also has beauty in town not far from my home. Continental glaciers invaded the Olympia area during the last ice age 10,000 years ago, resulting in the formation of many lakes as the glaciers retreated. Chambers Lake, shown in the photograph, is one of these lakes.

Since Chambers Lake was nearby, I had been looking for an opportunity to capture a sunset reflection there. This view of the lake is toward the south, so some interesting clouds reflecting the warm hues of the setting sun, aligned in the right direction to pull the viewer into the scene, combined with still conditions for a good reflection were needed. Predicting when all these conditions would be met was not an easy task, requiring a number of trips to the lake, thinking, "Today is going to be the day."

That day finally arrived. To capture the desired scene, it was necessary to arrive early enough to observe the developing conditions and then set up the camera, including mounting the camera on a tripod and selecting the best lens (a wide angle lens to capture the clouds in the sky and in the lake reflection). Because it was also fall, the color in the trees added to and even helped emphasize the warm sunset colors, resulting in this photograph.