Tall Pines in the fog near Rose Lake – Click image to enlarge
As I’ve mentioned many times in this blog, one of my favorite photography destinations in Ohio is Hocking Hills State Park about an hour’s drive southeast of Columbus. Until recently, one area of the park I hadn’t photographed is Rose Lake which is mid-way between Old Man’s Cave gorge and Cedar Falls.
Art Wolfe is one of my favorite photographers and the evening before my trip to Rose Lake I was watching one of his Travels To The Edge episodes titled “The Southwest: Zion and Canyon de Chelly.” At the end of the episode Art is photographing a grove of aspen trees in the fog which he said were perfect conditions for photographing the aspens. As it turned out, the day of my trip to Rose Lake was very foggy, and when I arrived at the trailhead just before sunrise the area surrounding the lake was completely fogged in. The hike to the lake from the trailhead is about ½ mile and passes through a forest of tall pines. As soon as I saw the tall pines I immediately thought of Art photographing the aspen’s so I was very excited to be able to photograph in these conditions. The fog acted like a giant lightbox providing very even lighting, and as you can see in the image above the fog gave the scene depth and a sense of mystery. Since this image was taken in the fall, the red, orange, yellow and green leaves added a nice touch of color. I spent close an hour photographing in these tall pines before finally making my way to the lake.
To see more of my photography of Rose Lake and Hocking Hills State Park, please visit my gallery here. If you have any questions about this website or my photography, I’d love to hear from you. Please click here to email me.