Mysterious MacRae

There was still some snow on the side of the road and temperatures were in the 30s this past weekend when I visited Grandfather Mountain. ...And the wind was whipping through MacRae Meadows when I shot this. At one point one of the park workers came up behind me to see what I was doing in the middle of the picnic area on such a lousy day. Okay, that was a bit scary to hear someone come up from behind while in the midst of such dense fog. He asked how I could possibly be getting anything in that soup. Well, it was pretty thick. And this was the foggiest shot I took, but I have to say there's something about this shot I like. You'll probably have to click the photo and enlarge it to really get a good look at it. And even then you might not like it -- But I like the mystery, the spookiness, and the subtle forms that emerge through the dense fog.

A word on composition here -- I broke a major rule, which is not to divide the frame in half either horizontally or vertically. I had some distractions off camera on the right which prevented me from shifting the frame that way. And I could have zoomed in a little more, but I liked the context the trees on the left. So sometimes you make a decision just to break the rules, and this was one of those times.

Click here to visit my gallery to see some other fog shots from that day -- and to see more long-exposure sunset shots from Watauga Lake like the one I posted yesterday.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.
--Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German born American Physicist


Details: Nikon D90, 18-200mm lens at 90mm, f/29 for 1/2 sec., ISO: 100