Jordan Pond

Author's Comments

The Bubbles are the photograph everyone makes, and there is a reason for it. Two rounded peaks rising at the far end of the pond, perfectly mirrored in water so clear you can see stones on the bottom thirty feet out. It is the kind of composition that almost makes itself, which is both the appeal and the problem. By nine in the morning there are tripods lined along the south shore making roughly the same image. I prefer to be there before six. Late August into September is when the light starts to lengthen and the air goes still in a way it rarely does in July. The pond holds the mountains so completely on those mornings that the seam between water and rock disappears, and you find yourself making frames that read as abstractions until you look closely. The loop trail is worth walking the full way around. The west side has a boardwalk through cedar that smells like nothing else in the park, and the east side gives you the Bubbles from angles that almost no one bothers with. This is a place that rewards getting there early and staying longer than you planned. The light shifts quickly once the sun crests the ridge, and the reflection breaks the moment a breeze finds the surface. You get maybe an hour. Sometimes less. Bring something warm. Even in summer the air off the water has an edge to it before sunrise, and you will want to be still for a while.

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