Oberlin in Fog
December 29, 2019
Tuesday Oberlin was draped in glorious fog. I got home from working out, and although it was already past nine o’clock, the fog I’d seen on the way to the fitness center was still hanging around. I couldn’t resist. Walking around my neighborhood, I was sure the fog would lift momentarily. But for two and a half hours I revelled in the stuff, which lasted well past dinnertime.
1 Oak
2 Sycamore
3 Unknown (by me)
4 This and the next two photographs are of what is known as Wildflower Hill.
5
6
7 Rock Pond
8 Why it’s called Rock Pond
9
10 Maybe winter is more colorful than winter is generally given credit for.
11
12
13
14
15
16 Marsh-Mallow (Althaea officinalis) in Winter
Romancing Reality 
How common is fog in your area?
You’re right that even in winter there are colors to be seen in nature.
One reason for our recent visit to the Philippines was a wedding, and the bride’s name was Althea.
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December 29, 2019 at 6:38 AM
Fog is not terribly common in my corner of northern Ohio. We see it more here in the spring, I think. . . . Perhaps my favorite color of winter is that bright straw color that the grasses get. . . . It’s fun that you had a connection to the Latin name of the Marsh-Mallow.
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December 29, 2019 at 11:15 AM
Beautiful pictures, very atmospheric with lovely subtle colours.
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December 29, 2019 at 2:47 PM
Thank you, Jessica. I think it’s hard to miss with fog. You can imagine how much fun I had, especially (and this probably has something to do with the fog) the weather was unseasonably warm, fifty-something degrees Fahrenheit. Climate change, if that’s what it was, is not something to be happy about, but it’s hard not to enjoy a lovely mild winter day.
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December 29, 2019 at 3:02 PM
How lovely that you gave yourself over to the beauty of the fog for 2 1/2 hours. I’m proud of you. This is called seizing the gift of retirement. Thanks for sharing the results.
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December 29, 2019 at 6:03 PM
Thanks, Leslie. I’m not sure it had anything to do with retirement. It’s always been easy to give myself over to my kind of fun for two and a half hours. It’s giving myself over for two and a half hours to things I don’t want to do that’s hard. That’s when I need you to be proud of me. 🙂
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December 29, 2019 at 6:44 PM
This is a really beautiful set, Linda. I’m really taken by the simplicity and color of #16 and by the softness of the woodland across the pond in #8. I am intrigued by images like #8 that have distant components that are inaccessible and right at the edge of visibility; just a hint of what is there. I like it.
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December 29, 2019 at 11:32 PM
Thank you, Mic. Number 16 was a bit of a surprise. The Marsh-Mallow seed heads had interested me for some time, but I could never isolate them enough from the background to make them interesting. Thank you, fog and ice. Love how you describe what’s going on in #8. Your own current series supports this description.
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December 31, 2019 at 11:21 AM
Linda, Beautiful. Â Like our day at Celery Fields only frozen. Â I like the Sycamore one because it has another tree in the background giving the photo depth. Lynda
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December 30, 2019 at 8:52 AM
Oh, I remember how much fun it was photographing at Celery Fields. (https://lindagrashoff.wordpress.com/2018/01/01/the-celery-fields-in-fog-6/) Thanks, Lynda.
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December 31, 2019 at 11:40 AM
Phot0 #7 really swings, and #13 and #16 create a vibrant new life after death. Thanks for sharing. Winter seems less bleak already.
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December 30, 2019 at 6:06 PM
Thank you, Larry. Happy to reduce the bleakness in your winter. If I can keep finding photographs to make in winter, mine is less bleak, too.
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December 31, 2019 at 11:44 AM
The Marsh mallow at the end is like a gift, pure joy. 🙂 I can imagine how happy you were, wandering around in the fog, finding scene after scene. I think my favorite here might be #11 for all that across-the-frame detail and the quietly beautiful colors. And the cattail stalks (#14 – that’s what those are, right?) for the same reason. The opening two trees are beautiful too, just being themselves. This whole series is very much in the vein of things just being themselves, without further adornment. You have a way of demonstrating that we don’t need more than to see what things are in their plainest, most straightforward manifestation. Does that make sense? 🙂
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January 4, 2020 at 4:23 PM
I thought the Marsh-Mallow was a gift, too. I didn’t expect such clarity and isolation of the subject. Glad you like it, Lynn. I was very happy wandering around in the fog. I almost didn’t take #11, and then I almost didn’t post it. But I really liked it—especially after I flipped it horizontally—so here you see it. Yes, #14 is cattail stalks in that beautiful winter-weeds color. I love what you say about things just being themselves, and am happy that’s OK with you. It may be the influence of Elliot Porter, whose work I think I first saw in the ’70s. When I looked at his photographs back then, I wondered why they were such a big deal. They were just what you can see on a walk in the woods. Then I began to appreciate how the ordinary, the mundane, is enough to be beautiful. So, yes, what you say makes perfect sense, and I’m honored that you think these photographs have this quality about them. Thank you, Lynn.
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January 5, 2020 at 2:52 PM