Archive All Issues September 2014

LONG EXPOSURE

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To a photojournalist, a 30-second exposure is considered a long exposure. Photographers like the technique, and so do we. That's why we sent John Burcham into the field with his Canon EOS 5D Mark III and a bagful of lenses. The subject was Bismarck Lake, but instead of 30 seconds, we asked for 365 days. He agreed, and for the past 12 months, that's what he's been doing. Shooting the lake. A PORTFOLIO BY JOHN BURCHAM

Featured in the September 2014 Issue of Arizona Highways

John Burcham
John Burcham
BY: John Burcham

LONGEXPOSURE SEPTEMBER

[preceding panel] Bismarck Lake is a man-made lake northwest of Flagstaff. It sits at an elevation of 8,793 feet, and it dates to at least 1933, when H.S. Colton, then the director of the Museum of Northern Arizona, submitted a naming request to the federal government. The name became official the following year. "At the lake, sometimes I would walk by something a few times before the composition came together," photographer John Burcham says. "This was one of those times. I liked how these grasses were backlit, and I used a slower shutter speed so they blurred a little bit."

OCTOBER

"By mid-fall, most of the leaves had blown off of the aspens near the lake," Burcham says. "I found this one floating in the shallow water, while I was walking around in the lake with my rubber boots on. I made several macro shots that day, but this one stuck out to me a bright-yellow spot amid everything else that was dying. The water was so calm that I saw this same leaf several more times on later trips to the lake."

NOVEMBER

Burcham had no real plan for his trips to the lake, and he says that led to some moments of panic ("Oh, my God, what am I going to shoot today?"), but it also gave him opportunities to get creative and experiment with photos. "I like the layers of this shot: the grass in the foreground, the lake behind it and the San Francisco Peaks in the background," he says. "To me, the dusting of snow, along with the lack of any greenery around the lake, really signals that winter is starting."

DECEMBER

"I always liked to go to the lake when it was snowing, even if I'd already been there recently," Burcham says. "This was a pretty good storm, especially considering that good snow in Flagstaff doesn't usually come until January or February. I love how the lake has a layer of slush on it. It's just a really nice, peaceful winter scene."

JANUARY

Despite all the time Burcham spent at the lake, he saw less wildlife than he had expected to see there. He did, however, see animal tracks, especially in winter. "I think these are elk tracks," he says. "I was drawn to the patterns, along with the shadows cast by the trees. I found an elk antler there, too, and elk tracks in the mud, but I never saw an elk, other than on the road leading to the lake."

FEBRUARY

This shot is another example of something Burcham had seen several times before it finally "clicked" photographically. "I like the composition of this shot," he says. "I had walked past this little dry bush a million times, but one day I was experimenting with different lenses and apertures, and I ended up with an interesting composition, with the out-of-focus lake in the background."

MARCH

"I actually had to ski into the lake for this shot," Burcham says. "It was a good late-winter storm. In winter, I had to be really careful that I didn't walk into the scene, because I would put my own tracks everywhere. I'd make a wide berth and photograph the landscape, then head in and do my macro shots. I liked that everything was so smooth and untouched."

APRIL

Burcham says he made hundreds of photographs of these trees, which were coated with sticky snow on one side. "This was one of my favorite trips of all," he says. "It was really windy, so the snow was sticking to the wind side of the trees. I just loved how it looked. This was a weird storm for April, and most of this snow had melted by the next day."

"In spring and summer, I realized I needed to get into the lake to make my photos, so I took off my shoes and socks and waded in," Burcham says. "After a while, I looked down and found about 10 leeches all over my feet. I couldn't believe there'd be leeches here, at an elevation of 8,800 feet. I started wearing rubber boots after that." This shot shows the first real signs of spring, but Burcham says the lake was also beginning to shrink: "This was made with a wide-angle lens, so it looks like there's a lot more water than there really is."

By June, most of Bismarck Lake had dried up, and Burcham says insects were descending on the lake to get the last bit of moisture. "This butterfly just stayed in this one spot, and its wings would open and close while I photographed it," he says. "This was another time where it wasn't like I could just walk out and find something appealing to photograph. I really had to dig deep sometimes."

It wasn't long before monsoon storms began filling the lake again, and Burcham says that after a few rains, the lake was full of life. "I like the reflection of the clouds and the peaks in the lake," he says. "This was just a beautiful day."

AUGUST

"For this shot, I got to the lake after a storm that was just clearing," Burcham says. "When the lake gets really full, it floods into the surrounding grasses and creates these marshy areas that I could wade around in. This was near the end of monsoon season, so I'd say this is near the lake's maximum depth. I like the juxtaposition of the bright landscape with the shadowed peaks in the background."

For more information about John Burcham, visit www.johnburcham.com. For more information about Bismarck Lake, call the Flagstaff Ranger District at 928-526-0866 or visit www.fs.usda.gov/coconino.