Spellbinding!
There are no words to adequately describe my outing this morning at the Hawley Bog Preserve….. spellbinding is the best word that I can think of…. pure Lorraine Magic! Truly spectacular - start to finish!
I am breaking this up into two posts…. this first one is landscapes only with no birds. And omg the birds!! :). I planned on going this morning because I thought there was a great chance of hoarfrost. Hawley is a good 40-45 min from our house - so up and out I went to get there before sunrise - 30 degrees and no wind and a clear sky. It was my first time going to the Hawley Bog and I could not have timed it any better. As I was driving through Ashfield the fields and lawns had a good frost. I kept thinking that in the bog there would be a great chance of hoarfrost - frost that is more like feathery ice crystals. Hoarfrost occurs when everything just lines up perfectly with temperature, dew point and humidity levels.
This bog is a Registered Natural Landmark - that is how special and precious this land is.
There is a very narrow boardwalk that runs for a short distance into the bog so I went with one camera only - and good thing. It was extremely challenging the entire morning to deal with my tripod as the boardwalk was so narrow I had to use my tripod as a monopod. I was fighting constantly with the legs of the tripod to keep them together and balance my camera as if they were on one leg- but I knew that I was not going to give up!
Just as I entered the bog - hoarfrost was everywhere - covering every surface!!! Heaven on earth. The silence was deafening. It literally took my breath away. Please sit back - exhale - relax - and come along with me. Let magnificent Mother Nature soothe you
Practically as soon as I entered the bog I immediately set up my camera to take this shot.
A few steps further and to my left -
And then the sun came up at the backside of the bog up over the trees in from of me… so I turned to look behind me -
I then walked a little further on the boardwalk as I wanted to get to my right to take this shot -
And then about 15 degrees to the right of the sun……… color caught my eye…. it looked like a Christmas tree with lights on it in the middle of a black and white scene.
And then my dear readers - the following happened - an absolute explosion of what looked like water droplets the color of the spectrum! I have seen this phenomenon a handful of other times times. I have NEVER seen it in such an expansive area before. Other times it has been in isolated areas - this just covered this particular area like nothing that I can explain. I did my best trying to capture these for you.. Needless to say - I have never read in any photography book how to capture this in nature… :). I know that there is a scientific explanation for why this can happen - let’s just say - I am going with Lorraine Magic… I hope that you enjoy - who knows how many years it will be before I see this happen again.
I found all of this fascinating and thrilling. This was particularly interesting with the much larger color dots in the upper left. Some fog was moving through again and that must have caused the distortion of the size of the water droplets - truly amazing.
Looking to my right this caught my eye -
Looking a little further to my right… the fog was making such moody scenes as I looked at this angle to the sun.
I moved slightly to my left to capture the following shots - first looking into the sun with the fog swirling and swirling all while you could hear a pin drop it was so devoid of sound. Then the following three shots I moved just slightly to my right -
I crouched down low -
This was the last shot I got off before all of the color disappeared - just like that this show was over. But it will never leave me - how could it? I stood up to catch my breath and to let my heart settle down. To witness something this beautiful in total quiet, all alone, was very powerful.
I turned 180 degrees to capture this -
This morning just kept on giving -
I took out my phone to take a short video for you -
As soon as I put my phone away - I heard bird song - in every direction! I then turned all of my attention to trying to see and photograph birds in this beautiful winter-like setting. The magic of the morning continued. My next post - the birds during this magical and spellbinding morning!
Wishing everyone peace -