Miner's Tree

Lone tree amongst the fog

Black and White Landscape Photo of a Tree Amongst the Fog

I woke up groggy at around 7:30 in the morning. I had one of those nights where I couldn’t sleep from 3:30am to 5:00am. After stumbling downstairs, feeding the cats their morning treats, and putting the coffee on, I plopped down on the sofa and made the mistake of looking out the front window. Shit. It was foggy.

The fog. It makes for such wonderful photographs but it comes rarely in the area where I live. So when it happens, I have no choice but to get dressed and drive to a ravine close to our house to take pictures. But I was tired. I didn’t want to get dressed and go out into the cold. I hadn’t even had my coffee yet!

Why couldn’t I live in England or Scotland? They have fog there practically year-round. I follow a bunch of great English landscape photographers and it seems like they all have these wonderful pictures of moss-covered trees in foggy forests. Seriously, you should go check them out and stop wasting your time here. I’m just a pretend fog photographer.

Still here? Okay, I shall continue.

A plan derailed

As I was about to drag myself off the couch and go upstairs to get some pants on, I remembered my wife’s car was in the shop and I had to drive her to work. There was no time to go and grab a quick shot, so I had to wait until after I dropped her off. It was already late in fog time, waiting an hour as the sun rose higher would surely kill the last remnants of misty gorgeousness.

What choice did I have? I poured some coffee and found myself itching to get dressed and go out and shoot. Amazing how being denied can make you jones for what you were loathing just a few minutes ago..

The time approached to take my wife to work, so I put on a pair of sweatpants and grabbed my camera. My expectations were low, but it was better to have it with me than to regret not bringing it.

After I dropped her off, I raced over to the ravine. Surely, it was too late in the morning for the fog to still be there? I stopped at the light just across the street from the ravine. The fog had somehow survived the onslaught of the morning sun, but it wouldn’t stick around for long. I had to get there before it was gone!

A pedestrian. Every. Single. Time. The street I was stopped at was a major thoroughfare and when a pedestrian pushed the walk signal, it took a good 45-60 seconds before I would get the green light.

My frustration boiled over but I didn’t roll down the window and scream at the innocent human now strolling in front of my car. Instead, I simmered in my mounting anxiousness.

Finally, the light turned green and I shot across the road. The neighborhood bordering the ravine glowed with the morning sun, but a blanket of fog hung over the ravine. I pulled into the dirt parking lot, grabbed my camera, and raced down to the grassy meadow.

The air smelled crisp and clean. I forgot my jacket and it was cold. Goose bumps formed on my arms as I slowed and surveyed the scene. My favorite tree was my target, but I wanted to make sure there wasn’t another subject I should try and get first. Time was limited but I also wanted to make the most of the occasion.

Lining the sloped path were a couple of trees with white flowers. I thought they’d look great and snapped a few shots. I kept moving and came across a smaller tree next to a bigger one. I had to step back a bit to fit them both in the frame, but I managed it.

The Tree

Time was ticking and the fog dissipating. I moved onto the main event.

There’s a challenge to photographing the same subject over and over. Photographers seem to get hooked on a certain location or subject. For some it’s a favorite rock formation, others a particular waterfall. For me, it’s a that damn tree in the meadow.

I’ve actually gotten a good picture of this tree in the fog, but it was on film and from a different angle. That morning I approached the tree from a different perspective. I lined up the background trees so they didn’t overlap with the subject tree and snapped away.

I try not to chimp when I’m out shooting. However, since the fog wouldn’t last much longer, I wanted to make sure I was getting the proper exposure. Checking the back of my camera, I was ecstatic. The conditions were perfect. The fog had lifted just enough to see the dark outlines of the trees in the background, which in turn, made my tree stand out.

I drove home at a respectable neighborhood speed, and ran up to my office to import the images into my computer. I can usually tell when its a good picture because it hardly needs much post-processing. The picture of the Miner’s Ravine tree above is one such picture. It’s one of my favorites.