The body of water in this photo is Lake George in the state of New York, where Edward Steichen and his first wife Clara stayed in spring 1904, when Clara was pregnant with their first child. It was during this stay that Steichen produced his first colour photographs, experimenting with colour filters. He first produced black-and-white negatives, then shot them through red, blue, and green filters and printed them with red, blue, and green bichromate. Big White Cloud was one of these photographs.