Thursday, February 18, 2010

Foggy winter pond

click photo to enlarge
Today when I woke up there was a dense blanket of fog over the countryside, and a temperature that was flirting with freezing. So, after I'd re-fuelled and warmed up with my morning breakfast of porridge and a cup of tea, I set off to look for photographs.

Usually when I photograph in the fog I'm searching out the simplification and flattening that this atmospheric condition brings. Simplification happens because the background to objects fades quickly into invisibility, leaving them highlighted against a clean backdrop. Simplification comes about through the thick atmosphere masking the detail of things, giving them the appearance of faded silhouettes. I got some of those kind of images. However, today's post isn't one of them because it's full of detail.

It shows a pond opposite a farm at Quadring Eaudike. I took the shot for the silhouettes of the leftmost trees that gradually fade into the distance, their reflections in the pond, and the reddish brown of the dead reeds. The branches of the tree in the right foreground add a layer of dark sharpness that contrasts nicely with the bluer, more distant trees. This whole package appealed to me in the fog. However, it will also offer something different when the fog has gone so I'll probably return in a week or two to see what other shots I can harvest.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 11mm (22mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/20
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.7 EV
Image Stabilisation: On