Fog

So, how about this weather??? This weather sucks! This weather is crazy! Gotta love Illinois Weather! yeah yeah yeah..... Everyone's talking about the weather. I'm just as guilty as the next guy, I suppose.

But, how about that fog a couple of days ago???!!!!! heh :-)

No, really. That was some pretty damn stout fog! The forecast called for it to lift by noon, but, it seemed to pick up steam after noon and into the night. I went outside to "check the weather" (A.K.A. smoke break) about 2:00 or so, and from Adams St. could not see Old Chicago at all (two blocks away) and could just barely (after staring at it) make out an outline of the twin towers (1 block away). At that point I knew I had to play with the camera after work.

So, after work, I head down to the riverfront. Initially, I was thinking to go across to the other side of the river and shoot towards downtown. However, when I got to the riverfront, I knew that all I would get is a wall of fog. There's no way you would have seen the city...I couldn't even see the buildings / lights a block away. Ok, this side of the river it is!

I started walking around snapping pictures of this and that all the while being amazed that I couldn't even see the bridge from the docks near the Spirit of Peoria!!


I really like the way the fog obscures the horizon...you never really see where the water ends and land (or sky for that matter) begins.

As I walked around, I really wanted to try to get a nice shot of the bridge disappearing into the fog. I tried several angles and decided that this was my favorite.


This was exactly what I envisioned! Relatively clear close in, and gradually fading into nothing! The fog was great for cleaning up messy backgrounds and other distractions. The isolation really allows you to focus on the subject.

As it got darker, I headed back towards The Tavern On Water (or Roxy's or Crooked Waters or whatever you know it by). I stopped off by the docks and grabbed this shot.


I was lazy and didn't carry around the tripod, as it really wasn't needed early on. But, as the light diminished, I had to bump the ISO for this one (which means more digital noise, especially in the shadows). So, this took a little extra work to clean up, but, I thought the end result was fairly nice.

As I walked on and it got darker, at one point I stopped and just looked out across the river. It was really pretty creepy. First off, you couldn't see anything across the river..no hints of street / business lights, no buildings, nothing! All you got was a wall of fog. The water was like glass, and every now and then, a couple of chunks / sheets of ice would float by. Without any other anchor, it had somewhat of a disorienting affect. As I said, kind of eerie.

Anyway, it was well worth the hour or so I spent there! Though, driving home was a challenge! ;-)