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Soft foggy beginning to the day over Frankland River region in Western Australia. It was a great morning for a walk around and one of my first ever opportunities to immerse in some fog photography, which I enjoyed very much. When we departed for our last trip, I was hoping to encounter conditions like that along the way. I have not had much chance to photograph foggy landscapes before and it was right at the top of my photographic wishlist.
We had some promise of fog early in the journey but that never eventuated. We saw glimpses of it but mostly we had clear mornings with little fog of cloud. I picked this location to stay based on its relative solitude and remoteness, away from bigger towns and cities, in a quiet and undisturbed rural area. We booked a little wooden cabin for couple of nights and we were surrounded by fields and paddocks on the banks of Frankland River. With colder temperatures around the weather conditions were also perfect for fog to develop and on one of the mornings my wish came true.
I packed up my gear and ventured out into the fog not long before sunrise. There was not much chance of any colour so I waited until the light got bright enough to safe navigate the field, especially near the river. Visibility was around ten metres, may be even less, and there was plenty of wonderful thick fog to enjoy. We scouted the area when we went for a walk on the previous evening so I already had some ideas for photo but I was open minded to look for any other possibilities which I cape upon.
The main challenge was to find subjects which would look good in these misty conditions. Trees were the obvious candidates and especially for more close up and intimate compositions. For wider perspectives, I felt that I need to find a good foreground to lead into the scene. I loved the colours and textures of the fields. I am not sure whether it was heather or other similar shrub but it looked great with its red and magenta tones. However, without some element to anchor the foreground, the field would just be a flat and monotone looking patch. Luckily, this being an old farm paddock, it had plenty of different poles, fixtures and other bits that could be used for this purpose.
This is the first image which I processed in depth from that day. It is a tester of a kind to see how to go about processing a scene like this, but one that I thought worked well composition wise and hopefully one that represents the mood of that morning very closely to how I felt it at the time. I was feeling my way through post processing, checking how far to push the contrast, where to set the black and white points, what white balance to set and how to bring it all together to work as one. Being in the field and taking photos is what I love the most but I have learned to love the extension of that creative process when I do my post production at home.
I hope to post more foggy photos in the coming weeks and really wish I get to encounter more days like this one in the future. One morning was never going to be enough but it was a great learning experience for me, which I will remember going forward and hopefully build on it when the next similar opportunity comes along.
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