Despite rising at my usual 4 a.m., there was no sun rising for me. It rose as usual, but there was this fog and the sun never shone through until after 8 .
I haven’t hiked Gate 37 in awhile so stopped there, reduced my load into a smaller pack, and walked in. The landscape was just as I hoped and I made this and another image. I like the calm mystery that is a foggy experience. I kept expecting a Quabbin moose to splash out of the woods, but not today. Maybe one day.
Stephen Gingold Nature Photography Blog 
beautiful…
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Thank you.
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Several things are outstanding in the photo. The huge boulder. the beautiful line of evergreen trees and their reflection in the water. The fog tops it off to present serenity with a bit of mystery.
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I am glad you find much to enjoy in this image, Yvonne. I tried to balance the elements so each could be appreciated without taking away from the others.
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What a lovely, peaceful view. I can’t help wondering if, somewhere deep in the shadows, one moose is saying to another, “I kept expecting to see a Quabbin photographer splash into our woods, and today was the day.”
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I am sure they were there watching and waiting for me to finish and leave so they could have the place to themselves again.
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Maybe no moose, but have you ever had another photographer come bounding out of the bushes and right into your picture?
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Yes I have, Steve…and I did it myself once. In my case it was inexcusable as I was with a friend on the Maine coast and didn’t realize what his composition covered but that’s what asking is for. He was gracious and I…chagrined.
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Unless it was a this-split-second-or-never sort of picture that got interrupted, there would have been (and I suspect was) time for a do-over and therefore no need for chagrin. When I’ve been to touristy places (like Mesa Verde last fall and the New Zealand geothermal sites in February, I’ve sometimes had to wait for people to clear out of an area so I could quickly get pictures before more people came in.
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Yeah he got the shot, but I was still embarrassed. Having to wait for people, or rather not, is an advantage to shooting early in the morning. I occasionally run into other photographers but rarely.
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I rarely have the advantage of going out so early, but I try to avoid people by going to places where experience tells me fewer of them will go (and I almost always take pictures during the week rather than on weekends). As Austin and its suburbs continue their rapid growth, solitude in nature has become harder to find.
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I am fortunate that I live in a relatively rural…for the Northeast…area in Western Massachusetts. Amherst is a college town so the population drops considerably during the summer. But there are many places to go within a half hour to an hour drive that will net relative isolation. Add to that most people sleep later than I and things work out pretty well. Austin has a lot going for it, but it sounds as if preservation of natural tracts is not one of them.
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I love the mist and the black and white treatment is spectacular.
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Thanks, Charlie. It was a wonderful way to spend a few hours.
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I’ve always liked the fog. It puts you in a package out of touch with your normal surroundings. The focus of my mind is more inward then.
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Package? I also like the sense of separation from the rest of the real world that fog affords, Jim. It is especially enjoyable in the wilderness when there are no sounds to break the spell…except maybe for the call of a loon which I heard while making images.
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A quintessential Steve Gingold~ absolutely perfect. And now I can hear the loon, too… 🙂
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Well, I do feel that I am often in a fog, Melissa. 🙂
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