(Extra)ordinary morning in Saint John

The day before, I made the decision to drive to Saint John on Canada Day for some photography. The plan was for my wife to tag along. Later that same evening, my wife noticed the weather forecast calling for some fog in the morning. Great! Foggy conditions make for some pretty unique images, but if we were to get there in time to take advantage of it, we’d have to leave by 4 a.m.

When the alarm sounded at 3:30 the next morning, my wife felt it was too early to get up and made the decision to forgo the trip. I was on my own for this one. I packed my photography gear, put on a podcast and drove off towards southern New Brunswick.

Top-left: fog on the drive to Saint John.

There was all kinds of fog during my drive. At times, it was so thick that I preferred slowing down. When the fog was lighter and it was safe to do so, I pulled over to take a few pictures out of my car window. The conditions were changing so rapidly that, even in the short time it took me to stop and pull out my camera, the scene was no longer as appealing to me.

When I arrived in Saint John at around 6 a.m., there was absolutely no fog. No biggie. I was still looking forward to slowly wandering the Uptown region of the city. I was receptive to whatever the city had to offer me.

It was quiet and there was little human activity. The first thing that struck me was the amount of birds flying overhead and their shrieks echoing between the buildings. I think that set the tone for most of the images I made that day, many of them featuring birds.

Bottom-right: what’s a trip to southern New Brunswick without a stop at the lone tree near Sussex?

Unfortunately, what turned out to be a peaceful and pleasant morning in the Port City observing and considering my surroundings just didn’t quite translate into memorable photographs. But it made for a welcome reminder that, sometimes, the “extra” in “extraordinary” lies within the experience itself more so than within its result.