2011, Day 315 - Shrouded

Last night I had given a little thought to shooting today, I expected to have the time this morning and my interest has be piqued by the great fall color that I've been seeing.  There is a sense of urgency because we've had a few small rain storms and they are denuding the trees at an alarming rate.  Despite my desire it has been a busy week and with the absurd torture of daylight savings time I've felt a little run down so I was reluctant to commit in spite of my desire.

All of my reservations disappeared when I awoke to find the city shrouded in a think layer of fog.  Fog is not something we get a great deal of in Portland and it lends the world a different feel and they really help to exaggerate depth and distance.  So I walked the dogs, fixed my hair (and realized for the tenth time I need a haircut), grabbed a bottle of water, fed the hounds, and ran out the door.  My destination was Mount Talbert.

Mount Talbert is one of those places that is, to me, a bit magical.  It is a wooded park that, around the perimeter, consists of pine trees in the upper canopy, vine maples in the middle and ferns along the woodland floor.  By contrast the trees at the summit are primarily Oregon white oaks and instead of the lush undergrowth of ferns there are small hardy shrubs and tall grasses.  As you walk into the park it smell strongly of the sweet fragrance of decomposing pine needles and in the cooler months that lovely aroma mixes with the scent of damp earth and you feel at one with nature.

As you can probably tell I like the way the backlighting of the sky makes the leaves glow but in this image I also captured the ferns and the fog.  This is exactly the kind of image I wanted to create so I am glad that I overcame my reluctance and got myself out the door.

Canon 1Ds Mark II, Canon 16-35/f2.8L Mark II
16mm, f11, merged layers of 1/6, 0.3 and 0.6 sec @ 200 ISO