"The water, Marcus Camby says, is so still that you can see the reflection of the clouds above, creating such a mesmerizing image that only the occasional airplane flying overhead tells him it's not a painting.

"It's kind of surreal," Camby says, his memory drifting back to the water.

He calls it "Lake Camby" - laughing at the liberty he took in naming the body of water - because it takes up nearly half of his permanent home, a 25-acre property in Pearland, Texas, a Houston suburb."