Burghley House in the Fog
“You’ll forever regret the photos you didn’t take”
As I watched the once bountiful tree opposite my house turn more and more transparent and the consequential yellow, orange and pink leaves build up on my driveway, I was reminded to make the most of the magnificent Autumn colour before it was gone for another year.
My mind wandered around some of my favourite landscape photo locations and settled on a particular avenue of trees on the Burghley House estate. The following morning I woke up to thick fog all around, unsure if this would ruin my chance of photographing landscapes or enhance them; I packed my camera gear and set off for Stamford, accompanied by Jess, eager to discover what lay ahead of us.
With the mist not yet burnt off, we meandered through the park and found our way to the avenue that I had been fixated on. I captured the image below, just as an elderly gentleman was walking across the path, framing him perfectly centred. The trees were looking barer than I expected, however, the mist made up for that, and the gentleman was the cherry on top. Pleased with the result, we shifted our gaze to the free-roaming deer in the park.
Equipped with my 70-200mm and 2.0x teleconverter I crept closer and closer to the deer, who were particularly skittish this day, and retreated into their paddock. Thankfully, with the telescopic capability of my gear, I was able to capture some unobstructed images of the stag and his herd.
The mist was showing no signs of thinning, so we continued to amble around the park and capture some of the distinct scenery. Up close, the trees were exactly what I sought, that golden autumn colour. From a distance however, the fog dulled the colours, creating a monochromatic scene; together with a featureless sky, I was able to frame some minimalist style images.
Whilst off-roading to cut a corner, we realised that we were striding through a blanket of spiders webs, made visible by the morning dew. Jess was particularly captivated by this and stopped to take some pictures of her own, a bit of a rarity.
Upon reaching the Lion Bridge, the mist began to lift, revealing a much clearer view of the distinct architecture of the Western face of the House from across the lake, as well as many of the other walkers who had seemingly been shrouded before.
We ambled our way back to the car down the footpaths with a bit more off-roading, capturing a few more angles of the now clearly visible House.
If there’s one thing that this morning of photographing has reminded me, it’s that you’ll forever regret the photos you didn't take, never the ones you did. As slow as time may feel, moments are fleeting and photography is our tool to preserve them.
Footnote on equipment: images were captured on Lumix S5 with 24-70mm F2.8 and 70-200mm F2.8 lenses and 2.0x teleconverter.
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