One of the rewards of photographing the backroads is you come across some hidden spots and get some amazing pictures. I have had some wonderful luck driving through these backroads very early in the morning, often before sunrise and finding places with lakes, ponds and some fantastic trees.
I have gone back to some of these hidden spots in Tennessee throughout the year in hopes of getting some early morning fog pictures and possibly capture some drama with the first rays of the sun.
The picture above is one of those lucky days driving around rural Tennessee. The fall colors were still there to some extent and on this lucky day the fog was very thick. So even if it was after sunrise, the sunlight was barely able to make through the thick fog and rendered a bright orangish hue to the environment.
I always have my small photography gear pack in my car. I was able to quickly position myself fairly low on the ground beneath one of those trees and sat down to photograph the scene for about an hour. During that hour the fog rolled in a few times and with the sun behind the fog the whole place almost lit up in a gorgeous way. You can see the accentuated colors because of this reason.
I found another hidden photo location which is close to my house! Its a small pond next to a water treatment facility. This pond lies at the middle of a mildly wooded area, surrounded by tall trees on one side and completely open on the east, looking at which you can see the horizon.
These trees as you can see are rooted in water. I would imagine that at one point in time these trees were on solid land and as the pond grew they took these trees in the water. However, there are several feet along the edge of the pond that is muddy but very shallow so you can take a few steps into the water if you wanted to.
These pictures were taken just prior to sunrise on several days over a period of a year. On some days the fog was very thick, creating a magnificent glow with the first rays of the sun, while on some other days the fog was mild to no fog at all.
I have used a circular polarizer in all these pictures, mostly to get the reflection of the trees or to get the gravels on the floor of the pond come through in the image. With one of the image I was very lucky to have the sun shine through the fog and hit the water behind in a way that seems to act as an accent hot spot.
Most of these images are available in various types of prints from the Online Shop.
A photo tip to remember: When you are shooting fog its best to keep a small clean cotton cloth with you to clear the lens and the polarizer from time to time. Fog is moist and every time the fog rolls in, there is a possibility that it will fog your lens as well.
In some cases moisture and water droplets could accumulate on your lens without you noticing that. You can still clean up a lot of these in your photo editing software. Since I do not use any photo editing software myself, I take precautions to get the best RAW capture possible in the field.