It happened again! I was going to spend the morning at Hawk Mountain in the fog taking wonderful pictures. The cloud conditions were perfect. It was a Saturday and I had the time set aside. The road that leads to Hawk Mountain climbs in elevation. Within a mile of the top, I entered the fog bank and smiled because all the planning paid off! I started debating between black and white or color images and couldn’t wait to start. I pulled up to the trailhead entrance… and was greeted with a sign saying “Trails Closed for Safety During Deer Hunting Season”.

I sat there… stunned. I debated going in anyway, but came to my senses and made the intelligent decision not to (ok, the guard sitting in his car stopping people from trying had something to do with it!)

This time there was no whining, no anger, no cursing my bad luck. I turned around (thought again about going in, but the guard was still there!) and drove back down the road toward a small patch of winter color that caught my eye. I had seen it many times on the way to Hawk Mountain and always slowed down and even stopped once before. This time I parked the Jeep and started making some photographs in the light rain.

Who said winters colors had to be shades of brown or grey? The rain and mist, along with the red colored branches, the berries, the lichen on the trees, and the winter grasses came together to produce color that you never seem to notice in winter.  And the raindrops on the branches echo the red berries, lacking only their own color.  I spent almost three hours just walking and photographing along a roadside in this small patch of winter color - and loved every minute of it!

A short Photo Story from December 2019, by Brian Reitenauer.