In the fog

We all have had the experience. Some foggy memories of what happened the night before. Usually we don’t want to be reminded of them either and strive to erase them from our and anyone else’s memory. My foggy memories are to be remembered and cherished as beautiful moments.

Nice and quiet

Many of these memories remind me of a specific feeling when I was taking the picture. Sometimes I can even remember my thoughts of that very moment. I hope that those memories will stay with me for a long time to come, and… that I don’t have to rely on this blog or even Lightroom for these memories.

The first foggy shots I made were in Kiev, Ukraine. As I have said before, I got my first digital camera there. I was ready to shoot everything and anything. Not for fear of forgetting, but just for the pleasure of shooting things and situations I wanted to keep close to me. These shots were taken on a Saturday morning, after a long week of work in a language I hardly understood.

Envy
Envy

I wanted to get out and recharge my batteries. When I arrived in HydroPark, a set of islands in the centre of the city, the fog was already lifting. By then I had not yet taken the habit of leaving early before everyone else. At that moment, I envied the guy in the boat, fishing and listening to the quiet lapping of the wavelets on his boat. But fishing is not my thing, so that particular envy went away very fast.

Coming back from fishing
Coming back from fishing

Others had decided to leave together, perhaps to avoid the very feeling of relaxation that I was looking for myself. One couldn’t see the other side of the river Dnepr, a sight that usually is quite breathtaking with the golden domes and hundreds of church bells of Pecherskaya Lavra.

Old but not abandoned
Old but not abandoned

Fog doesn’t come along that often and before there was another spell of the magical blanket, I had already moved to Canada. Driving over a small road near Lockport, one can still see this little house. At first I said it was a barn, but barns don’t have chimneys and windows. It seems like the owner of this house likes to move it around on his property. Last time I saw it it had moved to the right side of this picture.

Assiniboine Park Footbridge
Assiniboine Park Footbridge

No set of fog pictures is complete without a few shots of inside our city parks. The footbridge “into nowhere” in the Assiniboine Park is always a good subject. Again, this was a morning where calm and quietness was a required element of my walk. By now, my work was in my language (at least one that I understand fully) but the stress that came with it at that time made it necessary to relax using walks and solitude.

English Gardens
English Gardens

Inside the English Gardens, the views were spectacular. With no visitors in sight, it was only 8:30-ish in the morning, the gardens were quiet and beautiful. Just what I needed to attack the rest of the day of work.

Uncovered spider webs
Uncovered spider webs

Fort Whyte was another one of those times. This time, before starting work, I noticed that the fog was all over, going to Fort Whyte Alive was a very short drive from my home. Spider webs that usually like to remain unseen were now completely visible. At that time, the birds just started singing, the fog started to lift. A very nice moment to be enjoyed again and again.

Light trails and fog
Light trails and fog

But sometimes, one cannot get to a park, the parks are closed or the fog is simply too local to go very far for better shots. By then we had moved to Transcona, and the only place I could go on a very short notice was onto Regent Avenue. Light trails and fog to blur things gave me this picture. Needless to say, many of the cars slowed down considerably after they spotted me with a tripod and a long lens on my camera Angry smile.

Urban Sculpture
Urban Sculpture

Early morning fog in the city sometimes shows elements in a way we otherwise despise in our pictures. This “Urban Sculpture” of signs, trucks and Hydro poles in the fog made me think that it was really an urban picture by excellence. It was on an early morning walk, just for the sake of walking. When I went outside and saw the fog, I ran back inside and grabbed my camera. Sometimes this is a good idea.

Grab your camera when there is fog, pictures take on a natural quality that is hard to get in post-processing.

Foggy memories? No, more like “Memories of fog” Smile

Until next time…