Mist, fog, and follow the leader
Hard to believe the first entire month of 2023 is now history. I have said it before, but the older one gets the quicker days, weeks, and months, seem to go by. The one thing that has become an important point as I now begin my 63rd year of life on planet earth, is that health, above all other things, must never be taken for granted.
I am going to share a few pictures taken on January 2nd, 2023. It was one of the foggiest days I can remember in a long time. Foggy all day long, from sunrise until sunset. I thought it was a wonderful day. I probably wouldn’t want foggy days all the time, but once in a while, they are awesome.
Midafternoon Stormy and I headed out to nearby County Lake. An area I go to on occasion is a 20-minute drive or so from home. The day was cold, we had had enough below-freezing temperatures for some days so I thought a trip to a small lake, the frozen waters, and the foggy conditions might be interesting. As it turned out, it was very interesting.
Parking in an area by the small dam, we got out and began walking around. There were a couple of small wooden floating docks that we could walk out to and look down at the frozen water. I did make a couple of pictures of frozen icy patterns, more abstract-like. I haven’t gone through and processed all the shots from this time, so I don’t have them to share on this post.
Stormy finds a hidden landscape
As we explored around, Stormy was doing his thing, finding all sorts of areas that an outdoor-loving dog would find. So as an outdoor-loving dog companion, I found myself following his lead. As it turns out, he discovered a trail that runs below the dam and goes from one side of the lake to the other. I have been in this area many times over the years and never knew there was a trail there. He’s a pretty dang good hiking companion for sure.
These three pictures are looking down away from the dam, which would be behind me as I took these shots. There was something about the foggy conditions that made the whole experience seem almost like being in another world.
It was cold, and obviously very humid with the fog, but that did not detour Stormy or me from enjoying our nearly two-hour exploration of the area. As far as the images, these were three that seemed to stand out to me. I was carrying my Canon M6 Mark II with an 18-150 lens. It’s become a sweet little carry-around camera this past year. This camera comes without a viewfinder and is initially meant to be used by just looking at the screen on the back. This works okay, it has touch focus so it is easy to use that way. I never could really get used to just holding it up and looking at the back screen. I found it very difficult to compose that way.
A couple of months ago I purchased the add-on viewfinder (which seems completely ridiculous that you have to buy the viewfinder in addition to the camera.) It has made this well-functioning, easy-to-use mirrorless camera much nicer to use, at least for how I like to shoot. I got a good deal on a pre-owned viewfinder from MBP. Had a good experience with them so I could recommend checking them out if you are looking for a pre-owned piece of gear.
We stayed in the area exploring the trail that made its way through the tall grasses and shrubs until the sun went down. The bronze, brown, and dark golden colors of the landscape along with the foggy glow in the air made for a very enjoyable time.
We both got back home after dark. A little cold, a little damp, a little hungry. We both brought home something else as well. More great memories of this new year.
