Early Morning Mist On A Mirrored Pond

If you want to get a dawn shot in northern Vermont close to the summer solstice, you have to get up early. This shot taken minutes before 6 AM on the 14th of June illustrates that point. The thick mists that can attend an early morning pre-dawn fishing trip or Kayak paddle are still crisply visible, the sun is already starting to climb for the day, not yet high enough to lend its light to the trees and hills in the background of the photo. Instead, it casts them as back-lit silhouettes, standing behind a mirrored pond that is already showing its color but still clinging to early morning mists that attend the march from night to day. The sun is just high enough to paint the sky a bright blue and reveal puffy clouds which will all appear white as the sun reaches a high enough point in the sky. As with most outdoor shots with limited processing, this photo tells a story of lighting in a natural world. A sun behind clouds sets them aglow and casts its light at the precise angle to make the pond's surface a near perfect mirror.

Great Lighting Requires Little Help

This photo has been very minimally processed to preserve the effects of mirroring, directional light, and mists, presenting a view very close to what would have been seen with the naked eye at the moment the photo was taken. The photo has been cropped to move the center and to remove some late spring vegetation mats that were at the time outpacing the rate they could be eaten back by the fish and the ducks. The minimal enhancement of the photo was to enhance clarity slightly to better highlight the mists raising from the water. The effect of mirroring and back-lit clouds are as they appeared at the time of the shot and the photo is otherwise untouched.

The Sounds Of The Scene

Unlike many days close to a body of water that time of year, water fowl activity started slowly and lazily at Shelburne Pond after dawn that day. Not captured by this photo is the sound of the terns just starting to dive bomb the waters, with long spacing between the loud, precise plunks as they dove and slight splashing as they resurfaced from the water and immediately took to the sky once more. The early morning light having been enough for them to spot their prey before tucking their wings and diving beak first. The soft and sleepy chortles of the dabbling ducks starting to head out onto the water for the day could be heard from the cattails, but their procession across the pond was not yet to be seen. The song birds were just starting their calls for the morning but there was still a lingering stillness in the air, potentially the subduing effect of a chilly pre-dawn just then breaking.

The Story This Photo Tells Me

One thing a photograph rarely tells is the moments that come before and after it was taken. The effect of light that mirrored the pond which was already slightly colored by algae, did not last long on the pond that day and requires a pretty specific set of circumstances on that pond once the color of algae appears. The chill on that morning that allowed the mist to cling to the water as long as it did, was relatively unique to that day during the month, as the fog at that time of day was unseen the rest of June. To me, outdoor photographs are all about specific occurrences happening at a specific place and at a specific time, ones that may appear within cycles as well as ones that may be entirely unique to a moment. This photo captured a moment and specific lighting/ fog effects not normally seen at that pond at that time of year, displaying a crisp late spring morning that this photo will always remind me of.