Sunday, January 4, 2015

In the Fog

A little advanced warning for you, friends:  this post is going to be very heavy on photography.  Just wanted to let you know, as sometimes it drives me nuts trying to get pages with lots of photos to load -- especially on my phone.

We've had an odd last couple of days here in terms of the weather.  Yesterday was snow, sleet, and rain.  Today was up into the 40s, causing quite a lot of fog.  I'm sure it was a pain if you had to drive any distance in it.  Personally, I saw it as a great opportunity to go out and play, to try to capture the fog in pictures.

It was a bit more challenging than I thought, as the fog was heavy in some areas and almost non-existent in others.  Plus, many areas were just a mess from the snow, and I didn't particularly want to experience getting my car stuck somewhere.

I eventually wound up at Longview Park, down by the Hudson River.  Let me start by sharing some older pictures of what the you would normally see if you were to visit the park.  I mean, the pictures of the fog are lovely and all (in my opinion), but not quite the same if you have nothing with which to compare them.

From earlier, less foggy days:

Looking South.  You can clearly see the Walkway Over the Hudson and the Mid-Hudson Bridge.  Pretty big landmarks.

The view looking North, toward Hyde Park.

Most obvious of all -- Highland, and the mountains in the distance, on the opposite side of the Hudson.

A view looking down along Longview Park, starring my mother, my niece, my nephew, and many geese.

Great!  We are all on the same page now as to what you would expect to see.  

I knew it was foggy when I headed out, but I truly did not expect how thick and heavy it was going to be -- especially down by the river.  As I stood looking across toward Highland it was quite impressive.  I was able to see maybe halfway across the Hudson River.  The meeting of the river and the fog was seamless.  It was like everything just stopped and turned into a blank grey canvas.  It was surreal, a bit like stumbling upon the edge of the world.



 No Highland visible, no geese, no one around.  Just some driftwood in the water.

No, the darker shades are not the other side of the river, just some shadows.

Remember that view looking South, where the Walkway and the bridge should be?  Not a trace.

Looking North.  Can't even see past the bit that juts out.



 This gazebo sits on top of a hill in Longview Park.  Normally there are beautiful views.  Today it was as if a curtain had been pulled closed behind it.

Someone else had been to the gazebo at some point, and they made a little star.

Looking at the Hudson from the top of the hill.

Even my car in the parking lot is starting to be absorbed into the fog.

There are train tracks on both sides of the Hudson River.  You can actually see them in the photo above, running underneath the power lines on the right-hand side.  A train happened to come down the tracks on the Highland side of the river while I was at the park.  I thought for certain I would at least see some lights, or a vague, slightly darker shadow snaking its way along the edge of the water.  I saw absolutely nothing.  It was so quiet other than the train, and the echo seemed different.  If I hadn't known the tracks behind me were empty it would have been hard to tell which side of the river the train was on.  I shot a short video.

Ghost train!  All the sound, none of the visibility.

That concludes today's adventures in the fog.  I did attempt to go out on the Walkway Over the Hudson as well, as I thought that would be pretty cool -- like walking in the clouds.  Sadly, it was closed.





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