Foggy morning at the wildlife reserve

[Len Philpot]

The forecast was for fog this morning starting a few hours before, and extending for several hours after, sunrise. So I set the alarm for 5 AM and made the ~40 minute drive to the Catahoula National Wildlife Reserve (fueled on two sugar cookies and a cuppa, no less!). There was indeed fog and despite getting there before sunrise, there was of course no visible sunrise. So I drove around the reserve, shooting whatever I could find.

Truth be told, while it's a decent place for its intended uses -- and in bearable weather, i.e., minimal heat, humidity or mosquitos, not entirely unpleasant -- it's IMO only moderately photogenic, with a significant sameness factor. I've gotten and few of what I consider decent images there but I've run out of subject matter rather quickly beyond those. Although there are things that initially catch my eye, there's also a huge amount of visual clutter everywhere and it's extremely difficult to isolate subjects.

Good thing it's a wildlife reserve and not a photo destination, eh?

Anyway, here are a couple.

Fog on the bayou. Does this qualify as minimalist?



Dark path to ...what?

 

[Gary R. Smith]

I like 'em Len! Why do you say you have nothing of interest to shoot?

 

[Brian Moore]

Fog on the Bayou is beautiful and yes I'd say minimalist.

 

[Len Philpot]

I like 'em Len! Why do you say you have nothing of interest to shoot?

Because I'm interested in mountains, valleys, cliffs, canyons, sea stacks, waterfalls, vistas ... you know, landscapes! Of which we have almost none.

And thanks!

 

[Len Philpot]

Fog on the Bayou is beautiful and yes I'd say minimalist.

Thanks!

Actually this image has more contrast than the actual scene. I was struggling to manually focus at 10x on the live view screen (AF just laughed at me). The fog was increasing as I worked. I shot three (?) exposures and each was slightly foggier than the previous.

 

[Gianluca Drago]

@Len Philpot both nice photos indeed! Probably here I am the only one who like the second one more. The depth given by the fog, the darkness of the underbrush and the harmony of complementary colors give a sense of calm, of rest.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

I have a woodland close to me that is similar in that there is just SO MUCH STUFF, it's hard as you say to isolate anything. Given that, you've done well with the second shot. I also find the colours soothing. The first shot I'm a bit 'meh' about, I'm sorry to say. It's almost as if the fog is just too thick. What do you think?

 

[Ralph Turner]

Both great shots, although, I prefer the second with its contrasting straight lines of the trees and the winding, twisting vine. I like how things are placed in the frame. The warmth of the bed of leaves works well with the cool of the mist. Just my two pennies/cents/euros worth

 

[Len Philpot]

I have a woodland close to me that is similar in that there is just SO MUCH STUFF, it's hard as you say to isolate anything. Given that, you've done well with the second shot. I also find the colours soothing. The first shot I'm a bit 'meh' about, I'm sorry to say. It's almost as if the fog is just too thick. What do you think?

Many -- most, actually -- of our woodlands have dense undergrowth. There are a lot of new-growth crop-pine forests that are regularly harvested so there's little time nor inclination to maintain any openness underneath, as it were. Some of them almost require a machete to get through. This reserve actually has more hardwoods than pines and ironically underneath they're more open. But near the water's edge it's very tangled, almost like one long tumbleweed that's ~2M tall or higher. It really gets in the way of compositions.

I agree with you and @Ralph Turner -- The foggy bayou shot is too dark. It ...works... OK but not great. IMO a minimalist shot often (but not always*) works best when it's lighter, more delicate and ethereal. I could've raised exposure in post but that wouldn't solve the lack of minimal contrast. In fact there's actually (IIRC) some local contrast through a gradient filter on the foreground water to raise the texture just a tiny bit. The sky was also darkened just slightly through a gradient at the top, but without darkening (0.2 stop, maybe?) it was too bright for the rest of the image. Maybe I could've raised the water a bit, but some amount of rescue-tweaking raises the suspicion that maybe it's not worth the effort.

* I suppose a colorful minimalist image could have power (Malevich?) but I can't think of an example offhand.

 

[Beth Carter]

great set. i like both of them. i hear you about wanting to shoot mountains, i'm in the same boat. but you have some great landscapes to shoot in the bayou if the wildlife doesn't kill you while you're out there.