#OptOutside

Fog beginning to burn off over the Hudson River, Croton Point Park, Croton-on-Hudson, New York. Canon 7D, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8, ISO 100, f/22, 1/5 sec.

Okay, I realize it is to some extent a marketing ploy, but I do have to give credit to REI for their #OptOutside campaign and for giving their employees Black Friday off to go explore outdoors. Regardless of the publicity, it took some guts and some principle to shut down on the busiest shopping day of the year. Of course I also have a soft spot for outdoor adventure stores, as I love outdoor sports and used to work for Eastern Mountain Sports.

I myself almost always #OptOutside on Black Friday. You certainly won't catch me anywhere near a mall on that day. This year I spent a foggy, but extremely beautiful, morning photographing at local spots within a short drive of my house. I started the morning at and above Swan Lake in the Rockefeller State Park Preserve. When the fog burned off there, I headed up to the New Croton Dam, which was so fogged in I couldn't make a single image, but it was beautiful and slightly creepy. Finally I ended up at Croton Point Park, where I hiked around the peninsula photographing the scenery and macros of the dew-covered leaves until the fog finally burned completely away. The heavy fog made for some spectacular photographic conditions and I ended up with a fair number of images that I was really happy with. I'll share more in future posts.

I hope many of you at least had a chance to get outside as well, but I truly hope that you joined the #OptOutside movement and took the full opportunity to enjoy this beautiful planet we live on.

The heavy fog provided both perfect even light for macro photography and saturated most objects with dew drops. Some recently fallen oak leaves retained enough of their waxy coating to cause the dew droplets to bead up. Canon 7D, Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6, ISO 100, f/22, 1/5 sec.