Nine months. It took 9 months to get this shot. 9 months of practice and patience in preparation of this moment. St Patrick’s Day, 2022, brought with it a surreal scene along the Hudson River. Both of the other pieces from this set came from that near mythical evening, and yet it left feeling unfulfilled, like there was so much more I could have done if the fading light had just held on a little longer.
Fog, particularly a fog that settles in the valley like this, is rare and wildly unpredictable. Nearly the entire fall fog season came and went without this scene playing out. I waited nights and mornings out in the chilly, damp air just hoping for the fog to settle, or rise, or deepen, or…
Exhaustive, deafening stillness for hours on end. Its maddening. The white vail became my white whale and I began to panic at the thought of having to wait until Spring to try again. Halloween approached and I feared I’d be spending months alone with my thoughts of failure. Then, finally, my opportunity came once more. Intruded upon, predawn, by the blare of the fog horn, I rose and literally sprinted toward the challenge. Setting my gear down and pulling out my camera as I had practices ad nauseum, I framed and shot in as fluid a motion as I had been able to conjure, this panorama of the world before me. Triumph!
