Saturday, June 17, 2006

A Spiritual Place

I photographed Spotted Lake near Osoyoos, B.C. In July of 2004 with my Tachihara 8 x 10 view camera and a 270mm Schneider lens and Tri-X film, its also one of the images featured in the July issue of Photo Life Magazine. The lake known to the Okanagan First Nations people as "Klikuk", is considered scared and has some unusual properties as it contains one of the world's highest concentrations of minerals. The rare natural phenomenon covers 15.2 hectares ( 38 acres ) and as the as the summer progresses the lake dries out, its mud forming into white, pale yellow, green and blue circles depending on its mineral composition which are: magnesium sulfate (epsom salts), calcium and sodium sulfates, plus eight other minerals and traces of four more, including silver and titanium. While photographing at Klikuk I felt sense of history as the first nations people had visited the culturally significant spot long before it was privately owned. The lake is now owned by the Okanagan Nations Alliance.

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