It’s been a bit of a rare occurrence lately where I go to let our dogs out in the morning and am instantly struck by how beautiful it is outside. Like – run inside and grab your camera beautiful out. Even though there have been some nice sunrises this time of year, I don’t exactly have a photogenic view from our yard. However, this morning we had a nice thick fog roll in, colors have been quite vibrant lately, and there is nothing I like better than a foggy autumn morning.
After working on some compositions for a while in my yard, I wanted to take further advantage of the conditions with a quick drive down to one of my favorite area woodlands less than a mile down the road. My battery indicator started blinking red as I finished my last exposures in my yard. Ruh Roh Shaggy. One of those times you pray to the Saint of Preparedness and hope you have a spare charged in the house. She smiles down at me today.
The woodland is looking good – saturated colors shrouded in fog. I spent a few moments along the river photographing some overhanging maple trees that were glowing yellow before I head up to a more isolated trail I prefer to take. A multi-use path follows the river which gets a decent amount of walking traffic, even this early in the morning. As I am photographing the river, I hear some people approach behind me.
A silver-haired man approaches walking with a woman wearing a knit hat. With a part laugh/chuckle, he says “What ya taking pictures of? My wife thinks you are taking pictures of the fog?” He said it in a really condescending way, chauvinistically suggesting his wife’s guess was absurd. I answer “I am taking pictures of the fog, you should listen to your wife.” I am not sure he cared for my response, but his wife did. 🙂
I moved up to a path that follows a ridgeline along a sunken forest floodplain. It’s a short path, but one of my favorites in the area because of the slight elevation that has some enormous oak trees. The first giant I approach is one of my favorites. It has flared roots connecting it to the side of the ridge. In my viewfinder, I noted an odd-shaped object hanging from one of the tree branches in the middle of the composition. A Bald-faced hornet’s nest, likely vacant by now. I decided to leave it in the composition for the careful eye to spot.
I followed the ridge just doing a bit of forest bathing, seeing what catches my eye. It was truly beautiful and peaceful out. It’s been a while since I’ve made this walk and felt good to make a return visit in these conditions. Soon enough, I am approaching another favorite giant oak along this trail, but something has changed.
It seems one of the major limbs snapped, falling over the path and down the ridge to the right off-frame. For now, a simple watch-your-head obstacle – and don’t linger beneath. The surrounding dead leaves from this limb had a bit of a scary appearance to them, dark grey / black against all the color.
The path begins to descend a bit after this point into some “lowlands” and a lot of the more interesting features begin to fade away. The fog is also starting to lift more as well. At this point, I turn back and head to my car for a short 2-3 minute drive home. Foggy mornings don’t hit us often when we still have a good amount of color on the trees this time of year. So I’ll consider this an October gift that I am glad I opened.
I’ve come to realize that when my Nikon starts telling me that the battery is drained, It still takes lots of photos. Great story about the guy who didn’t believe that you’re taking pics of the fog. The photos are beautiful, it must be nice to live somewhere so pretty.
Thanks Alessandra. Yes, I do prefer to squeeze every last photo out of that battery also. 🙂 We have spots of beauty, sometimes you have to look harder because we still have so much development and clearing of woodlands. Better than some places, but not exactly wilderness either.
An October gift for sure. What a delight it is to see that cool, indistinct fog played against the warm, detailed precision of all those autumn leaves. What you said about not having seen that view this way before the fog softened it is interesting. And thank you for saying what you did to that man. I used to hear questions like that when I focused my camera on dead leaves on the ground while surrounded by people with “bazooka” lenses passing by to photograph eagles from the end of the boardwalk, where I used to live. It’s tiresome. I like the fallen tree very much, as well as the gorgeously-colored backyard composition. Happy Fall to you!
Yeah, you’d think views in your backyard would be pretty well explored after 20+ years eh? It’s interesting that most people I run into off the beaten path are much less annoying than the more populated trails. 🙂 I guess the good folks like to avoid the general public, ha. Thanks Lynn, I’m glad you enjoyed the visit.
I did, the way the backyard image mixes colors is beautiful. And it’s great to see something new on your home turf after that long!
We do experience fog here during the fall foliage season. It seems to burn off pretty quickly lately. I guess another good reason to have a dog to turn you out early in the mornings. 😉
What a lovely series of photos, Mark! I’m glad you made the short drive to the woodlands and that you had a spare battery charged.
I don’t think I know what it is like to actually sleep in anymore – not sure if I could as my internal clock seems to get me up anyway. It usually burns off quickly here which is why I normally need to go somewhere quite close to take advantage of it. Thanks for the comment Earl – I hope you are doing well.
I love that Saint of Preparedness! Great response to the man!!!!!
I really like this series of images and you captured me well with your writing. I love the second one number FC10709. It speaks to me. Will they cut that tree down for safety or work the trail around it? Love this post and glad you were able to be enticed out.
It’s hard to say on the fallen limb. There are cut logs from other trees on this trail so I know someone does remove blockages, but I don’t know if this one would be cleared. Glad you enjoyed the visit Monte – always appreciate your kind remarks.