Beyond the Fog

"I like the muted sounds, the shroud of grey, and the silence that comes with fog." -- Om Malik

I love foggy mornings. I love how the shroud of mist covers everything and makes common everyday things take on a mystery and, almost surreal, appearance. My normal start-of-the-day routine is to get up, grab a cup of coffee and read the latest news. I normally do this in a big overstuffed chair in our living room. Most mornings the sunrise is an hour away, so you can't see much out the big living room window.

On this morning, the first light of the day started to peak over the horizon and as I looked up, I realized that there was a thick fog surrounding the house. I rushed upstairs to throw on some clothes, grab my camera gear and head out of the house. My wife was just getting ready to head off to her work and asked what the rush was all about. "Fog! Photos!" I shouted and ran out the door get into the car and head off to the nearby river valley where I thought the fog would be densest.

I've recently returned to shooting on film and for black and white, I really like Ilford FP4. It has a relatively low ISO speed and the grain is pretty fine.

I shot one roll of film at the local park on the river, but I didn't really like the look of the fog, it was thinning out and didn't have the depth that I wanted. I packed up thinking that I wouldn't get any decent images today.

As I was heading home, I stopped at the local playground and realized that the fog there was much thicker and it gave me a great opportunity for a special image.

This playground had recently been refurbished with new structures and things for the kids to do. As I walked around looking for the right subject, I came upon the two dinosaur rocking horses. This was my image. "Jurassic Park" meets Stephen King, "The Mist."