Top Ten (#9)

Photo by: Tim Bindner Photography

Here is # 9.

Technical aspects:

Camera – Fuji X100F

Aperture – F/5.6

Shutter Speed – 1/210 sec.

Focal Length – 23mm

ISO – 320

Film Simulation – Classic Chrome

Location – Burnsville, NC (https://goo.gl/maps/16DUvp3cAjsqdQGM9)

Date – April 26, 2019 @ 1:00pm.

This shot was taken on day three of my trip through Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, then back home to Indiana. I posted previously about this trip but wanted to discuss this shot and why it made my top ten.

Due to the bad weather, we could not go on a specifically planned hike so Mark and I decided to take a drive up to the Mount Mitchell overlook. We turned off the Blue Ridge Parkway onto NC-128 and began our windy ascent to the overlook. A few miles up the road the thin fog we had been driving through became so dense and thick we could not see more than ten feet in front of the Jeep. We decided it was unsafe and began creeping slowly back down NC-128 toward the Blue Ridge Parkway. About ½ mile down NC-128 the fog lifted (sort of) and before a word spoken Mark did as I was about to request, he pulled over to the spot on the map above. We simultaneously hopped out of the Jeep and Mark began walking up the road (the way we came from) trying to capture a rolling fog, moving eerily over the road. I looked the other way (the direction we were driving) and attempted to capture the shot above.

The air was cool (in the low 60’s), perfect for me. Combining the humidity of the air, the slight breeze and the sights before me, a feeling of true peace, swept over me like the fog that engulfing the treetops in front of me. Mark was a hundred yards plus behind me on the road, but I felt completely alone, but not in a bad way. I stood on the edge of the road soaking in the cool breeze, smells, sights and sounds (or lack thereof). There was a silence dampened by the surrounding forest and capped by the fog above and around me. This for me was serenity. Something I had experienced a few times on my trip before and after this moment. I etched this moment into my memory for reference later, during more stressful points of my life. Heard the term ‘happy place’?

I originally took this shot in monochrome but decided the color added to the feel and perspective I wanted. Though it is man-made the gray of the road, split by the two yellow lines snake through the lower right of the shot. I left a bit of gravel on the left and a small patch of grass in the shot to remind me I purposely pulled off the road to take in the sight. In my mind, this picture provides a bit of symbolism. A reminder that I need to take time to pull over in my mind. To stop and look around from time to time.

In the middle of the shot, to the left and right of the road, the pine trees and other vegetation, sandwich the road. In this image, I see that vegetation as the blinders that we all have in life. Whether we are so focused on careers, bills, social status, image or whatever, most of us do not see these proverbial trees, we only see the road ahead, below and in my case (behind). I am learning to view these trees in this metaphor.

For me, the main focal point of this shot is the looming fog. Like much of my life, I live in the fog of anxiety, stress and even those lies I tell myself. An appropriate quote from the show Chernobyl: Miniseries on HBO states “When the truth offends, we lie and lie until we can no longer remember it is even there, but it is, still there. Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later that debt is paid.” For me, I have to pay that debt and undoing the lies I have been told or tell myself over 51 years. Like the fog in this picture, I live without full clarity in my life, for now.

This shot puts me at ease. The fog represents a blanket of calmness and peace for me. I feel a sense of serenity and solace. Solace in the fact that moments before we were in a stressful area due to bad weather, yet we found this place only a short distance from the storm. I also take solace due to some sadness I have been in over the past few years. This picture reminds me that there is beauty and wonderful things out there regardless of how it appears, I just need to look. What appears to be dark, damp and unfavorable conditions can quickly lead to beauty like above. I am learning to look for that beauty daily.

This moment in time is mine and mine alone. No-one else will experience that moment, in that exact location and time like I did. The picture is ‘good enough’ to get a sense of what it was like, and my words don’t do it justice, but I have this memory and I was there. Nothing can take that away from me. This shot will be a constant reminder of that moment.

Thanks again Mark for bringing me here. This trip was exactly what I needed when I needed it, and most importantly the location and conditions provided me the perfect opportunity for this and many other snaps. Part of my soul and lots of my anxiety was left in those mountains. Though I plan to return, I will leave my anxiety there in that fog, hopefully, to drift away and melt off into the forest. This trip changed me, and this particular location and moment had a lot to do with that.

Until next time,

Tim