Friday, August 27, 2010

Fog Storm





These photos are five years old or so. I took them at the top of Standing Indian Mountain in western NC. It was evening and my peeps and I had just pitched our tents. After an intense rain shower, fog rolled in. I had never before associated fog with rapid wind, but this fog was billowing and rolling and swirling and whipping at our faces. As the fog moved quickly over us, it created a wild drug-like kaleidoscopic gloaming. Every three seconds the colors and shape of the colors changed dramatically. These photos, all untouched, were taken within a five minute period. What I find odd was how the fog, which again I think of as obscuring light, actually lit up by the remaining sunlight, and when it cleared, the vista, while now open to us, was dramatically darker rather than lighter.

I've experienced nothing like it before or since.

Question: I am in my forties, not my two hundred and forties. Am I allowed to use the word "gloaming"? Or is that SO 18th century?

3 comments:

Steven Taylor said...

I believe that the Ph.D. confers the right to use whatever ridiculously obscure word you like. The caveats are that a) you will think other people know what the word means while b) they will really just think of you as pompous and perhaps a bit out of touch with the reg'lar people.

Ultimately, however, they will just nod and ignore you (and perhaps pat you on the head).

So Sayeth FPW.

Elisheba said...

Call it a vintage word and it will be fashionable.

Andy D. said...

And ST, c) that you (he) use it correctly.

MB, I love these photos; but more so the story. It's a very cool story, and the photos really convey and confirm what you were saying.

Per my captcha, dese photos were "diestufl" of dreams...

Yesterday I saw a captcha that said "captive". Is that legal, for it to be a real word?

And yes that means there are times I am able to read the blog and comments without commenting myself. Shut up everyone.

A.