I rise early, even on weekends. Maybe it's a bodyclock accustomed to early starts tempered with residual anxiety, or just habit, but for whatever reason I'm bolt awake at 5:45am I do at least get to see the world at first light. Misty early mornings are a favourite of mine, and as with rambling through fresh fallen snow or pressing boot prints in frost-frozen leaves, the milky half light a misty day brings a welcome sense of intimacy that leans enticingly towards the supernatural. It was on such a morning, having risen just before dawn, that I decided to take my Bronica for a walk in the woods. I recently purchased a spot meter and so armed over previous weekends I had seen a definite improvement in exposure as well as my own confidence with the camera. My intention was capture images of trees (my favourite subject) standing as lonely figures, still bare-branched in earliest spring, shrouded in mist with a few contrat-y highlights picked out by the rising sun. I shot an entire roll of Ilford HP4+ at roll speed, but extended the exposure slightly on alternate shots to see if that added anything.
I particualrly like how the mist introduces an ethereal background that softens the more distant trees, as though they are advancing spectres, somehow more substantial yet faceless.
In this image, the conifers in the foreground seem to be ever-so-slightly blurred, but I can't be sure if it's due to camera shake or the effect of the most. In either case I like it.
A cropped version of the first shot of day adds further drama and once again the red filter certainly introduces another dimension.
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