Fog

We cross this bridge every day driving to school.  It is a beautiful view any day you cross it, any season.  Grays Bay is on the right, and the main lake is on the left.  The bridge crosses to a narrow strip of land, where there is barely room for the two lane road to wind through the trees. 

Many days the lake looks very different on each side of the bridge.  The bay could be smooth, while the main lake shows the currents of the wind.  The bay could be showing slight waves, while there are white caps just 30 yards away. Or the bay could be frozen, while the main lake is still open.  

On the particular day I snapped this picture, each side looked the same.  That is, we couldn’t see any water on either side because the fog was so thick. It was a little eery, as there are very few foggy days on this particular bay. We knew the fog was temporary, that we would see our lake and the beautiful views again. We also understood that we couldn’t see everything that we normally see. Yet this fog was very, very real and I had to drive very carefully and focus on what was directly in front of me in order to get to school safely. I had to understand that anything in the periphery was almost certainly a skewed view. 

Growing up near the swamps of Louisiana, I am no stranger to fog.  They even have road signs that remind you that visibility is limited in the fog. But the sun also shines hot and bright down there and the fog rarely lasts. 

Several years ago, we rented a house on an island off the coast of Maine and the fog set in for days.  Having never experienced this, I thought I would go crazy.  We literally hired a boat to take us to the mainland so we could drive inland for the day, and experience clear vision. 

My life has been a bit foggy lately and I really wish I could hire someone to take me out of it.  To remind me of the clarity that I have worked so hard to achieve. So that I can see everything as it is, rather than through the distorting haze of this heavy wet fog. 

Street Signs

Sometimes I wish people could just wear street signs so everyone could better understand each other.

About August

Many bloggers are taking part in the August Break. While I understand, appreciate, admire, and respect this decision, I really miss them!  I just discovered many of them this spring and I was not ready for them to take a break. At least it gives me something to look forward to in September. 

Her idea was to simply post one picture a day.  But  she made a point of saying there were no rules, no right way to do it.  It reminded me of something I tried a couple of years ago. I found the idea as I was surfing the net.  A mom of four young children wanted to work on her photography with her limited time and made a goal of posting a picture a day for a year.  I followed it for a while, the while that I was copying it. She has since closed it to the public and I have no way of getting back in. Bummer.  

I love putzing with my camera and enjoyed the project, although it took up way more time than I expected.  I had rules.  I had to post one, and only one,  picture a day.  Some days I took many pictures and it was painful to pick just one.  Other days I was dead tired and it was 10 pm and I had to take a picture of my coffee pot. I loved what became of this project.  It was a day in the life.  Some times I had great pictures and some days I didn’t.  I learned to look at different elements of my photography, and had to hone some skills when forced to choose one picture. I created a blog for this (that, of course, was only for me) and it was fun to watch it grow. 

I came down with H1N1 that spring and that was the end of it.  I was seriously sick for over two weeks and the habit was broken.  

My mother has always asked me how I take the pictures I take.  I have never known how to answer her.  I pick up the camera and press the button. Period.  I rarely turn the dial off of automatic.  She kept badgering me for more instruction.  She wanted the technical stuff that she thought I was keeping a secret. 

In her retirement, she has gone crazy with her camera and can out talk me in photography technicalities all day long. I asked her to do this August thing with me.  With the rules, because that’s how I am. One picture per day.  Early on, she said she didn’t like it because it felt forced.  I explained how the parameters could be viewed as a teaching and growing challenge.  She still doesn’t really like it, but I told her to start her own blog if she didn’t want to do it my way. 

I also am not liking it as much as I did before.  One of the reasons is that I haven’t used my Canon - I’ve just been using my phone.  It isn't developing photography skills.  But it is a day in the life, so I am appreciating that. And it is really fun to do this with my mother.  Her pictures are all labeled Patsy’s Pics and mine aren’t labeled yet. 

Going to Camp