Yamanaka, before the light, May

The mountain was partially there: the upper third in clouds, the lower body and snow patches visible, the summit absent. The lake surface was still enough to reflect the cloud layer back upward, so the missing peak was replaced by its own weather system, doubled in the water.

I go to Yamanaka every six to eight weeks. The pension owner has been telling me for years that I come more often than most couples, and she means it as a compliment, though what I am doing there is not visiting the mountain but watching what the clouds do with it.

I shot this before the light arrived: pre-dawn, 200mm on a tripod, cold enough that the stones at the water’s edge were still wet from the night. The exposure was long and the reflection held.

The Fuji series is not an homage. It is a long observation of one thing from one distance. What changes is the atmosphere: haze, cloud cover, the angle of light, the season. The mountain does not change. I do, slightly.