Although the rainy season is the dominant season here in the Pacific Northwest, there are sunny days even during winter, and we’re far enough North that when evening skies are clear there’s liable to be fog the next morning, and, if you’re lucky, frost.
December 12 was one of those days. When I left Tacoma around 8:30, the skies were clear. However, Theler Wetlands was cloaked in fog, frosting many of the plants, like these rose hips,
transforming these weeds into a candelabra lighting the way through the fog.
Thick fog often times allows you to get closer to birds than you normally could. I probably wasn’t more than 20 feet away from this cormorant when I heard the slapping of his feet on the water as he ran to take off.
It’s all too easy with Photoshop to get caught up in trying to make photos as colorful, as “realistic,” as possible. In doing so, though, it’s easy to lose what it actually felt like to be in that particular moment.
There’s something almost meditative about walking in the fog; it’s a pleasure I wouldn’t want to miss.