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Well I tried to not be awake for this fog. I guess it was meant to be lol. I set my alarm for 5:50 in hopes of morning fog with the low temps. I was kept from sleeping thanks to some noise that has been rumbling loudly from some appartment night after night now. It is just loud enough that I can't drown it out with my fan on high. It gets in my head and I get more and more pissed off and awake. I have no idea how someone sleeps with that crap going on in their appartment. The thing idles up and down rather erratically and I can't figure out what it must be. Almost sounds like a generator running somewhere. The way the idle kicks up and down reminds me of a home high pressure car washer. I know it isn't a car washer or a generator, but it sounds similar. When I first heard this I swore there was highway construction going on just outside. Whatever it is it started up at about 10 last night and is not running now during the day. So I get to sleep very late thanks to that. I also had my windows cracked open. Well I wake up very early thanks to cold. It was around 3:45 a.m. when I woke up and had to kick the furnace on for a bit. When this happened I thought about my alarm being set and said screeeeeew that. I fixed it so it would not come on. So the fog chase was now cancelled. Well I wake up again at 5:30 after a total of 3-4 hours of sleep. I rarely wake up before a full nights sleep. I turn the tv on as I can still hear that stupid noise. I turn it to the weather channel to see the local temps and holy crap, Tekamah is reporting 43 degrees! I had looked out and seen no fog before this, but knowing it was that cold out I knew fog was a guarantee on the river and lakes. I then got back up, showered and left. The above shot is coming down off the bridge just into IA. The fog out there was awesome looking but there was one problem--the bridge was the only raised object in the area. It is all flat till you get to Missouri Valley and the bluffs.
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I'm now between Blair and the Desoto Wildlife Refuge. I had stopped by the river on the way over and there wasn't a lot of fog on the river. Most of the fog was coming off the lake at the refuge. This fog above is from that lake and the river that runs right by it.
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Entering the refuge now.
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Well into the refuge, on the main lake now. Next time I do this I may have to borrow one of my parent's vehicles. The road that runs along the lake(not this little one here) was a MESS. I turned around and drove back from where I had come as I wasn't sure I wouldn't get stuck somewhere along the way. It always seemed good in the past but now is lacking some gravel or something.
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The thing to the right of the image on the lake is a Heron. It was out of reach of my 50mm by a good bit...obviously. I got some closer shots of it later when my sister arrived and I borrowed her 80-200mm Kodak lens. It was a very cool scene with the thick fog, lighting changes, and this large bird perched on the log for over an hour. I truly need to get myself a high quality Canon L telephoto soon. I must have said, "too bad I don't have a telephoto lens" 20 times while watching this scene.
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I must have put my 17-40L back on for this one. I was switching back and forth between it and the 50mm.
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Oh what I would have given to have a 400L or something right at this moment. I would have moved right so the sun was closer to the Heron and got some sweet shots.
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There are some crazy cool ops with fog. I haven't shot and chased it much and can't wait till I get a bit wiser about it.
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As the sun rose a bit higher it became blocked by an area of thick cirrus. This made the dynamic range a bit more friendly for a while.
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The fog was still rather thick at times. I didn't hear the boat that cause these ripples until later. It was pretty cool looking how they rippled out into nothingness.
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My sister has now arrived at the lake and I'm using the 80-200mm kodak. I can't say I've really ever used a telephoto. I was quickly surprised at how hard it was to hold it still when way out there. I understand that is how it works, but this was a first seeing how much movement there was. I think I was on ISO 400 while doing this and had the shutter up around 1/2000.
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Canon 400L on this might have been fun during a few of the condition changes. I'm now wondering though if the fixed focal length at 400mm would bug me. I've wanted that lens for close up sunset shots as it would work well enough for that. But if I plan to do more of this it might not be worth it.
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There were two of these birds that I saw. This one is flying over towards the other. Notice the boat in the upper right. I never saw that while I was there.
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I'm now leaving the refuge heading east.
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Now north of Missouri Valley driving along the bluffs, looking east. I think the best location to shoot fog may lie up in the bluffs somewhere. I was too late now since the fog was now lifting more. I drove east into the bluffs but never could get above the fog. Will have to be in a high location looking west early next time.
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Speaking of high locations in the bluffs, this was at the end of another rather uneventful chase. I wondered about this location earlier when shooting the fog. I'm at the senic overlook on westbound I-80 in IA(maybe it is called 680 there I don't know.....it is the portion that goes straight west and hits I-29). I am not certain you can get up here from the eastbound lanes. I think there is another spot over there to look out of. There is a bridge going over the interstate there but I'm not thinking it connects to this area at all. The sign said it was closed 4pm to 8am but I tried anyway and it was "open" except for the rest rooms. It is a pretty cool area to view west, but it really doesn't look down on the flat valley as I had hoped for fog. I'm halfway up the tower you can walk up. It is fairly tall. This storm was severe at this time with a pretty cool looking hail core.
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