As a long-time resident of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (UP) and expert landscape photographer, Rod Planck has a truly remarkable knowledge of the region’s land and all that lives on it. In August 2018 I joined one of Rod’s workshops in the eastern part of the UP. This time of year, the cooling temperatures reveal dripping dew and a foggy atmosphere in the tamarack wetlands of this area. I enjoy shooting in these conditions for two reasons: first, the heavy morning dew saturates the foliage producing vivid colors; second, the foggy haze evokes mysterious and moody scenes as it wraps itself in and around the tamarack trees dominating the region’s landscape.
In the early morning, we hiked about a half mile into the wetlands. We happened upon a quiet vernal pond surrounded by tamaracks that seemed an ideal shooting location. I scouted the pond’s perimeter, ultimately spotting a location with good light nice foreground features. After capturing several scenes, I felt ready to move on with my exploration of the area.
Content that I’d captured the vernal pond, I didn’t yet realize that there was an even more spectacular image at this location. As I packed my gear and turned to leave, I caught a glimpse of the scene unfolding behind me. Sunlight pierced through a break in the fog and shone into a clearing set back among the trees. The warm light and dark shadows revealed a magical, moody, glow among the surrounding unlit trees. This mixture of warmly lit trees and dark shadows stood in stark contrast to the previous twenty minutes of shooting.
This experience recalls a lesson I learned early in my photography journey from a quote by noted American photographer Jay Maisel: “If the light is great in front of you, you should turn around and see what it is doing behind you.” This advice holds true even when the light isn’t great; you never know what might be behind you.
Enchantment
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Venal Pond
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