The night before I snapped this photo, a heavy rain poured down on Middle Tennessee. I knew the humidity would be high the next day and that the rain would drop the temperature overnight into the 60s. That was the perfect recipe for fog the next morning.
I woke up a couple of hours before sunrise to drive to Radnor Lake State Park in Nashville. I hoped to capture the rays of sunlight shining through the fog just as the sun rose over the eastern ridge bordering the lake.
For photographers, the legendary golden hours at sunrise and sunset are among the best times to capture the beautiful interaction of low-angled light, weather and subject matter. When all of these elements are in place, magic can happen.
Unfortunately, the magic was delayed because of overcast skies. The fog was thick, and the light was very flat. The sun wouldn’t break through the clouds for a couple of hours. As I waited for sunlight, I set my camera up on a tripod at the lake’s edge to shoot what I could.
Using a higher ISO, which allows for a higher shutter speed in low light, I was taking photos of the occasional great blue heron flying by. Generally, you need a shutter speed of at least 1/2000 of a second to capture birds in flight. It was just too dark to do this successfully.
I changed my focus to a pair of geese nearby. I could hear them all morning but really hadn’t paid much attention to them. Once they started to swim across my field of vision toward the wall of fog, I quickly changed my settings. I settled on a combination of the lowest ISO at 1,000 and the highest shutter speed I could do at 1/250 to capture the motion of the geese and not increase the “noise” in the image.
As they swam, they separated a bit, and I saw the goslings in between them. They were the cause for all the honking as the geese warned others to stay away from their young.
Photographing nature is always a metaphor of life for me. You can plan all you want, but you never know exactly what the day or shoot will hold. The trick is to appreciate what you are given, recognize it and enjoy the gift.
The geese were my gift that day. They provided the perfect focal point to capture the feeling of this moment.
I love foggy summer mornings.
To find out more about Tennessee State Parks near you and across the state, visit tnstateparks.com.
“Canada Geese with Goslings”
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, EF 200-400mm /4 L IS USM 1.4 Ext at 560mm, ISO 1000, /-5.6 at 1∕250th second, Gitzo tripod
