How is Fremont Island like a vampire?
This image was taken March 9, 2025 at the Great Salt Lake, from the causeway to Antelope Island looking northwest-ish towards Fremont Island and Promontory Point. It’s a familiar scene, but on this evening, migration hadn't started and there weren’t a lot of birds around, so the water was dead calm. The reflection was like polished glass, a mirror, doubling the island and sky.
Minimal, serene, simple, pastel, calm.
It looks like I could have created this in photoshop, but I didn't. It was real and I have the wet, muddy muck boots to prove it. (I get really optimistic about setting up my tripod in the lake, thinking that I can set up shots for a panorama or focus stacking, but haha, the tripod totally sinks in the mud. But this time I was able to get the shots I needed before the sinking.)
On March 9, 2025, the water level of the lake was 4193.2 feet above sea level. I believe that Fremont Island (the little one on the left) is 6 miles from Antelope Island.
This image was taken June 29, 2025. I tried to make it as close to the previous image as I could, I stood where I imagined I might have been back in March, and I used the same lens and focal length as I did before. It is later in the year, so the sun was in a different spot, which means the sidelighting won’t match up exactly.
There were few birds around. One lone Snowy Plover whistled at me. A couple gulls and ravens flew over head, casting their shadows on the exposed lake bed. Dead quiet.
Eerie, silent, baked, harsh, disconcerted.
This time I didn’t have to worry about my tripod sinking, or my muck boots taking on water. This was parched, crackling dry lake bed.
The lake level on June 29 was 4192.8 above sea level.
4198 feet above sea level is considered the minimum healthy level. The last time was 2002.
2002.
Grow the Flow has set up a tracker on their website where you can see the current lake levels, exposed lake bed percentage, and salinity levels. It’s much more scientific and informative than my method, which is be shocked that the area I photographed shorebirds in last year at this time no longer is a shoreline. Pay attention. Be shocked. Tell about it. (Apologies to Mary Oliver…)
You made it this far and you deserve the answer to my riddle.
So how is Fremont Island like a vampire?
It has no reflection.