I’ve no idea why, but fog is one of my favourite weather events. There was always an abundance of fog in Germany where we lived, but seeing it in the heavily populated area of Maryland is rare.

The science of fog is pretty simple. Warm air can hold more moisture than cooler air (technically, warm air is more kinetically active, so the water molecules are smaller and vaporized while cold air is denser and more…still? Calm? Less energetic…), so as warmer air, saturated with water vapor is cooled, the water molecules coalesce until they are large enough for light to hit them. Suddenly, something invisible becomes visible!

Reminding me where to focus…

Fog is a filter. It shows me which objects are farthest away by blurring the distant silhouettes.

Fog forces me to notice that which is closest to me. It tells me not to mind the world far away for a small moment, but to take time and focus on what is right in front of me.

One step at a time.

As the fog lifts, it reveals, once again, the world far off; but for a little while it was just me, a few trees, a little squirrel on the fence, the sound of birds – their voices unbothered by the mist – and my thoughts.

It is a reminder that we should not burden ourselves, endlessly, with the World’s problems, but focus on what is right in front of us.

The camera’s focus…

The phone cameras today are amazing devices. The problem I have, sometimes, is a bit odd, but they tend to clean up an image so well that it often looks so different from reality. When I try to capture fog, I have to use the manual setting to eliminate the camera’s desire to erase the fog. I think this is another reminder to keep my SLR battery charged.