Approaching Comox, B.C., there is a high point on the Inland Island Highway and I could see that the town, the Comox valley and the Strait of Georgia where blanketed in heavy fog. I was headed for the airport and my flight home. Maybe the fog would burn off. But it didn’t. I missed my flight that day and the next, but I did get to explore the mysteries of the fog in the Comox Valley, and that was a wonderful opportunity.
Trumpeter Swans, white against the fog. That would probably be a picture. So I left the airport and followed Knight Road to a place where I knew I might find some swans. The fog was thick and heavy, cold. And there were swans, just visible in the fog. Subtle shapes and elegant lines of white on grey.
Subtle is a suggestion, but mystery, that is a different experience. Both create questions, but mystery, as Henry David Thoreau said, creates wonder and wonder is the basis of our desire to understand.
The following morning the airlines were still grounded. I followed Comox Avenue along the north side of Comox Harbour to one of my favourite places. Just past the Marina, by the library there’s a beautiful view by the water, that is frequented by eagles. That morning, there was indeed, an eagle or two, and a few ducks and the fog.
Thoreau says that we require mystery in our lives and that we can never have enough of nature. A wise man I think. What an opportunity, through wildlife photography we get to explore the aesthetic value of mystery.
Click on an image below to explore the mysteries of the Way of Wildlife Photography.