Bear & I

I know it is silly, but I sometimes like to take my favorite old beat up Bear with me. I think it is fun. Bear was purchased at a Thrift Store and was piled in a shopping cart with other stuffed animals. $1 each. He had a fancy Christmas sweater on him that I took off. 
He was intended to be a woods bear and after losing him twice to floods, he got tossed into the wash machine and became my pal.

I want to take him to the bluff with me yet this year so I can have coffee and just sit with him. 

I think a photo of him reading a book on a bluff would be a fun thing to try too....

So, Bear & I headed out before dawn and arrived at the KVR buildings while it was still dark. I stuffed him in my backpack and off we went down to the river bottom and took the short muddy and wet path to old 131 and viola, we arrived.

It was far from spectacular but I decided to watch and see what would present itself. 

I could hear the Sandhill Cranes calling out. Wow! Are they ever noisy! I think they flew overhead and landed in the pond behind me. But the brush was so dense as was the fog, I never got to see them.

This is really difficult stuff to work with: heavy fog and low light. So I actually brought a tripod so I could steady the camera to do some 'minimalist' type of photography.

I walked around and then decided to see what interest, I could find in this spot of the pond. It looked really bleak.

Focusing was really hard. The camera couldn't find what I wanted and so I went to manual focus and even that was difficult.

The grass clumps were interesting and that little island behind the first clump was host to a family of Canada Geese this spring.

A different look in that same area...

And one more closer look at some grasses.

Bear started to complain that I was ignoring him so we took a short walk to for some other things of interest.

And we found a cool spider web.

When the sun burst through the fog it gave a whole new look to the place. The fog got heavier for a few minutes. The photo below is a six second exposure.

Bear and I shared some coffee from my thermos and hiked back through the muddy trails to the 'Ru.

On the drive home the sun would come out at moments and when we got right down next to the river, all light was shrouded by dense fog.

I had to pull over and stop.

I'm still undecided on the above photo. Should I have shown more reflection? Should I just crop it to the two right trees? 

But I am happy with this as it is. I think if I brightened it a bit, it would make a great black and white canvas type photo.

Side note: A friend of mine sent me an email asking for scenic photos of interest. She specifically said she wanted people, bicycles, and happy sunny photos. No fog shots as they make her sad. These are for publication in a brochure for tourism in the area.

Hmmm. I do Infrared, fog, forest, and rarely people photos. I happen to love my fog shots. 
They are so wonderfully moody. 

Bear says I should do what pleases me. I like Bear's advice.