Portraits of Wildflowers

Perspectives on Nature Photography

Trees in morning fog

with 17 comments

When I looked outside on the morning of December 14th and saw fog, I quickly hied me over to the Riata Trace Pond for some misty photographs. After a light drizzle eventually sent me back to my car, I drove north, hoping that by the time I reached Brushy Creek Lake Park in the town of Cedar Park the drizzle would have stopped. Not only had it, but there was still fog, so I could take some more pictures of trees reflected in water.

Click to enlarge this panorama of what might pass for a long and narrow islet but isn’t.

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The southern border of the United States remains largely open, as it has been since January. Last week government officials reported apprehending over 173,000 illegal immigrants coming across from Mexico just during the month of November. Unknown tens of thousands more managed to evade apprehension altogether because the border patrol is so overwhelmed with processing and caring for illegal immigrants that some sections of the border are no longer effectively patrolled, or even patrolled at all. This is not by chance; it’s what the current American administration wants. I don’t know what you call it, but I call the government’s wanton reluctance to enforce laws lawlessness.

© 2021 Steven Schwartzman

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Written by Steve Schwartzman

December 26, 2021 at 4:30 AM

Posted in nature photography

Tagged with , , , ,

17 Responses

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  1. Isn’t fog a delightful condition to photograph? There is always some reward to getting out in the mist to discover subtle yet grand change as the morning evolves.

    This lawlessness will continue, I’m afraid. You see more of it, being closer to the border, but we catch it too, being just one state north. The Midwest will soon be inundated with masses of immigrants, and it will be interesting to see how people react to the influx of outsiders.

    Littlesundog

    December 26, 2021 at 6:59 AM

    • I wish we had good fog here more often. I remember one time as a kid on Long Island when our usual weekend drive took place in fog so thick that familiar scenes became largely unrecognizable. That was a transformative, magical sort of fog.

      I’m with you in assuming the lawlessness in our country will continue. That’s the mindset, or mindlessness-set, of the current regime. I have a lot of sympathy for people who want to come here. I just want an orderly, lawful process. Because we’re only a four-hour drive from Del Rio and Laredo, I’ve toyed with the idea of going there for an in-person look at what’s happening.

      Steve Schwartzman

      December 26, 2021 at 8:00 AM

  2. You got some fog at last. I saw there was a dense fog advisory this morning for counties farther inland, so perhaps you’ll have more while these warm temperatures linger. I suspect your fog was akin to our sea fog, caused by warm air over cooler water. In any event, the softened images of the trees are lovely.

    Your comment about driving in fog reminded me of this, from E.L. Doctorow: “Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”

    shoreacres

    December 26, 2021 at 8:45 AM

    • We did get some fog this morning, though not as dense as on the 14th, so I didn’t venture out again. I’m willing to if we get more of the good stuff.

      That’s a clever analogy from E.L. Doctorow. It’s always magical how things suddenly come into existence when you move through dense fog.

      Steve Schwartzman

      December 26, 2021 at 8:52 AM

  3. Very mysterious images, Steve. There could be something lurking out there…….

    Ann Mackay

    December 27, 2021 at 5:08 AM

  4. NICE! Good for you for getting out and seizing the opportunity!

    denisebushphoto

    December 28, 2021 at 4:35 PM

  5. I’m glad you made it out and to this location. Fog can really add something special to a photograph, almost completely changing the scene sometimes. I always love hearing when the scene without the fog would look very different because of distractions in the background.

    Todd Henson

    December 29, 2021 at 6:44 AM

    • You make a good point: fog is a great concealer of unwanted background objects in a photograph. Neither of the scenes in this photograph is especially interesting in normal conditions. Unlike flash, however, we unfortunately can’t turn on fog whenever we’d like to put it to use as a concealer.

      Steve Schwartzman

      December 29, 2021 at 8:08 AM

  6. Those are both beautiful and they feel like it was very peaceful there just then.

    circadianreflections

    January 1, 2022 at 11:20 AM

    • Yes, pretty peaceful. For my picture-taking purposes, I wished the fog had lasted longer. Even so, after it had dissipated I still found things to photograph.

      Steve Schwartzman

      January 1, 2022 at 2:26 PM

  7. […] in weather that’s not so common here (though the previous time had been not that long before, on December 14th). I headed for the pond along Kulmbacher Drive in far north Austin, which proved a worthwhile place […]


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