Fog and trees in St. Andrews by-the-Sea

The white birch, minus the distractions

In June, I headed out with Mathieu Chiasson on our latest photography trip. The main objective was to visit the Salmon River Trestle in northwestern New Brunswick, but we decided to make a weekend out of it and stopped at a few locations along the way.

Normally, upon returning from such a trip, I would write about it extensively, but I thought I would approach things differently this time by addressing various instances of the trip in separate newsletter issues.

Recently, I was hanging out with friends and one of them brought up how he really enjoyed images of solo trees. If you’ve been following my photography, you know that I’m also a big fan. Many will dismiss them as a photography cliché; regardless, I like how they evoke themes of solitude and resilience. The first such tree that comes to mind is one near Sussex, NB that I’ve written about and posted images of in the past.

But let’s get back to this particular trip…

The white birch with the distractions

On the first night of our trip, we camped in St. Andrews by-the-Sea. That evening, I noticed the trees along the water nearby. I tried capturing them in interesting ways, but the background was getting in the way. To that end, I tried using the background in the composition like in the photograph above, but still, nothing materialized quite to my liking.

The following morning, I woke up early, and when I stepped out from the tent and noticed the thick fog, I immediately headed back to those trees. I knew the conditions would set the trees apart from their environment.

The heart-shaped tree: first, from a lower angle; second from an eye-level perspective

The heart-shaped tree in the pictures above looked magnificent without the distracting background that would have normally been there under clear conditions.

The very first image at the top of this post is of the same white birch that I mentioned earlier, but without the other trees in the distance cluttering the background.

The following photograph is of another tree nearby and of a path leading to the beach. I like how the fog adds an eery ambiance to the scene.

The gardian of the path

I’ll leave you with this last picture that I like despite its mediocre image quality.

On the evening prior to the foggy morning, I spotted this tree across the St. Andrews Harbour on Navy Island being encircled by a flock of seagulls. Unfortunately, the scene was out of range to get a descent shot using my photography gear, but I still managed to capture it. I cropped it, modified the colours, added some grain, and came up with this vintagey image.

Vintage, but not really

Until next time!