Winter, the best season?

What an incredible morning it was. After a bleak January where I only went out once to shoot landscapes, today made up for that.

I was out the door an hour before sunrise which today was 8:12 a.m. I really prefer the shorter days. Already they are getting noticeably longer. It’s great to be able to get up normally and still be able to shoot the sunrise.

I never saw the sunrise this morning. At first it looked like it might make a showing. Half an hour before sunrise above the low lying fog I could see stratus clouds starting to turn magenta and purple. Usually a good sign. Twenty minutes later I was in fog so thick that I could hardly see the road in front of me. A few hours later I was seriously afraid for my life as I waited to cross a highway to get back home. The fog was so heavy and the traffic still moving dangerously fast. When the road seemed clear and it was safe to proceed an fast moving semi would blast out of the fog and cross my intended path. What to do? I rolled down both drivers and passenger windows, turned off the vent fan and turned the radio off. I could hear the vehicles long before I could see them.

I watched and listened for five minutes before I determined when it was safe to cross. An hour later I came across a Peace Officer for the county. As I told him about my adventure he informed me that there was a major accident and the highway was closed where I crossed. I missed that accident by half an hour.

I only saw the sun just before noon. A thick covering of hoar frost was covering everything. It was like being a child and going to Disney World for the first time. I was in awe at how beautiful the previously bleak landscape looked.

I shot so much that I took a break to stop by the side of the road where the fog had temporarily lifted to watch a young of the year moose eating willow twigs not twenty meters from me while her mother nervously watched  from the other side of the road over a hundred meters away. I drove off to let mom and daughter re-unite.

It’s mornings like this that have me believe that winter is easily my favorite season to photograph. From bleak to magical in less than a day. Incredible!

Happy shooting,

Dan

ps. This was among the last things that I photographed. The fog was lifting and the blue sky above starting to make an appearance. By the time I headed home it was easy driving.

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~ by Dan Jurak on February 7, 2013.