The January day that this photo was taken started out clear and sunny. I had spent the morning shooting along the shores of Lake Ontario, but the conditions just weren't clicking for me. It was becoming that time in a photographers day when the light was becoming too harsh, and so I packed up, willing to admit that not every photo outing would produce an excellent image. On the way home I was surprised to drive into a cloud...something like fog but different. I noticed that the fog was beginning to cause trees, and everything else, to be coated with a fine ice crystals, "ice fog!" I yelled as I thumped my dashboard in triumph. Now it was time to find an interesting subject to showcase this rare weather phenomenon.
Travelling several back roads around Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada I came upon a scene I had driven by countless times before but now looked like an entirely different location, time and world. With the fog being so thick this stand of Eastern Red Cedars became an isolated subject, when usually it would have been a very messy shot. By this time the sun was quite high in the sky, yet the fog persisted making the whole scene brightly illuminated, it was like being in the middle of a consistent, very bright ambient light. I composed my shot and decided on my Nikon 85mm, f1.8 S, a very sharp and characteristic lens. With this focal length I was able to compress the scene enough to accentuate the fog, but still hold all of the composition in the frame. I was really drawn to the cluster of trees, separated only by a small space giving me the impression that they were huddling together for warmth and protection from the ice fog.