1911_1467 Starry Foggy Night - a photo on Flickriver

1911_1467 Starry Foggy Night

            An old International Harvester sits rusting in a field in the middle of nowhere. When the online astronomy bloggers got all excited last week about a possible meteor shower or even meteor storm, I thought this would be an amazing setting for such a phenomenon. Then someone at NASA said it would likely be a bust, so that tempered my enthusiasm. But I had to try.

The morning had been cloudy, but by mid-afternoon all that blew away, creating perfect conditions. It had snowed the day before, so I drove out to the site to make sure the roads were passable. No problem. The show was scheduled for 10:30 pm, a 40-minute window. By 8:30, fog was forming in the village, and my expectations sank as it grew in intensity. Still... I had to try.

I drove out there. I used only one lens, the 14-24mm, set at 14mm with the focus ring taped at infinity. Sure enough, there wasn't a single flash in the sky... but the whole thing was magical anyway. The fog gave the scene an ethereal look; stars twinkled above; far away, a pack of coyotes set up a yipping chorus (one of my favourite prairie sounds). I couldn't really see anything through the viewfinder. A minor consideration. I've always been good at pretending to know what I was doing.

For this shot, I painted the truck and foreground with an LED flashlight, did a "one Mississippi, two Mississippi" count with the shutter open, until I got bored, and later monkeyed around in Photoshop until I thought it looked good. The fog turned out to be a key component of all the shots. In the end I came away with two or three more that I liked - that was an intense and productive three quarters of an hour! It was a reminder that the world will seldom conform to my personal wants and needs, but if I keep an open, fluid mind, I can indeed get over myself and see the photo potential all around me. 

By the time I finished, I could barely see the nearby farm buildings. I followed my footsteps through the snow, back to my car, which was invisible until I got to within 20 feet. I drove home slowly. The fog was thick, then thin, then thick again. No traffic; none. What a night!

Photographed near Val Marie, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission © 2019 James R. Page - all rights reserved.

Taken in: Canada / Saskatchewan / Masefield (show map)

Taken on: November 21, 2019

Tags:

night

stars

foggy

starry

landscape

vertical

International Harvester

old truck

abandoned

snowy

field

snow

cold

winter

beauty

beautiful

ethereal

wide angle

long exposure

LED

painting with light

prairie

solitude

nobody here but me

middle of nowhere

Val Marie

Saskatchewan

Canada

copyrighted

James R. Page « less

Sets appears in: • Best 2019 • Not Explored more » • Rust Never Sleeps • After Dark « less

Groups appears in: • Night Images • Fog, rain and snow more » • FOTOCYFER - The Light's Hunters • Living Life Through A Lens • Cars: Rusty & Abandoned • artland • Your Very Best • Explorable • The best photographs from around the world. « less

Camera: Nikon D800, f/3.2, 113 sec, 14mm, ISO 2500 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D800
Lens:	14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture:	f/3.2
Exposure Time:	113
Focal Length:	14mm
ISO:	2500
Exposure Bias:	-2/3 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Gain Control:	High gain up
Sharpness:	Hard
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Macintosh)
Show full info

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