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I started out early, in the half-light of predawn, in a monochromatic world. Inside the beam of my headlamp, near opaque gray swirls of ice fog clouded my field of view. The gray before me was framed in black, concealing, I’m not sure what.

In winter, moose use the frozen river as a thoroughfare, venturing off to shore here and there for food. My original plan was to pick up a trail leading inland and use it as access to one thousand-foot bluff. The top of the bluff, I hoped, would provide a sweeping view of the river valley and something interesting to photograph. As it stood now, I knew it was unlikely I’d get a view of anything in the dense ice fog smothering the valley.

Still, I found contentment moving along the riverbed in the quiet early hours. I took comfort in the peaceful aloneness and found the swishing sound of the snowshoes followed by the crunch of snow as it bore my full weight pleasantly satisfying as I moved along. In time, it got lighter, and I put the headlamp away. The visibility hadn’t improved much, and my expectations were low, but I didn’t care anymore about getting an epic shot. I was an outdoorsman and nature lover long before I developed a passion for landscape photography, so for me, these outings have always been more about the adventure than the picture.

I ventured onward in the soft purple light of day, angling myself toward the distant riverbank. Soon enough, the weak sun rose above the jagged horizon behind me. As it grew stronger, the sunlight began to burn holes through the thick, icy mist. In random places, the fog began to thin, momentarily revealing a cemetery of trees.

In the distance, ghostly spruce trees appeared, their spindly frozen branches stretched out like sun-bleached skeletons. I stopped to watch the appearance and disappearance of land, trying to anticipate where the next window would be. My intention now was to create an image of the frozen spruce amid the wisps of clearing fog. I wanted a high-key, tight image with a shallow depth of field and decided to use the interval timer to capture several random shots, perhaps one of which could make it into my portfolio. Frequently, the reward is unexpected.