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Fresh Snow on Otter Brook, Keene NH |
Despite the strangeness of the
weather, we had a reasonably colorful autumn.
By December, our typical November “Stick Season” should have been long
past. We were blessed with an inch or so
of snow in late December, but that quickly vanished. It is now mid-January, and we are just
getting our next modest snowfall. The result has been an exceptionally long
opportunity to explore the patterns and muted colors of New England’s
photographically challenging, post-autumn, in-between season.
A couple of weeks ago, I was reminded
of one of the climatic conditions that can salvage subtlety and interest from
the starkness of the stick season. I awoke
to a lovely layer of fog that hung on the landscape and persisted for much of
the day. It is remarkable how a bit of
mist in the air can lift a photographer from his pre-winter funk. I shot out of the house and headed down the
road.
I didn’t need to go far, since fog can
dramatically alter even the most familiar or mundane scenes. It can add mystery and depth while transforming
bright colors to soft pastels. Seen through fog, distant features can take on a
pleasant, uniformly soft, appearance.
Lovely, but I find these images rather flat. They miss an important feature of foggy
weather, the enhanced sense of depth.
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Forest Depth |
Placing something close to the camera,
unaffected by the softening mist, can provide effective contrast to the
shrouded distant subjects. The effect is
an expanded sense of depth. Whenever I
begin shooting in the fog, my first question is, “Where can I find something
distinct in the foreground”. Often the
soft background serves to simplify the scene, allowing the foreground to stand
out, removed from the busy distraction of the more distant elements.
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Screened Hay Rake |
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Partridge Brook Debris |
On this day, I found plenty of
interesting foregrounds, from an old, weed engulfed, hay rake to a collection
of storm-tossed brook debris. I
especially like it when leading lines draw the eye through the scene to the
distant background.
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Granite Leading Line |
It was a lovely afternoon with the mist creating interest in almost every direction. I was only forced to stop by the fading light.
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Mt Monadnock Blanket
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Misty Wall, Roads End Farm Chesterfield, NH 2000 |
Now we have some snow on the ground
and the hope for more traditional winter photography,
but remember fog can also work its magic on snowy scenes.

Our new puppy Benjamin Pierce (Benji) is enjoying his first snow. He is named after the man who built our house back in the 1830s. Our previous dogs, Nellie and Sophie were named after Benjamin's daughter and mother.
Jeff Newcomer, NEPG
www.partridgebrookreflections.com