For over ten years, my wife and I have been on a quest to travel for landscape photography and visit national parks. One place I had long wanted to experience was Crater Lake, so in 2014, we took a two-week trip to Oregon.

Crater Lake was formed just under 8,000 years ago by the collapse of the volcano Mount Mazama. It is the deepest lake in the United States, reaching a depth of 594 meters, and the water is the darkest blue I have ever seen. After the caldera was created, additional volcanic activity formed the small cinder cone known as Wizard Island.

We booked several nights at the national park lodge on the crater rim to be close to everything. It was June, and there was still some snow around. The eastern half of the crater rim road was closed because it had not yet been cleared. I was initially disappointed by this, as we had plans for that area. However, I quickly got over it when I discovered that the compositions from the western side were more interesting, allowing for a prominent view of Wizard Island.

To capture the scale of the lake, I mainly shot wide on my full-frame camera. Even then, I took some multi-shot panoramas. Occasionally, I would find a different, more focused composition. One of those shots was taken at 130mm, zooming in on Wizard Island, surrounded by the stunning deep blue water.