The photo shows the Fraser River shining through the trees. While this seems like it would be a fairly common occurrence, in fact it is something that we see only during a couple of times of the year--spring and fall. There are several of reasons for this.
The most obvious reason is that during those seasons there are very few or no leaves on the trees. During the summer the river can not be seen from this spot because the green jungle of leaves blocks the view.
During the winter the Fraser is frozen so you can’t see the sparkle of water, but even if it wasn’t, you still wouldn’t be able to see the reflection because of the path of the sun. In winter the arc of the sun is very short and doesn’t make it this far because it sinks down behind the mountains far to the southeast of this point and can’t reflect off the water seen from this position.
In the summer, the path of the sun does move over this point, but it is so much higher in the sky that it is not at a low enough angle to get a direct reflection.
If you stop and think about things, it doesn’t take long to realize that things are a whole lot more complex than what they first appear. The next time I see this scene might well be sometimes next spring.
I paint every day. To see the "square" I painted today see "Current Work" on my website:
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