Summer 2004

Mist Opportunities

Every morning the world is new.

You may not know that if an alarm wakes you in a closed room. But it is glowingly true every morning in prairies, fens, and woodlands.

The dimly visible hill in the background is a kame, with an esker tailing off it to the west — glacial topography created more than 10,000 years ago. But throughout each growing season, every morning of those ten millennia, new flower buds opened.

New dew glistened. The first morning rays revealed a scene never seen before — and never to be seen again.

Certain mammals and birds are crepuscular — creatures of mornings, evenings, and cloudy days. Deer, nighthawks, foxes, woodcock, and many others sleep during the deeply dark hours, take long siestas during the bright sun hours, and exult in "life on the edge" between the two. I am one of those creatures. Many of the best photographers are as well.

The light that's filtered through the morning mists gives such pure, rich colors that other times of day just can't compete. There is no harshness in this light, and often no wind, allowing for long exposures and clear focus. Gentleness, clarity, continual new beginnings. Worth getting up for?

Close-up photos of the flowers are as perfect as they can be this time of day. The flowers blooming in this landscape are compass plant, yellow coneflower, and nodding wild onion.

Notice that the mist hangs at two levels. Topography causes convection currents in the air, which dissipate fog. Fog forms best over flat areas. Up on the kame-top and down in the fen the ground is flat enough to allow the formation of what are essentially flat, little, low clouds.

Many of the photographs published in Chicago WILDERNESS — pictures that seem so astoundingly beautiful to people — are blessed by the early morning light diffracted by the prismatic droplets of early morning mist. If you like these holy photos, you might enjoy some daybreak walks.

Photo of Bluff Spring Fen by Mike MacDonald. Words by Stephen Packard. Fog interpretation coached by FoxNews chief meteorologist and Chicago Wilderness Magazine subscriber Rick Di Maio. Bluff Spring Fen Nature Preserve is owned by the City of Elgin and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, and managed impressively well by Friends of the Fen.

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