My day off this week turned out to be the only day without sun. There was fog without a sparkle of sunlight coming through. I hoped that during the morning the sun would manage to wipe away some of the fog, but it didn’t. Up till now, I would consider this to be a typical situation for black and white photography. However, this morning I found some colors in the fog! 🙂

For this expedition I took my Russian lens, the Jupiter 8. I haven’t been using it a lot, and I have made several resolutions to practise shooting with it to become more acquainted with the lens, both with the characteristics and with the 50mm focal length. Usually I swap the Jupiter after a couple of shots for my Summicron, because I know exactly what to expect from it. But today it was too wet to be comfortable with lens-changing activities due to the fog , so I stuck with the Jupiter. And I am not disappointed.

The lack of microcontrast that you get with such a vintage lens is not a problem in the fog. The photos are quite hazy anyway…

I took my bike out and drove to the Vlaardingervaart, hoping that the water would make a nice combination with the fog. The view was really quite bad, you could only see a couple of meters in front of you. This forced me to look for details more than for bigger landscape pictures. But the decision to go to the water turned out quite good, as the waterfront provided some nice details such as the boat and the drops of water on the reed.

Along the Vlaardingervaart is a small dike to ride and walk on (see photo below), with a few pretty houses on the other side. One of the houses has a really nice garden, with some small fruit trees and daffodils in the grass (above). Below you see the same garden again, and you see the grassland disappearing in the fog quite soon.

On my way home I came across a small pond with a quirky island with small trees. With the fog it’s like a strange isolated place on earth. The good news: I do see some fresh green leaves emerging here!

Finally, close to my home I found these oddly shaped purple flowers in the meadow. I like the color: again proof that you can find color in the fog. The combination with the fog in this photo creates an image that really reminds me of one of my favourite places: Scotland. Although in Scotland the purple would originate from heather, but this will do (for now…).

Thanks for reading!