Moody morning at Shenandoah National Park when the fall was dropping by!
What happened to the sunrise?
In my previous post I started writing about my recent two day trip to Shenandoah National Park. During this two days we experienced rain, fog, hail, sun, hot hot sun, and I`m pretty sure I could hear some distant thunder too.
I`m that type of person that hates to wake up in the mornings, but I`m able to push myself into doing it. Laying in the pitch dark, with eyes that barley open, I start thinking about what I will miss if I don`t get out of bed to view the sunrise. It doesn't matter if I don`t get a killer shot, or the sunrise is bad. The view and feeling of fresh morning air is a treat in itself.
Now that you think I`m some kind of robot, I`ll just tell you the hard truth about this particular october morning. I didn`t get out of bed. Actually, I did get out of bed, I got dressed, I even went all the way out to the car. Then I turned 180 degrees around, walked back in to the hotel room, got undressed, and went back into hibernation.
Let me explain, you may wonder why I got out of bed, just to get back in bed. Was it because I was sleepy? No. It was because I couldn't see the car that was parked 5 meters away from the hotel room door. In fact, I was hardly able to see my own shoes. It was the thickest fog I`ve ever seen! I was just waiting for some killer clown to jump out of the woods. At that time I knew it was no point of going out with my camera. Instead a couple hours more sleep was the right choice!
A couple hours later
After a couple hours of resting it was time to try again. I checked out the window, and to my disappointment it wasn`t getting much better. Even tho the fog was thick, we were not going to abandon our plans. After a small snack we would take the hike up to the highest peak along the Skyland Drive that is running through Shenandoah National Park, Big Stony Man, despite the conditions, before heading back to the resort and having a good lunch (I went for the Angus Steak Burger, yummy!).
On the way out of the Skyland Resort, the fog had become a bit lighter, and I saw some incredible scenery starting to evolve in the woods around the parking. I ran to the car, grabbed my gear and started running into the woods. After a bit back and forth, I found the scene you can see below. The fog was starting to roll back against me, so time was yet again not in my favour. Still, I managed to get the image I wanted and walked back to the car a bit happier and a bit wetter.
Since it still was early in the morning the sun was low on the sky, illuminating the already moody forest. During the last year I`ve become more and more in love with my polariser in different scenarios. I`ve found that on a moody shot like this, a polariser really brings out the colors and contrasts in the fall. As for the motion in the leaves, this was an artistic choice. Many people would have shot with a higher ISO to freeze the motion, but I felt that keeping the movement I added extra life in the image. It also helps showing the cold weather that was taking place this october morning in the Shenandoah National Park.
Misty Morning in Shenandoah. ISO100 - f/11 - 1.3 sec