|
Yawn! 24 hours later and I'm still yawning. So I went to sleep around 3 A.M. the night before. Around 6:30 my cat wakes me up. Most times I've already booted them both out of my room for the night. I turn the tv on so I can see them, to scoot them on out and go back to sleep. They mention fog on the news. I'd noticed it looking a bit damp before I went to sleep. So I look out and yep, foggy. Since I hadn't gone anywhere to shoot anything for a while, it sparked my interest, even if I was tired. I was like, screw it, I'm up now, may as well go somewhere to shoot something. I look online to see the conditions and note the increased visibilities being reported on the surface map, not far north of me. This fog was right behind a cold front sagging south. That better visibility/drier air would surely do a number on the fog. I left thinking that I wouldn't have that much time with the thicker fog. I'd only been to the Lewis And Clark Monument and Scenic Overlook once before, and that day it was incredibly hot. 98? It was hazy that day and just not that photo worthy. There was a pretty good view of the Omaha airport and skyline from up there. So, I leave with this place in mind, thinking it might be cool to photograph planes taking off and landing, as well as the Omaha skyline...in the fog. It didn't open till 8, which worked out perfectly anyway, since I thought the fog would need to lift a bit to see the skyline. I get there and can't see the interstate I'm a mile or less from, let alone the airport across the river or the skyline. Wellllll, my expected very short shoot turned into a very long, cold, and hungry one. All I had for breakfast was a coke. It was cold and damp out, right around 39 degrees. I had my Nikes on which let a ton of air through the material. I had on a hooded sweatshirt with jeans and a light jacket. What happens is I think it's going to lift, and am afraid to leave too early and just miss the options that would come with it lifting, like the airport or skyline. This ended around 1:30 PM! I shivered and shivered for hours, out on these trails. I kept thinking, I know it's already much better not that far north of here, surely it's going to lift any day now. So rather than walking back to my car and warming up, I'd wait. I was soon doing far less walking, and getting much colder. I did make three trips back to my car to warm up over that 6 hour period. The last time I went back to the trails, I knew it was about over for me. After a while the cold is just deeply embedded in you. I should have dressed warmer. It was no big deal at all for the first hour or so. Several hours though, and the fact I was hungry, just began to take a toll. The 3-4 hours of sleep also weren't doing me any favors. Anyway, on with the account. The above image is out on a trail a ways, of some crack in the hill. The ground in this area is full of stuff like that. I'm not sure how I never fell, especially carrying my camera around on a fully extended tripod like an idiot.
|
|
I was the only person out here for the longest time. Then as I was standing there(waiting), looking out into the hills, a biker zooms by right behind me. It scared the crap out of me as I never heard him or saw him coming. There's actually part of the trail in this image, towards the right. It goes down in a very steep fashion. It's very narrow as well. I'd sure hate to catch a pedal on one of the sides going down that thing.
|
|
Part of me really loves "low key" photography like this one, where the majority of the image has the same lightness value. I thought I'd be able to find some cooler scenes for it, but I wasn't having much luck. If I could float out in the air I would have done better. All the shooting locations are too even with the subjects. I could go down a hill just as steep as that one I'm shooting here. I'd have the same problem with trees. I'd like the above if I had less empty sky space with it. I think it'd be better if I could have went straight out, instead of down to my left. Then I could have the image split into three even parts, sky, the distant hill, and some of the closer trees.
|
|
There's the trail after the steep decline. Further out and up is the same hill from the image before. I never followed the trail down further from this point. I need to. I'm thinking the trails are extensive in this area, just based off the time it took for me to see the flying bicyclist again.
|
|
Here is that hill again with a tighter crop.
|
|
I'm now back near the parking lot. There's another trail here going down into the trees. The top of the hill out there in the fog looked neat from time to time, just barely showing itself.
|
|
Same trail as before.
|
|
I'm now back out on the trail I was on earlier. The trip back to the parking lot was my first trip back to warm up. I was looking for more low key telephoto places to shoot, but seeing the same scene everywhere...lots of trees bunched up together. I know somewhere out there there is a "special" perspective of something out on the hills.
|
|
Now comes the somewhat funny part. The fog thins the smallest little bit. I'd seen the little lake or pond, on the right here, but hadn't noticed the "stream" to the left of it, between the trees and the hill. It quickly gathered all my attention as it looked neat in the fog. (notice the small light towards the top of the image, right of center...it's a train)
|
|
I heard a couple trains earlier, and briefly saw one's lights. All I knew was it was in the trees down below. I thought, dang, that'd be cool to somehow get in the fog. I knew if I went down there that the fog wouldn't appear thick enough for much. I needed a telephoto view. I gave up the idea of walking down there. After a couple hours, while sitting there freezing, still thinking the fog HAS to start lifting any second now, I noticed I'd not heard a train forever. I was like, good thing I never walked down there for a train. So I'm sitting there when I notice a light way off to the south. It very slowly got closer. I figured, it must be another train, which would again go through the trees down below. I began to wonder exactly where it would go before it got here though. It couldn't go through the pond/lake obviously. That pond fills the space between the trees and the interstate. I kept watching and realized, it had to go right along my "stream"! I'd shot a ton of photos of this "stream". I quickly became excited. I was like, this is going to look so cool. I'm at 400mm with the lens and can't see all that well even through the eyepiece. I sure as hell can't tell much without looking through the lens. As it gets closer, I was like, he's going right down the middle of the stream! Then it came to me, LOL. That's not a stream, it's the freaking tracks and gravel. Didn't matter though, it'd still look cool. It was funny at the time, since all this time I'd been certain there was a stream in that area.
|
|
|
|
These looked really cool on the lcd of my camera. I was quickly hooked. Now I had another reason to stay out in the cold too long. I had to wait for more trains so I could do it all over again. This is a different train(note the box cars if you don't believe me). The fog had changed a bit. It sure as hell wasn't trending towards lifting!
|
|
Brighter exposure without the headlight concerns. It wasn't at all this clear.
|
|
The third and final train. I waited FOREVER for this third one. It's not like I knew one was on the way. I just had to sit there and hope it wouldn't be too long. It was probably close to an hour after the one before. I tried it from a different spot along the trail.
|
|
Smokey train.
|
|
I know what is going to happen now. I'm going to want to go shoot this same scene in the snow. Speaking of snow. It snowed here this morning for the first time this year. I like snow as it is something to go photograph, but I'd like it more if I didn't drive a Mustang.
|
