One morning in late October 2022 a dense fog settled on the southern part of Raleigh. I thought about how nice it would be to go out and photograph in the fog, but I had other things to do. Around 9 o’clock, the fog was still quite thick and didn’t seem like it was going anywhere any time soon. “What the heck,” I thought. “I’m going out to have some fun.”
Since the autumn colors were just beginning to shine around town, I headed to Lake Johnson to see what I could see interesting there. I parked near the dam-side of the lake and upon walking toward the lake I was amazed at the denseness of the fog. I don’t think I had photographed in any conditions quite like this, with the fog so heavy I could barely make out a gaggle of geese 20 feet out into the lake. I got my camera out and had a look through the wide-angle lens. Before taking my first shot I lowered the camera and stood there, soaking it in, preparing my mind for what might be a great photoshoot. For some reason I then glanced to my right and there was a great blue heron maybe 30 feet away. I stood as still as I could. Normally it is about this time that the heron flies away. But it kept its position staring at the water in front of him. I slowly backed up out of his line of vision so he couldn’t see me changing my lens and switching the settings on the camera.
I thanked the heron for sticking around and I left him to his fishing and I started walking the trail on the north side of the lake. The fog was so thick that seeing the other side of the lake was impossible, which is just the conditions that I had hoped for when I walked out the door. The thick fog would eliminate any otherwise busy background and allow me to better isolate any trees of interest and perhaps provide some mystery to the scene.
I spent an hour and a half walking along the trail and I only managed to cover a little more than a quarter mile and the fog was still like pea soup. At times it looked like it was going to start lifting and then it would thicken up. This fabulous day was the beginning of three wonderful photography days in a row.
