Fall 2022: Foggy lake, colorful mountains and curious loons

After waking up at 5:30pm a few days in a row, I finally woke up to a beautiful foggy morning one Friday in October. Getting these conditions is hard: I wanted the fall colors at their peak, a misty lake and perfectly calm weather. I have been taking these types of shots for a few years, so I knew what to look for. I needed a morning with no wind, a very cold night followed by a warm day and a sky with no clouds. In the middle of the rainy season, this is a rare occasion!

I started the morning by taking a few shots of the mist. Though it might look like it was starting to be bright, I could barely see the mountains around. One of my first mistakes of the morning was leaving the ISO on auto with a max of 128 000. Most shots came out way to grainy!!

As the light started coming out, the colors started revealing themselves through the mist creating beautiful reflections in the water.

I soon realized a weird phenomenon: it looked like there was a fire in the middle of lake! I know it was just light hitting the fog in a precise way, but I found this very interesting and didn’t hesitate to capture a bunch of shots.

I then started hearing the loon and rushed to get closer so I could take some pictures. A few days earlier, I bought a new Tamron 150-500mm f/5.6-6.3 lens and this was the perfect occasion to put it to the test. Paired with my Sony A7 IV, I wasn’t disappointed. I quickly switched to burst mode and started tracking the loon.

I was super lucky and got to capture the loon getting out of water and opening wide its wings! This was an incredible moment that lasted, literally, 2 seconds! I am so happy I was able to capture this shot!

A few moments later, the second loon came to visit. I followed them along for the next 30 minutes. My problem was that my Sony A7 IV and my Tamron 150-500mm were too good… With the animal autofocus getting tack sharp image for 98% of my shots, I ended up taking over 1400 pictures of the loons with almost none that I could easily delete 🥶

I took a few last shots of the very saturated colors while heading back home amazed by the last 3 hours I spent on the lake.

This little morning photography session reminded me of the joy of getting the shots I had in mind after days of waking up early only to realize that the conditions were not good to go out on the lake. It was also a good reminder that it’s not the gear that makes the photos special, though in this case the gear definitely helped, it’s the time and sweat I put into trying to get them!